Resident Alien wrapped up their January filming on Thursday, January 30. Community businesses directly impacted by the filming have had nothing but positive things to say about the how the filming – and potential impact to businesses – was managed.
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For Pet’s Sake, which played as McNally’s General Store for the show, was completely remade. New signage was placed on the store’s awning, props were placed outside and inside the store to make it look like a small town American general store. Jackie Jurisic of For Pet’s Sake said it was a great experience.
“It was a blast,” she said. “They were so friendly. It was a hoot all around. They totally compensated us for Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday. I only had a few people ticked off with me because they couldn’t find parking, but I still worked at the store every day, and I was still able to do sales.”
Jurisic said that overall, most people had a good time with the filming. She even had the opportunity to meet Resident Alien star, Alan Tudyk. Jurisic was specifically happy with Beth Charlesworth the assistant location manager for the show for her efforts in making sure everything ran smoothly.
John de Leeuw CEO of the Ladysmith and District Credit Union echoed Jurisic’s comments. The LDCU played as the town clinic for Resident Alien. The lower lot was closed for filming, and a new sign had gone up to mark the building as the Patience Health Clinic.
“We really kept our communication very frequent with our members. We didn’t recieve any negative feedback whatsoever. Most people were excited about what was happening in town, and that the Credit Union was playing a part in it,” de Leeuw said. “All the location managers that I dealt with were extremely pleasant. They were very assiduous in making sure our business was interrupted as little as possible, and they were great at communicating what they were doing in advance.”
The general area of 1st Avenue and Roberts Street had intermittent road and parking closures throughout the filming. One area of concern highlighted in advance was interruption to business at Ladysmith Pharmasave. The production wanted to make sure people could pick up their prescriptions with limited interruption – they even offered to have staff deliver prescriptions if needed.
“Everything went fairly well, they didn’t have to [deliver prescriptions],” Pharmasave manager, Steve Wilkinson said. “They ran an ad in the paper for us for prescription deliveries – which we always do anyway – but they brought it to the forefront so anyone reading the paper knew they could phone in and get their prescriptions delivered for free.”
Business at Pharmasave was slower than usual, but there was no business loss.
“I think they were fairly well organized. They did try to minimize the effects on our business as much as they could, and it seemed to work because our sales weren’t down drastically,” Wilkinson said.
The Oyster Bay Microtel was also happy with Resident Alien. The Microtel was sold out for two nights in a row while they were filming. Resident Alien also held their casting call at the Microtel, which general manager Sara Loewen said went well.
RELATED: Resident Alien casting call sees good turnout
“They loved being here, they loved the community, they loved the hotel. They’re very excited, and hope to be coming back,” Loewen said.
