Montreal is already one of the world’s most beautiful and elegant cities. The culture. The architecture. The green parks. With so much already as its disposal, why not add a world class studio to a world class city to transform it into an international film hub?

Enter MELS Studios. The campus features 20 soundstages, ranging from 10,000 to 37,000 square feet, offices, mill spaces and paint shops, for a total of 345,000 square feet. And in 2022, in response to growing interest and demand in virtual production, MELS upgraded their existing 10,000 square foot virtual production permanent stage to include a LED wall with a diameter of 65 feet (95 linear feet) and a 20-foot-high concave wall. The virtual production stage also has two 10×10 movable side panels, and the ceiling, with two 20×20 modules, is fully motorized and computerized to control lighting and reflections. Powered by Disguise operating system, the volume stage has supported all types of projects, by combining MELS’ existing top tier infrastructure with the latest technologies in virtual production.

MELS is also known for having one of the largest inventories of on-site equipment rental in Canada. Other amenities include production trucks and trailers, localization services, tailored services for music creation, sound and image post-production services and one of the North America’s last photochemical lab. MELS’ photochemical lab is the sole supplier of Kodak film in Quebec, making MELS a logical choice for projects planning to shoot on 16mm and 35mm.

With these facilities in tow and ready for action, MELS is poised to leverage their expanded capabilities and capitalize on recent success to grow their brand and presence in the film industry. In the past, film productions like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Scream VI, Home Sweet Home Alone, Beau is Afraid, The Aviator, Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Murder Mystery, X-men Apocalypse, X-men Dark Phoenix, X-men Days of future past, To Catch a killer, Quantico and many more have used MELS Studios.

When coming to shoot a project at MELS, productions have the luxury of having the entire city of Montreal at their disposal, one of the safest cities in the world. Multicultural and bristling with creativity, it is a destination for the arts and entertainment industries, as well as for technology, gaming, visual effects and with the help from facilities of MELS’ caliber. Most of MELS’s stages are in downtown Montreal, adding further benefits and conveniency for productions who want to maximize their time.

On top of Canada’s 16% tax credits, Montreal also benefits from the province of Quebec’s film friendly reputation and generous tax incentives. Both traditional film productions and virtual productions are eligible for up to a tax credit ranging starting at 25% all-spend with a possible additional 16% on labor for volume stage shooting activities. This incentive program has been critical in attracting productions from all over the world to Quebec. The film tax incentive space has become very competitive in the modern era of film production, where reducing costs has become the number one priority for studios, and it has become imperative for every film market to provide an incentive program that is simple, efficient, and predictable. Montreal and Quebec have done that, making MELS a very viable option for any size of production.