Site Surveys & Tech Scouting

Here is how the work lines up. Site surveys in Canada extend well beyond the standard light/sound/power checklist. Our recce teams walk each location with a tech kit that captures the things provincial production offices and Parks Canada permit officers will ask about: ambient sound floor in a Vancouver Yaletown alley, open three-phase power in a Toronto Distillery District warehouse, snow-load and access in a Banff or Jasper field, satellite-only connectivity in a Yukon or Iqaluit interior.

Here is the breakdown. City Film Office permit-map overlays are pulled before the visit so we know whether a Granville Street block falls under VFC stipulations or whether the Old Port of Montreal triggers Société des ponts liability layers. Where shooting touches federal land, we set up ahead with Parks Canada park-ranger contacts at Banff, Jasper, Gros Morne, Pacific Rim or Cape Breton Highlands, log bear-aware staging zones, and pre-flag the Special Flight Operations Certificate path for any drone work.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Indigenous protocol sits inside the survey, not after it. Sites touching First Nations, Inuit or Métis area get a pre-consultation note routed through AFN / ITK / MNC affiliate offices before the recce closes, so the producer sees whether ceremonial, archaeological or seasonal restrictions affect the dates being scouted. Transport Canada RPAS airspace coverage is checked against NAV CANADA's CFS chart while the team is on site. Any winter-window shoot in Quebec, Yukon or Nunavut is logged with hour-by-hour daylight, road-clearance and -25°C battery-life notes. Reports ship within forty-eight hours: high-resolution photography, 360-degree captures, scaled floor diagrams, a power and connectivity table, a hazards register, and a recommendations column comparing two or three viable spares so the producer never sees a single point of failure on the schedule.