“The idea came about a few years ago,” says Jennifer Tocheri of her podcast “The Crew Up North,” which finished airing its first season in January of this year.
“I started out as an actress and doing background, and I still do a lot of those things,” Jennifer explains. “But I started doing stand-in in 2018, which basically entails standing in for the actor while the crew sets up the lighting and camera work. Your job is to literally stand in the middle of the set, so you get a lot of exposure to all the different departments working around you.”
“I love filmmaking, and I find it super fascinating. It showed me how hard everyone works and how everyone collaborates.”
The podcast was borne out of this experience, as Jennifer assumed if she was interested in what the crew was doing behind the scenes then others would be as well. “I not only wanted to highlight the people who have been able to make this their full time job, but also their journeys and how they are sustaining working in this oftentimes unstable field.”
“People rarely get to see how everything is set up. They see the actors and maybe the director during the film’s promotion, but not all the work that goes into even getting that actor to set.”
Jennifer is based out of North Bay, but she is currently back in Thunder Bay, her hometown, for a new production that is being filmed at Fort William Historical Park. The film stars Thunder Bay’s own Kevin Durand, along with Luke Hemsworth and Micheal Pitt.
“It was really fun to be on set,” she says, but she contractually can’t say much more about the film. She does emphasize that the production team was very accommodating to the actors when they had to film during multiple days of a January deep-freeze.
Her interest in film started when she was still in Thunder Bay, where she volunteered to act in short films at Confederation College. When she moved to North Bay, she ended up getting a recurring role on a show called Hard Rock Medical which filmed in Sudbury and North Bay.
“It was very cool but very overwhelming. I think I grew a lot by season 4,” she says.
Season 2 of “The Crew Up North” is in the planning stages now. Jennifer is working on sponsorships from Northern businesses to help the podcast’s production. Anyone interested or able to support the podcast can contact her at thecrewupnorthpodcast@gmail.com.
The first season featured a variety of interesting behind-the-scenes crew, like a hairdresser, costume supervisor, producer, grip, and others. For season 2, she is planning to talk to people who work in both stunts and props.
“My team and I have tried to make it look and feel as professional as possible,” says Jennifer. “I really believe in the project.”
Check out the first season of “The Crew Up North” on Youtube and anywhere you listen to podcasts. You can also follow along on Instagram at @thecrewupnorthpodcast.
