Why So Many Movies and TV Shows are Filmed in Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver attracts filmmakers due to diverse scenery, lower costs, favorable weather, experienced crews, and generous tax incentives.

### The Magic of Filming Christmas Movies in Vancouver: A Hidden Gem
* 🎄 Vancouver, British Columbia, often masquerades as iconic locations like **New York City** and **Seattle** in numerous Christmas movies, despite being **3,000 miles away** from the real New York.
* 🎬 The city’s diverse scenery, including downtowns, mountains, and rural landscapes, makes it a filmmaker's paradise, allowing for **various settings all within a short drive**.
* 💰 Filming in Vancouver is significantly cheaper than in New York, where costs are **exorbitantly high**, making it **financially appealing for productions**.
* ☀ The favorable weather conditions in Vancouver, with **warm and sunny days**, help avoid production delays caused by rain, which can be a **major issue in other locations**.
* 🎥 Tax incentives in Vancouver can reimburse filmmakers **up to 28% of production costs**, encouraging many to choose Canada over the U.S. for their projects.
* 🏞 The resemblance of certain Canadian landscapes to New England or the Midwest allows filmmakers to **convincingly depict American settings**, further boosting Vancouver's appeal.
* 🎉 The charm of Vancouver not only serves the film industry but also attracts tourists looking for a **diverse vacation experience**, showcasing its **scenic beauty and film history**.
* ✨ Ultimately, the illusion created by clever cinematography makes viewers believe in the **magic of Christmas stories**, regardless of where they are filmed, with Vancouver standing as a **key player in this cinematic trickery**.

Ah, Christmas in New York City. Isn't it great? The lights, the storefront displays, the “I'm walking here’s!” Except this isn't New York. I left New York yesterday and flew 3,000 miles here

to Vancouver, British Columbia. I know, I know, I'm sorry, but it's actually not the first time that you've been lied to like this. Vancouver and its surrounding towns have been accomplices to a plethora of lies across movies and television.

It's where many a Christmas movie love interest has returned home to, for the holiday. Their hometown and their high school sweetheart, Spruce Grove, Washington. Nope. Fort Langley in Canada. New York City? Nah. Martini Town, a studio space just outside of Vancouver.

Clearly, Christmas productions are big in Canada, but Vancouver has also been Seattle, New York City, New Hampshire, India, and just a short drive away, it's where Clark Kent, aka Superman, grew up in rural Kentucky. Right there at that barn.

But what is it about a place like Vancouver that makes it so attractive to filmmakers? I mean, it's not like it's impossible to shoot in New York, and there's got to be a great barn in the state of Kentucky that could have worked for the Kent family farm.

So why do so many films make their location there? The number one reason why we shoot movies in Canada: we claim Santa to be our own as Canadians. He lives in the North Pole in Canada. That's Jesse Prupas. I'm the senior vice president of scripted

at Muse Entertainment, and I've produced Swindler Seduction, A Not So Royal Christmas, and Hot Frosty. The number one decision that determines where a movie is going to film is really the locations that are being called for in the script. One of the reasons that areas like Vancouver

and Atlanta have become such hotspots for filmmaking is because they have a lot of different types of scenery in very close proximity. You've got downtowns, suburban areas, mountainous regions, rural landscapes, and even a temperate rainforest.

And all of this is just a short drive from the city. So, while you kind of have to be in New York to convincingly pull off a stroll past the Washington Square Park Arch, if you just want to be in the middle of nowhere Manhattan

or Anywheresville, USA, it’s pretty achievable to do that anywhere that has a dense enough downtown and beautiful rolling hills. And it's much easier and cheaper to do it in a place like this on the outskirts of Vancouver than it would be in a city like New York.

New York is one of the most expensive places to shoot in the world; some of the most expensive hotel rooms in the world. So it becomes very unaffordable to shoot in New York, as much as I dream to do so. The other big consideration is weather.

LA, Atlanta, Vancouver — all of these cities have a lot of warm, sunny days throughout the year, which means that productions don't have to fight Mother Nature to get their job done. Because even something as simple as rain can cause major issues.

I'm like, "Oh my God, it's going to rain in two days. We have an exterior shoot. What are we going to do? It means double-booking locations. It can be very pricey to do that, but it's a factor."

And generally speaking, movies are filmed out of season anyway, so you want to make sure that you have the most flexibility, even if it's uncomfortable. I would love, frankly, to shoot more Christmas movies in the winter. Very often we end up shooting a lot of these Christmas

movies in the spring or in the summer. The actors are sweating away. "This bottom layer is just to soak up the sweat. It's nothing but sweat from here down." And we're making fake snow. But it's also part of the magic.

So often, you'll show up in July, and we are, you know, on the town square, and it's been all snowified. And there you are. It's Christmas in the summer. Let's take a second to talk about the sponsor of this video:

Destination Vancouver. All the things that make Vancouver a great city to make movies in also make it really attractive for personal travel. Within just a short drive, you can go from downtown to the ocean, to the mountains, and even to a temperate rainforest.

It's a place where you can build almost any type of vacation during any time of year, thanks to the mild climate. So the next time that you're planning on taking a trip, whether to take a tour of favorite filmmaking locations or to immerse yourself in nature, consider Vancouver.

Our sponsor has no editorial influence over how we report our stories, but they do help make videos like this possible. So if you're interested, check out the link below. Clever cinematography and production design can do a lot, like this facade of Riverview Hospital

that has doubled as an orphanage, an asylum, and much more. But for a city to be worthwhile to film in, you have to have production-friendly locals and officials. I know that when a Canadian movie producer shows up to shut down the streets in New York, that

it's probably not going to happen. And probably rightly so, because there'd be the resentment of, you know, thousands of New York residents against us. New York City has a population of 8 million. Vancouver has just over 700,000 people.

Langley, a municipality of Vancouver that's about as Hallmark as you can get, has a population that's just under 30,000. When you go to a smaller town, the police chief wants to play ball. There's a bit more excitement and willingness

to work with producers in these smaller towns. Let me put it that way. Another nice thing about a smaller-sized city is often there's less traffic. I've had unionized actors in traffic jams for an hour and a half, and you have five or six of them, and they're all making overtime,

especially if it's the end of the day, that can be very pricey. It's all about finding the sweet spot between somewhere that's not so crowded that it's really difficult and expensive to film, but also not so empty that there's no one around to work.

In these medium-sized cities, there's one or two crews that will work on television movies pretty much throughout the year. So you can tap into that experienced talent for those things. But if a studio or production company really wants to get the best bang for their buck,

they need to account for something less flashy: tax incentives. Tax credits are also a factor for any major movie production, and they're offered, frankly, around the world. Basically, the government reimburses you for some portion of the cost of your production,

as long as you meet their criteria. In Vancouver, you can get tax credits of up to 28% with no spending cap. To qualify, you have to have a certain percentage of local crew, and that's one of the reasons that Canadian-based productions

will often have a Canadian star or producer in the mix. Filming in specific qualified areas can boost your tax credits, too. Like this regional ice-skating rink that has shown up in a ton of Hallmark movies. Even post-production and animation qualify

for tax credits, which is one of the reasons a movie like Into the Spider-Verse had a primarily Canadian workforce. Typically, for regional BC, we're counting on about 30%. And so, yeah, $300,000 on $1 million you're hoping to get back.

Georgia offers 20% for meeting the base requirements and an extra 10% if the film includes the state logo in the credits. You've probably seen it before. California offers a lesser 20 to 25% on local productions, and that comes with a cap.

You can get a bit more money if you film outside of the usual zones, but it's not as alluring as other places. Countries like Canada, the U.K., Australia, and Malta have gotten quite competitive with their tax breaks, which has meant that fewer films are being made

in the US these days. But a lot of them are still catering to an American market, which contributes to this faking of locations. American audiences are seeking content that's set in America. So one of the reasons why so many Christmas movies shoot in Canada

is because there are lots of parts of Canada that look like New England or the northern United States, the Midwest, even parts of the Northern Pacific area. There are parts of Canada that really resemble that as well. It's the time and money saving

location choices that ensure that independent filmmakers and studios can make movies happen, especially the lower budget holiday films. If you're in the television movie game, if you're making, like I am, like our company is, films for Hallmark and Lifetime and

and occasional films for Netflix that need quaint cities, you're going to shoot these in the regional areas of Canada largely, or other states, I would say. They're back to New York now. I know we'll see a lot more of Canada on my TV later,

but that's the magic trick of it all, isn't it? Knowing that what you're seeing on screen isn't entirely real. If they can make you believe that it is, though, that Santa does live in the North Pole, in Canada,

or that Midwestern love story is genuine, then it doesn't really matter where it was filmed because the trick is being pulled off. Like this facade of the abandoned Riverview Hospital in Langley, a municipality of Vancouver.

That's about as Hallmark as you can get. Ryan Reynolds, a Canadian filming in Vancouver. Like Ryan Reynolds, a Canadian filmmaker and actor from "Van Wilder" and "Deadpool" bottoms that everything. "I don't blame you for being you, but you can't blame me for hating you."

He is. But are you any good kisser? Kisser or... Good. To... I guess that is it. Seattle, New York City, New Hampshire. It's where many Christmas movie main characters have returned home to be reminded of the true

meaning of the holiday, and maybe find some love in the process. It's where many Christmas movie main characters have returned home to be reminded of the true meaning of the holiday and maybe find some love in the process.

It's where many Christmas movie main characters have returned home to be reminded of the true meaning of the holiday. It's like too many words. New York. Clearly, Christmas productions are big in Canada,

Why your favorite movies fake their locations

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The prevalence of Vancouver and surrounding areas as filming locations for movies and TV shows, particularly Christmas movies, despite often portraying different locations like New York City.

Vancouver often stands in for New York City in Christmas movies.

Many Christmas movies depict characters returning to their hometowns, which are often filmed in Vancouver and surrounding towns.

Specific examples include Spruce Grove, Washington, and Martini Town being filmed in Fort Langley and a studio space near Vancouver, respectively.

Vancouver's versatility is showcased by its portrayal of various locations, including Seattle, New Hampshire, India, and even rural Kentucky in Superman.

Reasons behind Vancouver's popularity as a filming location, including its diverse scenery, cost-effectiveness compared to cities like New York, and favorable weather conditions.

The proximity of diverse landscapes, including downtown areas, mountains, and rural areas, makes Vancouver attractive for filming.

Cost is a major factor, with Vancouver being significantly cheaper than New York City.

Vancouver's weather is another advantage, with many sunny days minimizing weather-related delays.

The ability to film in various seasons, even out of season, is beneficial for productions.

Further advantages of filming in Vancouver include production-friendly locals and officials, less traffic compared to larger cities, experienced crews, and significant tax incentives.

Vancouver's smaller size compared to New York contributes to a more cooperative environment with local officials.

Smaller towns like Langley offer more willingness to accommodate filming needs.

Less traffic in smaller cities reduces delays and costs associated with overtime for actors and crew.

Vancouver offers attractive tax incentives of up to 28% with no spending cap, further reducing production costs.