Indoor / Outdoor Studio for Rent
3 acres of pristine property located right in the centre of Canada in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
This studio sports more than 3 acres of perfectly groomed lawns, motorized sets and a plethora of inviting shooting locations.
With over 100 trees on the property, this area is ideal for weddings, portrait shoots, movie and film production and more. The indoor studio at 2400 square feet is one of the largest in Canada - with the 70' long cyc wall and enough power to almost satisfy any photographer...(AF exluded)
The outdoor studio features two separate waterfalls - one for horizontal modeling with a 3 foot raise and water gently flowing across the subjects while bathing in morning sunlight - and the other a more brisk 7' drop with intense water falling across an 8' wide plane.
The remoteness of the property is a key factor in its ability to get your work done, quickly. Best of all, we're just 3 minutes into the City of Thunder Bay where you'll find all the ammenities commonly found in a modern, sprawling and growing city of over 100,000.
Our winter activities include: skiing props, skidooing props, snow machine jumping props, ice skating rink, the snowball factory as well as the "by the fireside" type shooting in our 3600 square foot mansion on the property.
The lawns and gardens are maintained professionally, however, as this is our first year - we're growing slowly and steadily as we expand into the markets in Europe and Asia.
Our studios are complete - now with a 70' cyclorama wall bent at both the top and bottom and which produce incredible automotive shots, snow machine shots, motorcycle shots, modeling shots as well as kitchen setups and more - all within a days rental at our local facilities.
We have a full time grip / tech on staff to handle prop development, answer any questions you may have and also to provide you assistance in the completion of your shoot.
A full time courier is on our payroll as well - so your not shopping when you could be shooting - and at $8 a delivery, it's much cheaper than going to our retail outlets yourself. We have target, wal mart, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Michael's, as well as 50 hair and makeup professionals all living and working within 8 miles of our location.
The Studio Itself - an amazing tool!
Going into our studio - we have a giant 70' curved wall and with a 3' curve at both the bottom and top - cutting down frustration in the lighting process and maximizing the available light from our strobes - 10 750ws Bowens monolights. We also have Elinchrom 1000's and are in the midst of purchasing a few more Speedotrons.
The modifiers we have at the shop include 4 soft boxes in various sizes, a 30' softbox "wall on wheels" made up of ripstop nylon and PVC pipe - as well as 3 degree right up to 20 degree grid spots.
We have a dozen c stands on order, another dozen traditional lighting stands in house - and a few massive tripods for the larger strobes.
The studio is heated with a massive oil furnace which gives a much warmer feel than does the traditional / newer gas heaters.
Our radio slaves on camera make every inch of the studio (and 1000 feet out of the studio) part of your shooting area.
We tether from the camera to the laptop and on to giant 32" and 40" monitors so that your model and you can see every possible detail available in the shots that you take!
In the winter, we have a front-end loader to pile snow where you'd like to simulate snow machine, skiing, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and other winter time activities.
The river freezes by January producing an attractive outdoor skating rink should you have the need to produce a "nostalgic" set of images for your advertising work.
The entire yard has been wired with electricity to allow strobes and sun throughout the 3 acre studio - another fabulous after thought and one of the reasons why we have your choice studio.
We've also added a $15,000 hot tub setup to allow your models to look and feel their best in the winter or summer - and our incredible in-room fireplace heats the entire A-Frame mansion on the property.
Our accommodations for your crews include a mobile home trailer off-site within 8km and the 3600 square foot home complete with sleeping accoms for 8.
Travel to Our Area
If you are in the lower USA, you'll want to travel to Chicago or Minneapolis as the gateway to our little part of heaven. From there, you will take a flight to Toronto or Winnipeg respectfully.
From Toronto, Thunder Bay is 1.5 hours using Westjet or Air Canada and about 2 hours using Porter Airlines (which is usually a little cheaper)
From Winnipeg, both Westjet and Air Canada service in an hour - or about 55 minutes to Thunder Bay.
You'll arrive at Thunder Bay International Airport, where our limosine will pick you and your equipment up and bring you to the studio.
For more information on flights, call our Travel agency - Continental Travel in Winnipeg and ask for Sylvana Fillipin - the greatest travel agent in Canada.
