A Port Alberni trail damaged by vehicles from a film crew has been repaired.
Jamie Donovan of AV Little Digger and Hauler spent a few days restoring a portion of the Log Train Trail off of Maebelle Road that was used earlier in November as a movie set. Crews were using the trail to get to the filming area at the same time the region was experiencing an "atmospheric river" of torrential rain and wind.
The Stolen Child is a fantasy epic directed by Sebastian McKinnon of Magic: The Gathering fame. Based on a William Butler (W.B.) Yeats poem by the same name, a daring Poet must lead three mystical heroes deep into the Faerie State to find a lost prince, return him to the throne and restore peace. The forested Rogers Creek trail was the perfect venue, according to producers. The weather, however, was not.
Movie representatives were quick to apologize on social media and promised to have the trail restored at their cost.
More than a kilometre of the dirt trail was chewed up by wheeled vehicles as was a private driveway film crews were using to access the trail. "It kind of got punched out and rutted out," said Donovan. He and his crew laid a thin layer of three-quarter-inch rock down the length of the trail using a skid steer on tracks and a mini dump truck. He said a resident whose property abuts the trail has some equipment to smooth out any ruts as winter progresses.
Donovan was hired for the trail work through another connection he had with the movie. He met location manager Jane Victoria King through another one of his businesses, Next Level Nightclub that he is in the process of opening in the Beaufort Hotel building in South Port. "I met her back in July and she was scouting places to shoot movie scenes. She thought she might do some shots in the bar that is opening up. They decided not to do them."
When the trail damage occurred King contacted Donovan for his help. "It worked out that I had some openings available.
"We probably made it better than what it was before."
Neighbours Rick and Terry Hebert agree. They brought their grandson to walk along the trail during a lull in the rain on Nov. 8. Rick Hebert said he usually walks the trail every day with his dog.
The Stolen Child is one of three movies being filmed in the Alberni Valley: McLean Mill National Historic Site was closed to the public for a few weeks to allow filming for One Mile and One More Mile from Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment.
Metafilms productrice Catherine Boily said filming for The Stolen Child went well in Port Alberni despite the mishap with the trail and the torrential rain. "The whole community was so nice, understanding and collaborative," she said. "It was a great joy for the entire cast and crew to be filming in this environment.
"Mostly the last day we were there with the sun rays hitting through the forest; it was truly magical."
This was the first time Metafilms has filmed in Port Alberni, Boily said. It isn't the first time the director has been on Vancouver Island, though.
"Our movie director Sebastian has been enjoying family vacations on Vancouver Island since he was young, and the green, luscious forests have been what inspired him to create this unique film," Boily said. "A faerie world so magical that it cannot exist anywhere but in those forests.
"So in a way that is why it was really meaningful for him to go back to those places after 10 years of development, trying to make this happen."
The cast and crew visited the Port Alberni area, she said, and "had a great time."
She is hoping once the film is complete that the company will be able to arrange a screening of The Stolen Child in Port Alberni.
