By Ian Holmes

New Film Commission website expected to be a tourism driver for the north Island

Oct 23, 2016 | 2:56 PM

NANAIMO — The commissioner of a non-profit agency promoting Vancouver Island’s film industry believes a new website will have a widespread positive impact.

The Island Coastal Economic Trust has approved $10,000 in funding with help from the Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley Regional Districts to pay for a new Vancouver Island North Film Commission website. Island North Film commissioner Joan Miller says the new site will have many enhanced features, including a Film Tourism Map detailing a given production on Vancouver Island. It will also have information about the region where it was filmed.

“So many people now make decisions to take their vacation or to travel on what they see on the screen,” said Miller.

Miller says their new website will be designed to not only promote their shooting locations and workforce but also Vancouver Island as a tourist destination. She says their current site is outdated and they can’t update it themselves.

“We want to be able to be a lot more savvy with not only how clean and easy our technology is,” said Miller. “Our office can now make all of these changes, update it on a daily basis, without having to go back and have somebody else help us do it.”

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Miller says their new site will be efficient for their needs.

“The original platform that we had many years ago was very difficult, you couldn’t make changes to it. We had to go back to our content manager and to our tech people and every time they make a tweak you get a bill.”

Miller expects the Vancouver Island North Film Commission’s new website will launch in January.