"It's one of the core aspects that the studios and streamers look for," said Luke Azevedo with Calgary Economic Development.
While many productions are drawn to the area for the mountains, prairies, snow and sunshine, soundstages allow for work all year round and space to build and maintain sets. Since the number of productions spiked in Alberta in 2020, many buildings have been retrofitted to become studios. Now, more work is now being done to build studios specifically to meet the demands of big productions, including large lockers for costumes and hundreds of parking spots for crew members."This is an industry that has an opportunity to be extremely impactful on Alberta and Calgary's economy as well as job creation here," said Azevedo.