Troy Shantz
Sarnia’s Brad Miller would spend hours as a boy browsing new releases at Blockbuster Video, trying to find something to watch with his dad on the weekend.
“Eventually I’d come out with, like, five,” he said.
Today, the 33-year-old Northern Collegiate grad is making a career in Ontario’s film industry, working at technical roles on dozens of films and TV shows, including the Canadian comedy show Letterkenny.
Miller’s interest in film began in Grade 11 when an English teacher introduced him to obscure art house films. Following a year at Lambton College’s defunct media fundamentals program, he studied film at Confederation College in Thunder Bay.
He then headed to Toronto but after six years in the industry grew bored of big city life.
But the industry has a beachhead in Northern Ontario, and after relocating to Sault St. Marie he began landing gigs on film sets.
When a new series called Letterkenny started, he signed on as an assistant director and has been with the crew ever since.
According to Miller, once you prove yourself in the film industry you continue getting calls for work.
“I don’t even remember the last time I gave a resume to someone,” he said.
Letterkenny follows the lives of three pals in mundane rural Ontario as they mouth-off at each other and scrap with fellow “hicks,” all the while poking fun at Canadian stereotypes.
At the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards the series won the award for Best Comedy Series, and is nominated again for 2018.
Shot in Sudbury, LetterKenny airs on Crave TV and the Comedy Network.
Miller returned to Sarnia over the holidays after wrapping production on Season Three. He confirmed at least 40 more episodes were on the way and fans can expect some “big names,” in future episodes.
Tax credits, lower cost and less red tape make Northern Ontario attractive to film producers, and Sarnia-Lambton could do the same, he believes.
“Eventually, the goal one day is to work down here and try to bring some films down here,” he said.
“There are so many beautiful spots around Sarnia.”