Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Filming continued Thursday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park for the Hallmark movie "Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story."
Part of Hallmark's "Holiday Touchdown" series, the film aims to capture the essence of Buffalo and "Bills Mafia".
"Obviously we're in the stadium. We're outside the stadium. We're going to be in the 'Bills Mafia' neighborhood. We're going to be in a 'Bills Mafia' basement. We're really highlighting the best aspects of this area. We're all over the place," said film producer Andrew Gerhard on Thursday. "Elm Street Bakery, Vidler's Five and 10. Gorgeous. The locations alone tell the story outside of just our characters."
The movie will feature a mix of Hallmark regulars and Bills legends, and it's expected to be a major part of Hallmark's "Countdown to Christmas" lineup.
"When you're on set and you're looking at how there's 30 people standing there, they all have a job," said Bills tackle Dion Dawkins, one of a select few Bills players also taking part in filming. "You have the one girl that has, I think it's called, the slate, and they come in and she sets the scenes. And they have to number and put the letter next to everything, with the time stamp, and everything that helps the editor. The editor gets the information from him or her, and everything has to be right. So it's almost like a football game, where you got to play together, be together so you can win."
Bills long snapper Reid Ferguson says he learned about the opportunity through a text from the team’s PR director, and immediately jumped at the opportunity.
"I think his text came after it was announced, obviously, that Hallmark was coming to film here. And my wife, she's a huge Hallmark fan," said Ferguson on Thursday. "Surprisingly, I heard one of the producers has filmed over 1,000 movies, and I'm pretty sure she's seen all of them. So she was thrilled that y'all would be coming here to film. ... That was a pretty cool thing to kind of add to the resume."