After a lot of excitement and buzz surrounding Regina’s new LED Volume Wall and the expanding film industry, it will now be leaving the Queen City.
The 320-degree screen allows cast and crew to film in locations around the world, or even across the universe without leaving the soundstage. Hit projects such as The Mandalorian or The Batman have used the LED wall for their projects.
Now, it is being moved to out of Saskatchewan.
The LED Volume Wall was a private investment of $12 million from Karma Film and Volume Global, who made the wall available to rent to other production companies interested in filming in Saskatchewan.
The Volume has been used over the last year to film a few feature-length films. For example, the new action thriller titled Hostile Takeover was entirely filmed using the LED Volume at the John Hopkins Soundstage.
Another two are set to be produced before the wall leaves the city.
Both Global Volume and Karma Films are looking to move on to bigger things.
“We’ve had a successful run, but we have to make the best decisions for each project,” Anand Ramayya, the Karma film owner and partner with Global Volume said.
“Our projects have grown beyond the capacity of the current environment in Saskatchewan and what I really mean is the budget,” Ramayya said. “The financing just isn’t here to sustain (projects) of this size.”
Ramayya said they do not currently know where the technology will be moved to.
Film officials in Saskatchewan are trying to stay optimistic about the future of the industry in the province.
“The Volume Wall is one tool to make a film,” Creative Saskatchewan CEO Erin Dean said. “These were two projects out of 60 some projects that have happened during that window of time. There’s two more to come. We’re really excited about those but it represents a part of the industry not the whole film industry.”
In addition to the films made with the LED wall, Hardy said the industry has seen some major growth and economic impact with other productions. While the wall was unveiled in 2024, work behind the scenes was ongoing for around two years.
“There have been 64 other great movies and television series that have been made in Saskatchewan in the same period since when they arrived. That’s all totaled in about $124 million in production and it’s created 690 jobs.”
Saskatchewan Media Production Industry Association (SMPIA) executive director Robert Hardy said the removal of the wall does provide some new opportunities.
“It’s open for other productions to come and use that soundstage,” Hardy said. “I don’t anticipate any drop in production. I actually anticipate more production will be coming.”
Despite losing the movie-making tool, SMPIA along with Creative Saskatchewan predict for the local film industry to continue to grow and bring in more future investors and partners.