It doesn’t happen often, but the Village of Ayr will be the backdrop for some scenes in a mini-series being filmed in April.
At its meeting earlier this week, North Dumfries council was given an addendum to the agenda requesting council allow for filming in and around the downtown.
“Historically, the Township has not received many requests for filming. Those requests that are made, typically are done on private property and do not require an application to be submitted for review,” read the request.
Council unanimously passed the request, which included a noise bylaw exemption to allow the filming to take place on Wednesday, April 8, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and then again from Thursday, April 9, from 12 noon to Friday, April 10, at 1 a.m.
About 125 cast and crew of “The System” will be present over that time, filming in various locations including: Green Garden Restaurant, the empty bank building on Northumberland, MacNeil and Dodd Pharmacy, the Remax office on Stanley, Ayr News, the Gibson Mall and Riverbank interiors.
Along with the people, the production will be using 10 trucks, three cranes, 10 picture cars and five vans.
To stage all the people and equipment, the production company, Cry Wolf Canada Inc., is renting the parking lot at the Ayr Community Centre at $1,800 a day. That’s on top of the $600 plus HST per day filming application fee.
To set the scene, the crews will have to make some minor cosmetic changes to the downtown. They will have to remove the flags from the Cenotaph, along with tables and chairs adjacent to the Cenotaph. The barriers on the Piper Street bridge will come down, and the trash bins in Greenwood Park will also have to go. However, part of the deal is that the crews must replace everything once filming is completed. Any damage will be paid for by the company.
Naturally, there will have to be some intermittent road closures and restrictions. Council learned Waterloo Regional Police and the production company have entered an agreement to manage traffic.
Drivers should anticipate significant delays and should simply avoid the area on those days.
