Red Deer microbudget film 'Bollards' wraps filming with all-Alberta crew
The 72-minute feature, shot almost entirely inside a downtown Red Deer office building, follows three retired Navy officers who inherit a bar from their late boss.
A microbudget feature film called "Bollards" has finished filming in Red Deer, produced entirely with local cast and crew. The comedy follows three retired Navy officers who move to a small prairie city and take over a navy-themed bar built for them by their boss before he dies.
Dean Busch, owner of Bubbadog Productions and founder of the Central Alberta Media Production Association, wrote the script a year ago and also plays one of the four main cast members. He partnered with Dave Dinan of Hot Shoe Studio Media Production to shoot the film, with most scenes completed over the past week at Commerce Court, a corporate office building in Red Deer where crews built a bar set and used multiple rooms to speed up production. One remaining scene will be shot at a house in the community.
The production involved seven crew members and four main cast members, all from Alberta. Busch said some story elements draw on his own experience serving in the Canadian military, and that the project reflects his belief that good stories don't require big budgets to tell.
Busch hopes to run the roughly 72-minute film through a small festival circuit and have it ready by early spring, eventually releasing it on pay-per-view and platforms such as Amazon Prime and Tubi. Cast member Paul Boultbee said the local production gives Red Deer reason to take pride in the project and hopes the community will support its growth.
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