The Jurassic World 3: Dominion movie shoot has a Merritt connection deeper than its chosen filming locations.
Tim Guertin grew up in Merritt, but headed to the bright lights of Vancouver in 1993 after graduating from high school. In 2012, Guertin decided to go back to school, attending BCIT’s Robotics program.
“After graduation in 2016, I got into Industrial Automation for a while but then discovered through a friend that there was a demand in the Special Effects department for people that were well qualified in electronics and Robotics.
“The Special Effects department handles all practical effects used in a film. My role as a Robotics specialist is to work in our fabrication facility to help design, fabricate and operate any electronic devices that are requested for the movie. Designing, building and operating various remote-control vehicles and devices, operating winch systems to control large moving objects or vehicles, and creating electrical devices to control such things as cockpit gauges, elevator doors and panels,” explained Guertin, who has been working in film for about three years now.
Some of the productions that can credit their special effects to Guertin are SEE, The Christmas Chronicles 2, Timmy Failure, where Guertin created a remote-control Segway that moved a polar bear on screen – and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
“The first show I worked on when I got into film was A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix. It was such a creative show with some amazing sets and visually spectacular things. The very first thing I was ever asked to build was a remote-control roller-coaster car that looked like a duck. One that was big enough for the main actors to ride in.”
Guertin can expect to travel a couple of times a year for filming, to a variety of often exciting new locations. Merritt may not be the most exciting or exotic place to film, but Guertin is happy to come back to his hometown for a major production.
“I’m just as excited to be here for the show as everybody here is to see a movie production in action, and perhaps run across a very famous celebrity. Even though I’ve been living mostly in Vancouver since leaving Merritt after high school in 1993, I do miss the small-town life and will forever consider Merritt to be my hometown. It’s been very enjoyable seeing so many familiar faces, seeing the things that have changed and the things that have stayed the same. It makes me very happy to see how busy the hotels and restaurants are right now while we are in town, when it would typically be a very slow time of year. I like seeing the direct benefit to my hometown.”
