CREDIT: COURTESY OF MATCHBOX PICTURES
Like Sager's other features, Gray Matter will be filmed primarily in London - this time featuring mostly local talent.

Fifteen-year London resident Greg Sager and the team at Matchbox Pictures, a London film production company, will start filming their third feature in the coming months. This time around, they want to tap into more local resources.

Sager, director of Devil Seed and Kingdom Come – Matchbox’s last two features – wants to film almost entirely in London as well as feature area actors.

“This one we’re doing now we’re trying to do 100 per cent London this time like Devil Seed was,” Sager said. “I live here – we live here. Me and my two partners.”

The movie, called Gray Matter, was written with London in mind, Sager says.

“I write with locations I know I can probably get access to,” he said. “I keep London in mind in the writing process, and with some of our local actors, I write them in.”

Of course shooting in London has its benefits.

“Going home to your own bed is always nice.”

Though the main role has been cast, Sager says he’s looking for actors to fill an older part, but welcomes anyone with any amount of experience.

“I would imagine there are people that have been bitten by the acting bug or are curious,” he said. “We’ve had awesome experience on both our past two films. Our family just keeps growing.”

In fact, Fanshawe is part of the family already. Adamm Liley, professor and co-ordinator of the Advanced Filmmaking program at Fanshawe has worked with Sager in the past and says he will be providing students to help with production.

“We’ve done this in the past and it’s been a nice relationship because the students get some real on-set experience and that’s always just as valuable as class instruction,” Liley said. “We always support that and we know Greg … very, very well and they’re good, honest, hard working people so we know [the students] are going to get a good experience out of it.”

Liley, who works as director of photography on the set of Trailer Park Boys in his summers, says this could be a good opportunity for professional development in local actors.

Liley also says that if the City of London could get behind film production in general, more production companies may start filtering in.

“I wish someone at City Hall – and this has been talked about quite a bit – they really should start a film commission and hire somebody full time to sell the city to the market,” he said. “London could be the next attractive spot for production business.”

Liley credits the great locations and welcoming atmosphere as a reason to get this rolling.

“It [also] would be another economic boom for the area,” he said. “We’re turning out students that would be a great skilled workforce in that industry.”

Those who are interested in helping out can email info@matchboxpictures.ca to acquire more information.