DIDSBURY - The Town of Didsbury is looking into setting up guidelines for any companies that wish to film in town in the future.
Last year the town saw crews from the sci-fi show Wynonna Earp film downtown and at the museum.
"Didsbury continues to see interest from filming companies to utilize our unique image and atmosphere for their projects," said Christofer Atchison, manager of legislative and development services. "The guidelines are a way to support these companies while ensuring that the Town of Didsbury, our residents and local businesses are informed with any impact to them being minimized."
Currently the town has no guidelines for filming in town. Atchison said they have handled each production on a case-by-case basis.
Portions of an episode for the dramatic series Fargo -- a series loosely based on the film of the same name -- were shot in Didsbury in April of 2015.
About 125 cast and crew, plus numerous production trucks descended on the town to film about four or five minutes of one episode.
"Season 2 Fargo takes place in 1979, so one of the biggest challenges from a producer's standpoint is trying to find locations that fit into that time period. Since last summer, we've been looking for period towns Ö where you can look 360 degrees and not see a post-1979 building," Matt Palmer, location manager for the show said while in town at the time.
One of the other challenges was that the show didn't want to travel too far afield, but also make the locations authentic.
Googling potential locations, Palmer found the alley behind the Didsbury Inn and thought he might have hit on a good spot. Palmer and some of the other production team then made a trip to Didsbury and found what they were looking for.
"Everything worked. The bar was great, the alley was great and then we found Unit 3 at the hospital which is now closed Ö that works for our police station. So we were able to marry three days of production together, which made even more sense to come up here and use all those elements," he said at the time.
"You guys have a really awesome town here. For attracting film production, that's a real bonus," Palmer said.
The crew shut 19th Avenue down for short portions of a day during that shoot, but then let traffic through when filming was not happening. Palmer said the crew shut the street primarily so that anything that might not be period wouldn't be visible in any of the background. No parking was allowed on the street during that day either.
Atchison said the town supports film companies in a variety of ways including road/lane closures, coordination of facility rentals and contacting contractors. He said the town provides the service on a cost-recovery basis.
"For example, any staff that are utilized by the filming company for road closures are billed back at an agreed upon rate," he said. "There is a range of economic development and tourism benefits that the Town of Didsbury gets by hosting these film companies."
