Snow job: winter filming comes to spring campus

Stories and photos by Anastasia Coulson-Gagnon

The weather is getting warmer, the snow is melting — but Humber Lakeshore campus is being transformed into a winter wonderland. Sophie Vertigan, a seasoned film technician who has done special effects on the movies Suicide Squad and X-Men, was on campus Thursday morning. Vertigan said that the snowy scene is part of an upcoming Netflix series Locke & Key. The series is based off of the horror comic books written by Joe Hill, who is the son of horror legend, Stephen King. 

The story focuses on the Locke family, who relocate to their ancestral home in Maine. In the house, the three children find many magical keys that give the user special powers. They also find out that there is evil in the house that wants to be released.   

As for the fake snow, Vertigan discussed how they began filming in winter. Now that the snow is gone, they need continue to film in a similar setting. “We started filming here in February so there was lots of snow,” said Vertigan. “Now we’ve got some of the fake snow to transgress into a non-snow setting.” 

Vertigan and her crew were busy setting up the metal “snow banks” covered in white foam and fluff as filming was set to begin. The series is expected to be released on Netflix in January of 2020.