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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MARY NELSON
PRESIDENT MARY NELSON
Virginia Film Office (USA) VICE-PRESIDENT JOAN MILLER
Vancouver Island North Film Commission (Canada) VICE-PRESIDENT BELLE DOYLE
Dear friends
Scottish Screen (UK) SECRETARY WALEA CONSTANTINAU
Honolulu Film Office (USA)
id you know that in order for a film commission to become a member of the Association of Film Commissioners International, it must meet stringent membership requirements, including special education courses that teach film commissioners how to most effectively work with on-location production in their jurisdictions? In addition to conducting basic education courses, the Association also provides its members with advanced classes through the AFCI University, which provides professional development opportunities and oversees the only certified film commissioner program in the world.
TREASURER STEN IVERSEN
Montana Film Office (USA)
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Boutique Editions Ltd 117 Waterloo Road London SE1 8UL United Kingdom T: 44(0) 20 7902 1942 F: 44(0) 20 8275 0550 www.boutiqueeditions.com
Gyeonggi Film Commission (Republic of Korea) SUE HAYES
Film London (UK) ROBIN JAMES
PUBLISHER RICHARD WOOLLEY
Pacific Film & Television Commission (Australia)
ART DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN ZIVOJINOVIC
PAT SWINNEY KAUFMAN
Designed by A noir, Paris
JAY SELF
Savannah Film Commission (USA)
ADVERTISING SALES JERRY ODLIN
MARK STRICKLIN
Birmingham-Jefferson Film Office (USA)
International Sales Director jodlin@boutiqueeditions.com
LISA STROUT
SASHA YERKOVICH
New Mexico Film Office (USA)
Advertising Director sasha@afci.org
ADVISORY BOARD
LISA RAY
New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture & Television Development (USA)
BILL BOWLING
International Sales lray@boutiqueeditions.com KAREN WATTS
Location Manager
International Sales kwatts@boutiqueeditions.com
STEVE CAPLAN
KIRSTY WOOLLEY
GMMB
HUDSON HICKMAN
MGM Television Entertainment ILT JONES
Location Manager MICHAEL LAKE
WWE Films
Motion Picture Association of America MATTHEW MILLER
Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) MORGAN O’SULLIVAN
Producer
AFCI EXECUTIVE OFFICE BILL LINDSTROM
Chief Executive Officer KEVIN CLARK
Communications Manager CHERYL COLE
Operations Manager LAURIE LEHMANN
Mary Nelson President AFCI
MANAGING EDITOR DEBBIE LINCOLN CONTRIBUTORS MARLENE EDMUNDS, ANDY FRY, MAX LEONARD, JOANNA STEPHENS PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT
KEVIN CHANG
ANGELA MIELE
I hope you will have the opportunity to work with an AFCI member commission soon and find out for yourself how exceptional they are.Visit our website at www.afci.org to connect with any of our member commissions worldwide or come and meet them in person at Locations Trade Show, held in Santa Monica, California in April. Best wishes,
Boutique Editions
Orange County Film Commission (USA)
Chairman
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Locations Magazine, the official publication of the Association of Film Commissioners International. When you open this magazine, you will enter the remarkable world of on-location film production where, with imagination and teamwork, anything is possible! I trust you will enjoy meeting some of our members and reading real-world stories about their experiences.
EDITOR JULIAN NEWBY
DIRECTORS JANICE ARRINGTON
SIMON BARSKY
What does this mean? The AFCI’s commitment to training and education means that when you work with an AFCI member commission, you will be working with the best and most accomplished film commissioners in the world – seasoned professionals who are ready to help you meet any challenge or solve any problem.
VOLUME 22 2009
Professional Development Manager STEVE HUTCHINSON
Legal Counsel
Marketing kirsty@boutiqueeditions.com Locations Magazine is the official publication of the Association of Film Commissioners International. Production companies may obtain additional copies at no charge by sending requests on their letterhead to AFCI : 109 East 17th St., Suite 18, Cheyenne, WY 82001 USA Listing information in this publication is edited from submissions provided by the individual commissions and organizations. Although a reasonable effort has been made in compiling this information, the AFCI & Boutique Editions Ltd assumes no responsibility for accuracy Locations Magazine is published for the AFCI by Boutique Editions Ltd The publisher assumes no liability for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and artwork Copyright ©2009 by the Association of Film Commissioners International. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph or illustration without prior permission of the AFCI is strictly prohibited
For membership or more information about the AFCI, please contact: ASSOCIATION OF FILM COMMISSIONERS INTERNATIONAL
109 East 17th St., Suite 18 Cheyenne, Wyoming USA Phone 1-307-637-4422 FAX 1-413-375-2903 Email info@afci.org Internet www.afci.org
Global Perspective : Local Impact
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CONTENTS
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119
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86 PAGE 12 WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU ... Where might Bond go next? To a location near you? Julian Newby looks at the real stars of the James Bond movies — the locations
PAGE 34 AN AMERICAN TREASURE
PAGE 63 LOCATIONS IN PICTURES
A look at some famous, and some not-sofamous, locations around the world
PAGE 82 A STORY THAT ENDS
WITH A SMILE
Visit South Dakota and you will see some of the most stunning landscapes you will see anywhere in the world. So stunning that, as Andy Fry reports, Disney re-wrote a film script just so they could stay there for longer
Long the backdrop to other people’s dreams, The Bahamas is now dreaming of a world-class production industry of its own. The catalyst, Joanna Stephens reports, is Rain, the country’s first international film release
PAGE 41 IT’S FESTIVAL TIME
PAGE 86 FANTASY ISLANDS
The big international festivals make the headlines every year. And then there’s the network of mid-sized festivals around the world that too play an international role. Marlene Edmunds takes the tour
PAGE 48 ONE PUNK, ONE MOTORBIKE,
ONE PHONE BOX …
“I wanted to let Scotland see itself on screen,” says Bill Forsyth of his Eighties classic Local Hero, which turned 25 last year. Forsyth spoke with Joanna Stephens
PAGE 52 AUSTRALIA
Already on the map as a successful filmmaking country, not to mention its breathtaking locations, Baz Luhrmann’s movie served to remind us of what Australia has to offer the film industry, and tourists alike. By Debbie Lincoln
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Film Commissioners from all over the world gathered in Wellington, New Zealand, in November last year for the annual AFCI Cineposium. Debbie Lincoln took a look at this extraordinary country and found a filmmakers’ paradise
PAGE 100 A PLACE OF HISTORY
Visit the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and you can see and feel their complex histories. And now, these rich cultures are providing the backdrops for a growing number of international productions that are coming to this part of the world. Marlene Edmunds reports
PAGE 113 THE OTHER SIDE OF PARIS
In Stephen Frears’ Chéri, we see Paris without the clichés. But it took some effort to find this view of the great city. At one point the maverick Frears contemplated CGI — to remove the Eiffel Tower from view. Max Leonard reports
PAGE 119 VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA …
AND WOODY
A simple story and a simple title. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona was not a straightforward shoot, as its high-profile cast and director had to film among adoring fans. Plus, the director was falling in love with the movie’s lead character …
PAGE 125 SARASOTA REVISITED
Ten years on, and the part played by a run-down house in 1998’s Great Expectations remains an important part of Sarasota’s movie history. Andy Fry re-visits the Cà d’Zan mansion
COVER SHOT
ROOSEVELT BRIDGE, OKLAHOMA, USA. The bridge spans the Wichita River section of Lake Texoma in Kingston, Oklahoma, separating Marshall and Bryan Counties – and is an excellent representation of the specific type of architecture known as Warren-type Truss Span. So far no well-known films or commercials have been filmed at the Roosevelt Bridge, preserving it as a fresh image for filmmakers. Located halfway between Oklahoma City and the Dallas/Fort Worth area, a production using this location could draw crew from Oklahoma City or Dallas/Fort Worth, and there are airports in both locations. The Roosevelt Bridge was built in 1942. Photo: David Fitzgerald for OklahomaImages.com
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Locations Galore! Selected References: Inglourious Basterds | The International | The Reader | Ninja Assassin | The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum | Valkyrie | The Counterfeiters | The Pianist | The Constant Gardener | V for Vendetta ...
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S P E C TA C U L A R S C E N E RY C O V E R I N G F O U RT E E N D I F F E R E N T C L I M AT E Z O N E S . C U T T I N G E D G E D I G I TA L A N I M AT I O N A N D V I S U A L E F F E C T S . C O M P E T I T I V E TA X C R E D I T S . AWA R D WINNING
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FEATURE
WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU…
Where might Bond go next? To a location near you? Locations Magazine's Julian Newby got caught up in the production and promotion of Bond 22, Quantum Of Solace, which enjoyed a record-breaking box office on its release at the end of 2008, and is enjoying similar success on DVD in 2009. Here he looks at the real stars of the James Bond movies — the locations
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Eon Productions' action adventure Quantum Of Solace. (Photo : Karen Ballard)
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T
HE JAMES Bond 007 franchise is an extraordinary one. Each film creates its own self-propelled, high-octane trajectory towards a grand opening that you cannot ignore, wherever you are in the world. And the latest, Quantum Of Solace, was the most hyped and eagerly anticipated of them all. Hype it may be, but what the filmmakers, actors and, most importantly the viewing public, know is that so much of what they see on the screen is for real – and what makes it so real is the fact that a Bond movie travels to more locations than any other. This is one of the many elements that set a Bond movie apart from the rest – and Quantum Of Solace holds the record, having traveled further than any of the 21 that went before it. And it shows. “This has been the most weeks on location of any Bond film,” says producer Michael G Wilson. “Thirteen weeks on location, out of 23.” Why the gruelling schedule? Wilson’s sister Barbara Broccoli explains:
ONE OF THE MAIN THINGS ABOUT WATCHING A BOND MOVIE HAS BEEN, ‘WHERE DOES IT TAKE YOU’ “As my father used to say, just put it all up there on the screen. And it’s all there up on the screen. I think part of the excitement of doing a Bond movie is going on location and going to places you wouldn’t ordinarily go to.” The latest James Bond, actor Daniel Craig, agrees that locations are what separate 007 from the rest. “One of the main things about watching a Bond movie has been, ‘Where does it take you? Not where it emotionally takes you, but where it physically takes you. It sets the tone. It sets a feeling. It sets a mood on the set,” says the star of Bonds 21 and 22. “The remit with a Bond movie is that, for an audience, we have to be taken somewhere. It’s important that we see this character go to places that make you look
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" #1/ %)2+*&03+ $'),&.( !! &Filming in Iceland is more budget-friendly than ever due to the current exchange rate and the fact that 14% of all costs incurred in film production may be reimbursed.
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The massive blue eye, the centerpiece of the set of Tosca as performed at the Bregenzer Festspielhaus in Quantum Of Solace — and some of the 1500 extras recruited as audience members for the scene
at
the world in a different way.” And for his second Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace, the travel schedule was tougher than ever. “I am amazed at how much we have crammed in – we’ve been to so many places,” says executive producer Gregg Wilson – son of Michael G Wilson and nephew of Barbara Broccoli. “In January I went to Mexico for the aerial shoot, and I didn’t get back to London until after Austria, which was around June.” But Wilson is happy to maintain a similar schedule next time around. “It’s one of the things I like about the Bond films, because it’s like a travelog, you know? You use so many interesting sights in the world, and I’m definitely going to keep doing that.” According to Wilson, an important consideration when choosing a location is whether or not you might have to re-create any part of it in the studio. For example, the stunning observatory building in Chile that doubled as a luxury Bolivian hotel. “That is a real building, it actually exists in Chile, and we used that for all the exteriors,” he says. “But, uh, you know, we burned it down in the movie – so we had to build that from scratch in the studio too.” Some of the extraordinary scenes from Quantum Of Solace that were shot during the annual Palio horse race in Sienna also had to be mocked-up later, although again, the race was for real. “That was the first location footage we shot for the film, and there were major restrictions that the
local government insisted on,” Wilson says. “They were a little sensitive about us filming the animals, but they didn’t want us to recreate any of the race, so what you see in the final film is real Palio footage. All the horses are from original footage of the race. Then, when you just have Bond moving through the crowd during the chase, that was all created at a later date.” Quantum Of Solace executive producer, Anthony Waye, adds: “Negotiating here has been
WHEN EVERYONE SAW THIS MASSIVE BLUE EYE, EVERYONE FELL IN LOVE WITH IT very, very complicated because of the passion that surrounds this 600-year-old pageant.” Another early sequence in the film – and one of the most memorable – takes place in the small Austrian town of Bregenz, on the shore of Lake Constance, known to the Austrians as der Bodensee. Unique to this town is the Bregenzer Festspielhaus, a massive opera house whose main stage floats on the water of the lake. Quantum Of Solace’s original writing team of Neal Purvis and Rob Wade (who were joined later in the film’s evolution by Paul Haggis) had seen an image of one of the stage’s extraordinary sets. “In the very first draft of the script, which was done by Neal and Rob, they wrote this scene about a floating stage
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Dominic Greene and sidekick Elvis arrive at the Bregenzer Festspielhaus
WE WILL RUN THE CITY FOR TWO WEEKS, THEN GIVE YOU BACK THE CITY INTACT AND BEAUTIFUL James Bond and Strawberry Fields in the party scene, shot in Panama
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on
a lake. They had seen a photograph of this place when they were staging Verdi’s The Masked Ball, and the main set was a giant skeleton reading a book. So the scene was written for that, and originally it happened at the end of the movie,” Gregg Wilson says. “When it came down to scouting locations, we of course wanted to see this place, to find out how much it might cost to re-build The Masked Ball with the giant skeleton and the book. But of course when everyone saw this massive blue eye, which had been created for Tosca, you know, everyone fell in love with it and thought it would work even better than The Masked Ball set. And Marc (Quantum Of Solace director Marc Forster) fell in love with the place – the opera house itself, not just the floating stage. And so the chase sequence wasn’t much on paper before we got there, but after seeing it and seeing the possibilities of what we could do with it, it actually got developed into a major sequence. It really blossomed into something much bigger than it was intended to be.” Bregenz had never staged a major feature film before, and unit production manager for the Austrian sequence, Leonard Gmür – who also worked on The Living Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies, GoldenEye, and Octopussy – said
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this was an advantage. “We know that some productions can leave a trail behind them, and so it is important when you come to a virgin territory that you can explain to them how you are going to organize it,” Gmür says. “If you tell them that they won’t notice you are there, then that’s not true, and in the end that always creates bad blood.” Instead, Gmür told them who was in charge. “Here we had very, very good co-operation from the beginning,” he says. “We said to the mayor, ‘You give us the keys to the city, we will run the city for the next two weeks, and then we will give you back the city intact and beautiful, and it will show on screen.’ And that is how we performed, so there was no problem at all. Sometimes it is easier to go to a city that is not spoilt by productions.” For Quantum Of Solace director Marc Forster, the task of finding new locations that will both surprise an audience and keep the narrative rolling, has become more difficult. “The world has become so much smaller, people are so much more familiar with the world – through the internet they are so much more connected, and people travel more. So to find really original Bond locations is tricky.” And the real work starts once a new striking location has been found. “It’s crucial for me that all the details fit every location, and that starts with extras, from set dressing, to clothing, to everything. I think it’s really crucial that the extras look like they are from that part of the world.” The scenes shot in Panama for Quantum Of Solace are
The lighting guys won’t be the only ones looking at the contrast
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some
of the most striking of any James Bond movie. The party scene – where Bond girl Strawberry Fields, played by Gemma Arterton, becomes a true ally of 007 when she causes the serious injury of villain Mr Greene’s sidekick, Elvis – uses exactly the kind of unusual and unfamiliar location that Forster wanted for Quantum Of Solace. The scene was shot at a ruined colonial building in the
WE’RE PRIVILEGED TO WORK WITH LOCAL PEOPLE AND GET TO KNOW THEM AND THE CULTURE Casco Antiguo, or Old Quarter, of Panama City, one of the locations that doubled for Bolivia in the film. And the location was so off-the-beaten-track that, before shooting could start, the building and surrounding areas had to be made safe and habitable. “We were doing a lot of renovation work,” says production designer Martin Joy. “Within the building there were 12 communal bathrooms for 150 families, so we spent a lot of money trying to re-plumb the city.” Executive producer Callum McDougall adds: “We’ve had to clean streets, we’ve had to sanitize buildings, we’ve had to move 500 people out of where they live into alternative accommodation in order that we can shoot here.” It’s not only logistics that have to be taken into account; local sensitivities, too, are regularly an issue where Bond movies are concerned. After all, these movies regu-
larly brand people, places and even whole countries as complicit in attempts to maim, kill, bring down regimes and even destroy the world. No offense is ever meant, of course, but sometimes offense is taken where none was intended. In 2002, after the release of Die Another Day, people from both North and South Korea demonstrated against the 20th James Bond film, as representatives of both populations felt that it portrayed North Korea as an evil place. When Panama and Chile were decided upon as doubles for Bolivia, it was always possible that something similar might happen. “There are always issues,” says Gregg Wilson. “There was a local mayor, and he wasn’t happy about us depicting the location we were using as Bolivia, which was actually Chile, and he stormed on set and made a big scene, and it was in the middle of a take where we had Daniel and Olga in a car, an action vehicle and – you know, he almost ran over a policeman to get on the set, and he was quickly whisked away by the police.” But cast and crew are conscious of doing right by the local people, wherever they visit. “We’re very privileged to have these experiences and to work with local people and get to know them and get to know the culture,” Barbara Broccoli says. Chile provided Quantum Of Solace with yet another signature location – the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert. The observatory doubles as an eco-hotel in the mountains of Bolivia where the film’s villain, Dominic Greene, has his hideout. The Atacama is revered by astronomers for its exceptional thin, dry air – there are places where rain has never been recorded – and for the
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Shooting Quantum Of Solace at ESO Paranal in Chile's Atacama Desert
General Modrano (Joaquin Cosio) and the Chief of Police (Fernando Guillen-Cuervo) await Greene's arrival at Perla De Las Dunas, Bolivia. Location: ESO Paranal, Chile (Photos : Karen Ballard) near-total absence of light pollution. The scorched, rocky desert has also been used by NASA scientists to roadtest Mars rover vehicles; it’s a place few people in the world have seen. “It’s beautifully designed because it sort of melts into the landscape,” Daniel Craig says of the observatory. “It’s pure Bond.” “That building, I’m not sure who discovered it first, but we saw a photograph of it, showed it to Marc and he said, ‘That’s fantastic, we need to go and look at that.’ There is a lot of collaboration between the production designer and the director, and everyone who’s on the recce, and it just evolves,” says Gregg Wilson. “That’s more the way that Marc works, he really needs to go to a place and feel the vibe of it, and the texture, and really soak it all in. That’s really when he starts doing his best work.” Patricio Parraguez,
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IT’S BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED BECAUSE IT MELTS INTO THE LANDSCAPE. IT’S PURE BOND who heads up FilmChile, the country’s film commission, played a key role in bringing Quantum Of Solace to his country, and worked on the project throughout 2007, alongside Chilean customs, the regional government, the police and the army. “We’re working with all regions of Chile to drive home the message that film productions can generate significant direct and indirect revenue for local economies,” Parraguez says. Quantum Of Solace picks up just an hour after the end of Bond 21, Casino Royale – Daniel Craig’s first film as 007. This prequel offered similarly exotic locations, from Venice to The Bahamas, from Miami to Madagascar, but
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also offered good examples of why, for the sake of efficiency, and sometimes safety, very ordinary places are often used to shoot the most extraordinary of scenes – even in a Bond movie. UK locations for Casino Royale included the Millbrook Vehicle Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, just north of London; the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, just south of London; and the cricket pavilion at Eton College, just west of England’s capital. Millbrook is owned by General Motors and consists of several circuits. The main test tracks are on the picturesque hill routes, which include steep gradients and tight bends, a banked high-speed circular test track, and handling test circuits. The first track is constructed like a winding mountain road and is where the Aston Martin was rolled in the film. “We used Eton College for a cricket match in Pakistan,
THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE ON THAT SHOOT FOR WHOM IT WAS THEIR 20TH BOND MOVIE but that was cut from the film. We used Black Park just outside Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, for the rebel camp in the jungle, and the European countryside-style roads through pine forests outside Montenegro were at Millbrook, “says Robin Higgs, location manager on the UK leg of Casino Royale’s world tour. “The car did a number of summersaults, so that was shot up there so that we could work in a controlled environment, which is needed for a stunt like that.” Location managers are occasionally assigned the job of finding some of the locations on a Bond movie and it was Higgs’ idea to use Millbrook for the car chase, in which Vesper Lynd narrowly avoids death as the Aston Martin swerves to avoid her before spinning out of control. “You have to take into consideration how long the shoot is going to be. Is it going to be viable to do it on a public road, which you have to shut down? It’s much easier in an environment like Millbrook where you can have complete control of the road. And it’s just as well we did use Millbrook because initially I think the stunt was scheduled for one night of filming. But for some reason we had to come back and shoot more, and that was easy to do there. If we had used a public road, we would have had to wait again until we could close it, give advance notice of six weeks or whatever. Also the car had to make a dangerous jump and in a place like that it’s much safer.” Higgs says that there is always a family atmosphere on a Bond shoot.
Thunderball. Sean Connery as James Bond is hired to prevent madmen from exploding a nuclear device near picturesque Nassau. Film locations include Anet, Eure-et-Loir, France, for the opening sequence; Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas; coastline, Miami, Florida, USA; and various locations around the UK, and in Paris, France. ©1965 United Artists Corporation and Danjaq, Llc. All rights reserved
“The crews have done a lot of Bond films in the past. There were some people on that shoot for whom it was their 20th Bond movie; for some of the assistant directors it was their eighth or ninth movie. When they gather a crew together at a start of a Bond movie, they seem to try and bring old faces together.” Higgs is a fan too. “I love to see these new locations from a personal point of view,” he says. “On Quantum Of Solace, the desert in Chile was fascinating, and the very faded look of where they were filming in Panama, all those distressed colonial buildings ... I always find it fascinating to see where they are going to next.”
320 ACRES OF LOCATIONS. WITH OR WITHOUT HORSES. From the spectacular Chandelier Room in the Turf Club to vast parking lots, it’s even money you will find your location at Santa Anita Park, convenient to wherever you are in Southern California.
Contact Pete Siberell Director of Special Projects (626) 574-6373 • psiberell@santaanita.com
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BOND’S ALTER-EGO: IAN FLEMING
Q
UANTUM Of Solace was the first 007 movie that didn’t make excessive use of one of James Bond’s hallmarks – his love of luxury and exotic places. The film was something of a departure in look and style, the chosen locations striking in their own individual way, but not the obvious choice of a playboy looking for sun, sea and seriously beautiful women. When you think Bond – old-school Bond that is – you think Bahamas, beach-side bars, luxurious resorts and all the benefits that such places can offer a handsome, single man from whom money is seemingly (and strangely) no object. And this all came from Bond’s creator Ian Fleming. A genuine British rogue, not always kind to the many women who came in and out of his life, and a man of expensive tastes, Fleming wrote all of these characteristics into his alter-ego James Bond, and they stamped their mark on every 007 movie in many and various ways. The obsession with exotic locations came from his wartime experiences. While working for naval intelligence Fleming traveled extensively in the US and around the world, including the Far East. He first went to Jamaica for an Anglo-American naval conference early in World War II. On leaving the Caribbean island, he told a friend: “When we have won this blasted war, I am going to live in Jamaica. Just live in Jamaica and lap it up, and swim in the sea and write books.” Note the use of the word ‘when’, rather than ‘if’. Pure Bond. True to his word, Fleming eventually bought land in Jamaica, a plot that leads up to a cliff edge, looking down onto a small cove with white sand. The house he built there he named Goldeneye, after a naval sabotage operation that he took part in at the start of World War II. It was a simple house with no glass at the windows, just shutters. Referring to the drafts this caused through the house, Fleming’s
neighbor and friend Noel Coward nicknamed it the ‘Golden eye, nose and throat clinic’. Now a luxury resort owned by Jamaican-born music mogul and hotelier Chris Blackwell – with whose mother Fleming had a long on-off affair – Goldeneye gave its name to James Bond movie Nº17, starring Pierce Brosnan. While writing articles on the natural history of the Caribbean for the Sunday Times, Fleming travelled to Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas, much of which is made up of mangrove swamp. The island was a protected habitat for thousands of birds, and became the model for Crab Key in the first-ever Bond movie, Dr. No. A naturalist, Dr Murphy, told Fleming about the guanay, or green cormorant bird whose dung is a potent natural fertilizer, guano, and was a major contributor to the Inagua’s economy. One of the vehicles used by the guano workers was a truck mounted on huge wheels with giant tires. Fleming’s imagination turned this into a mythical dragon that put fear into the men and women who worked on Dr. No’s guano plant. Famously, Dr. No eventually met his death under tons of the cormorants’ valuable commodity. Though inspired by The Bahamas, Dr. No was actually shot in Jamaica, but seven subsequent Bond movies – Thunderball, For Your Eyes Only, Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Never Say Never Again, The World Is Not Enough, and Casino Royale – did visit the islands. For Bond Nº21, Casino Royale, director Martin Campbell took 007 once again to The Bahamas and paid tribute to Bond Nº1 by giving Daniel Craig the job of looking gorgeous as he walked out of the sea onto the sand – mirroring actress Ursula Andress’s memorable scene in Dr. No, in which James Bond first meets island girl Honeychile Ryder. The Bahamas has hosted a number of big movies, notably Pirates Of The Caribbean II & III, but Craig Woods, who was film commissioner with the Bahamas Film Commission when Casino Royale came to the islands, says Bond movies are different from all the others. “The difference is the brand,” Woods says. “The James Bond franchise is such a powerful marketing and promotions tool that it compels one to take stock and notice what is happening around you. It brings action, technology, and various cultures together in a very sexy manner. The franchise has always been a trendsetter, whereas so many other films are just one-of products.” And he says that much of
THE JAMES BOND FRANCHISE IS SUCH A POWERFUL MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS TOOL
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The Spy Who Loved Me. Roger Moore as agent 007 teams with a beautiful Soviet agent (Barbara Bach) to battle Stromberg in order to save the world from total annihilation and a 315pound villian, Jaws. Film locations include: Abu Simbel Temple, Abu Simbel, Egypt; Al-Basatin, Ibn Tulun, Cairo, Egypt; Asgard Peak, Mount Asgard, Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada; Banana Island, Nile River, Luxor, Egypt; Cala de Volpe Hotel, Costa Smeralda, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy; Gare Loch, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK; New Providence Island, Bahamas; The Great Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt; The Sphinx, Cairo, Egypt. (c)1977 United Artists Corporation and Danjaq, Llc. All rights reserved
this
is down to the production company. “Eon Productions was just a joy to work with,” Woods says. “A British company, they were very precise, on-point all the time, very professional with that British flair, and being a former colony we were very much always on the same page.” Perhaps part of what Eon liked about The Bahamas was the incentive it received to film there. The Bahamas offers a 17% rebate based on a minimum spend of $1m. “Needless to say they exceeded this and more,” Woods says. In the case of Casino Royale, the Bahamas Film Commission excelled itself as far as troubleshooting was concerned. “One day the lighting guy didn’t show up, so my technical guy, Kevin Kemp, had to light the set,” Woods
says. “When (director) Martin Campbell showed up he was flabbergasted, he just couldn’t believe that Kevin had that ability. Well, as a member of the American Society Of Cinematographers, he does. Martin Campbell wanted to take Kevin with him to Prague to assist there, but we didn’t get matters organized in time. Plus he was needed here.” There was one problem the commission couldn’t solve, however. “During filming one Saturday morning, it was overcast and the sun had moved over a cloud. The cloud obscured the sun for a considerable period, to the point at which Martin Campbell came over to me and asked: ‘What are you going to do about that?’ It is expected the film commission is supposed to cure all problems.”
Lights, camera, Metro.
09-0969bd ©2008 LACMTA
The hottest >lm locations in Hollywood, and more. Visit metro.net/filmingatmetro for details, or call 213.922.5616.
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IN FROM THE COLD
A
s well as the warm sunny beaches, Alpine Europe, luxury mountain resorts, the excitement and the threat of the cold war and the impenetrable countries behind the iron curtain also provide recurring themes in James Bond movies. And again this is down to Fleming’s past. James Bond’s creator was educated for a while in Austria, and visited Switzerland regularly. The Hotel du Lac at Coppet, Switzerland, which Fleming visited with one of his many girlfriends, was the inspiration for Auric Goldfinger’s factory in the movie Goldfinger. Fleming also spent time in Moscow, and later Berlin, for the Reuters news agency. And, tragically, Bond’s mother Monique Delacroix, was killed in a climbing accident on the Aiguille Rouge, in France. So such films as From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, all take the cinema-goer either to the snowy playgrounds of the rich, or to the chilly, secretive cities of the former Eastern bloc. The frozen terrains of
Iceland were chosen for the opening sequence of 1985’s A View To A Kill and, 18 years later, for 2002’s Die Another Day. Executive producer at Icelandic production services company TrueNorth, Leifur B. Dagfinnsson, worked on the movie. “They needed a frozen lake with icebergs floating in it,” Dagfinnsson says. “Here in Iceland we have this unique location, known as the Ice Lagoon, at Vatnajokull in South East Iceland– and for two months of the year it freezes beautifully. In this movie the main car chase took place on the frozen lake in between the icebergs.” For the Die Another Day shoot there were concerns about the weather, but the crew brought James Bond’s good fortune with it. “Filming in February in Iceland can be a challenge,” Dagfinnsson says. “We only had two weeks to physically prep the shoot. We had been observing the Ice Lagoon for two months, regularly checking the thickness of the ice as it needs to be at least one foot thick to carry the cars safely, which were around two to three tons once all the safety equipment installed.” Five weeks before the scheduled filming, the area suddenly experienced one of its heaviest downpours of rain in recent history. The ice had melted and the floating icebergs were drifting in gale force winds. “Basically, the location was gone.” Dagfinnsson
WE WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING AND THERE WAS A THREE-INCH BLANKET OF SNOW Shooting Die Another Day on the Ice Lagoon
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A C-123 aircraft that was painted by The Living Daylights studio artists in a camouflage paint scheme matching that of a Moroccan Air Force C-130
says. “So the Bond crew moved to Alaska and started
pre-production there. We continued to observe the Ice Lagoon, and it had started freezing again. I think everyone in the farms and villages were now praying for cold weather. And indeed, we started seeing record cold temperatures, and by the end of January we were able to bring a car back onto the ice and test it. I notified the Bond producers of the situation and sent them pictures and they came back immediately. The lake had frozen beautifully, as flat as an ironing board, with the amazing big icebergs perfectly located for the car chase. The crew was ecstatic. Then came the question as to whether or not we could prep this in only two weeks. I said ‘Yes’, and the rest is history.” They filmed for three weeks, and didn’t lose a day through bad weather. “We finished a day ahead of schedule. That’s the blessing the Bond people have. For example, we had the scene where Bond approaches the ice lake in his Aston Martin. We had flown in snow making machines from LA and London for that, as the scene required fresh snow on the ground and it hadn’t snowed properly for some time. We woke up the next morning and as we pulled up to the Ice Lagoon, there was this beautiful three-inch blanket of snow, exactly where we needed it. It had snowed overnight! Two days later we wrapped, and the following morning we had the first day of rain for three weeks.” Foreign films shot in Iceland can take advantage of a tax break. Die Another Day got a 12% reimbursement, and today the figure offered by the Icelandic government is 14%.
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You Only Live Twice. Sean Connery as James Bond goes to Japan to foil an evil plot involving the onset of a nuclear war between the Russians and Americans. This and other Bond movies drew on Ian Fleming’s experiences in the Far East, which he wrote into a number of Bond books. Film locations include Akime Village, Akime, Kagoshima, Japan; Andalucía, Spain; Tokyo, Japan; Gibraltar Harbour, Gibraltar; Hong Kong, China; Mount Kirishima, Mount Shinmoe, Mount Shinmu-dake, and Kirishima-Yaku National Park, all in Kagoshima, Japan; Mågerø, Norway for the opening sequence; and Torremolinos, Málaga, Andalucía, Spain. © 1967 United Artists Corporation and Danjaq, Llc. All rights reserved
BOND IN THE USA
H
ost to so many action movies since the birth of the genre, the US has featured comparatively rarely in James Bond movies over the years. Roger Moore landed in New York as James Bond in Live And Let Die and almost met his end in the car ride from JFK to Manhattan. And Daniel Craig spent some time dodging death at Miami Airport while saving a brand new super passenger jet from a bomb attack. Live And Let Die went south, too, to New Orleans and to Phoenix, while You Only Live Twice went to Cape Canaveral in Florida, and used stock footage of the Pentagon in Virginia. Goldfinger went to Florida, where the famous death-by-gold-paint scene took place, and to Louisville, Kentucky, home of Fort Knox, the primary target in Goldfinger’s master plan. But the Bond movie that spent the most time in the US is Bond Nº7, Diamonds Are Forever, whose plot centers around the diamond smuggling between South Africa and Amsterdam, and the gambling communities of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Saratoga Springs,
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Goldfinger. Sean Connery as James Bond battles cunning international smugglers intent on infiltrating Fort Knox. Film locations include Andermatt, Uri, Switzerland; Big Ben, Houses Of Parliament, Westminster, London; Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Miami Beach, and the Fontainebleau Hilton Resort, Miami Beach, Florida, USA. ©1964 United Artists Corporation and Danjaq, Llc. All rights reserved
New York. For Bond Nº7, the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Oceanside, California, served as Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s oil rig lair; James Bond and Tiffany Case were entertained at the Circus Casino in Las Vegas; the John Mansville Gypsum Plant in Las Vegas served as Villain Willard Whyte’s Techtronics Missile Laboratories, and the Las Vegas Hilton served as Whyte’s House. The film’s deadly desert scene was shot in the Nevada Desert; Whyte’s Winter Villa Desert House was in Palm Springs, California; and the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California, was the site of the film’s satellite launch. A former military flying school, Sequoia Field Airport, which serves Tulare County, California, provided the plane and the skilled operators for an action sequence in The Living Daylights, in which Bond is fighting one of the villains at the back of a military aircraft carrying medical supplies. Sequoia Field provided a C-123 aircraft that was painted by studio artists in a camouflage paint scheme matching that of a Moroccan Air Force C-130 that was used for part of the film that was shot in Morocco – doubling as Afghanistan. For the sequence the C-123 flew south east of Palm Springs where the terrain is similar to that which surrounds the North African city. “Sequoia Field is an old WWII primary flight school, consisting of runway, hangar, barracks, and an administration building, and is now owned by the County of Tulare,” says Norman Stubbs who advised the crew during the sequence. “The former barracks are now used as part of the County Road Camp, and as such, the guards keep a watchful eye on who comes and goes in the area. The first of the production people to arrive were somewhat scruffy-looking props men in a Ryder truck. On arrival they pulled up next to the C-123 and started to unload the burlap bags that were to go into the cargo net, and around which the scene to be filmed is centered. Moments after their arrival and unloading had started, a sheriff’s car pulled up to the aircraft. The deputy inquired as to what these two nefari-
ous looking characters in a Ryder truck were doing in the vicinity of his jail, and what was in all of those suspicious looking burlap bags, with red crosses painted on them. “It took a certain amount of time to convince the deputy that the truck, people, equipment, and the burlap bags were part of filming for a James Bond movie. Convinced, or reluctantly accepting our explanation, the deputy left, only to have several other patrol cars pull up to the Ryder truck a few minutes later.” The scene required Stubbs and his crew to fly around with a cargo net stuffed with the burlap bags, hanging out of the back of the airplane, with two stuntmen crawling about on it – doubling for Bond and the villain. “For this, we required FAA approval,” Stubbs says. “Part of our FAA approval was an altitude and area-of-operation limitation, consisting of a one mile race track pattern to be flown, centered over Sequoia Field. This would work out great. The studio didn’t have to pay for wasted flight time getting to and from the FAA designated area. The stunt men would just jump or fall off the cargo net, land at the airport, and be ready to go again, as soon as the director gave the word. After one or two jumps from the bag, and landing on the ramp adjacent to the runway, the stunt men started landing on the baseball field, located at the Road Camp. This did not sit well with Road Camp officials. A request was received asking that no parachute landings be made at Sequoia Field, apparently fearing the whole Bond thing was some sort of scheme, whereby the parachutists would land at the Road Camp and help some of the inmates escape. In the Ryder truck, no doubt. “After one of the jumps, the stunt man observed people running from a barn-like building as he drifted to earth, jumping into cars and driving off in great haste. The stuntman was descending over a packing house, filled with farm workers. Fearing that
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he
may be a Border Patrol agent using some new way of apprehending illegals, they were taking no chances and made their getaway.”
COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU?
B
Diamonds Are Forever. Sean Connery as the dynamic 007 is on the trail of a diamond smuggler who leads him on a chase through Amsterdam, Los Angeles and eventually, glittery Las Vegas. Film locations include: Alpes-Maritimes, France; Amstel Canal, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands; Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA; Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Oceanside, California, USA; Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent, England; Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt/Main, Hesse, Germany; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Los Angeles International Airport; Parking Lot, Universal Studios, Universal City, California, USA; Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California, USA. ©1971 United Artists Corporation and Danjaq, Llc. All rights reserved.
Y JANUARY 2009, Quantum Of Solace had passed the $500m mark at the box office. A runaway hit, it nonetheless had its fair share of adverse criticism – for being somewhat dark, and lacking in the quick-fire, if corny and sporadic, humor of past Bond movies. Daniel Craig, who contributed considerably to the script, says of such criticism: “Well, I nicked a lot of the ideas about who Bond is from Ian Fleming. But the point is, we did the movie we had to do to finish the story off, and comedy and lightness weren’t relevant. This was a story about loyalty, about friendship, about who you can trust. Gag-writing wasn’t at the top of the list.” Craig is aware that Quantum Of Solace took Bond to a darker side, and that as well as the “humor”, the sunsoaked beaches were missing too. “I want to lie on a beach for the first half an hour of the next movie drinking a cocktail,” he says, with perhaps a bit of 007’s tongue in his cheek. His point is that the re-start of Bond, which began with Casino Royale, has been achieved, and now anything can happen. “I love the idea of putting Moneypenny in the film,” he says. “I’m dead keen to do it. And Q. But I work from the premise that there are millions and millions of people out there who never saw one of the earlier Bond movies. So they don’t understand the Martini gag. Or the Moneypenny gag, which is a gag – it had ceased to be a character. So, let’s find out who she is. We can have fun doing that. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m up for a submarine base, as long as the gag works. The problem is that Austin Powers screwed everything up. He exploded the genre. Did I just say that? I did.” Michael G. Wilson has announced that work on the script for Bond 23 started, tentatively, in January 2009 – which could mean a 2010 release. But the franchise has now been handed from Sony back to MGM, so delays could arise as a result of that. About which the cinemagoer cares not one little bit, by the way. All he or she wants to know is where Bond is going to next. I Additional material: Quantum Of Solace: Bond On Location (Special Treats Production Company), Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett ((Phoenix), The Man Who Saved Britain by Simon Winder (Picador), Debbie Lincoln (Boutique Editions), Jeff Pryor (MGM), Theo Dumont (MGM)
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Nicolas Cage on location in South Dakota for National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. (Photo: Robert Zuckerman)
An American treasure Visit South Dakota and you will see not only some of the most stunning landscapes America has to offer, but some of the most stunning you will see anywhere in the world. So stunning in fact that Disney re-wrote part of the script for National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets just so they could stay there for longer. Andy Fry reports IF YOU ever get fed up with the movie business, you could always move to South Dakota. Some 1,400 miles from Los Angeles and 1,700 miles from New York, it’s about as far away as you can get from the glitz and glamour of the film world without leaving the US. But even here you wouldn’t be completely safe, because this bewitching Midwest state is a great place to shoot a movie. The scenery is stunning, the tax breaks are generous, the people are welcoming and the land is steeped in Native American history. Even more compelling, perhaps, is the fact that South Dakota is home to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, one of the wonders of the modern world. It is this iconic landmark - four enormous presidential heads carved out of rock - which lured the production team behind Disney’s National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets away from the comfort of the West Coast into the Black Hills of South Dakota, says Emily Currey, film and media relations representative for the South Dakota Tourism Office. “Book Of Secrets is filled with fantastic locations from around the world. But producer Jerry Bruckheimer wanted to film the final sequences of the film around Mount Rushmore. It was meant to be a stay of just a couple of days. But the crew loved South
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Dakota so much they ended up staying from April 18 to May 2 and adding material to the movie script while here on location.” That’s quite an endorsement when you consider the quality of the personnel involved. Aside from action-adventure impresario Bruckheimer, South Dakota played host to director Jon Turtletaub and a cast that included Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight and Helen Mirren. All in all, it was the most impressive line-up of movie luminaries to visit the state since Alfred Hitchcock brought Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and the North By Northwest film crew to the Black Hills for two days in September 1958. When you bear in mind that Book Of Secrets was the follow-up to a 2004 film which made $347m at global box office, you could be forgiven for thinking that the only thing on anyone’s mind was banking another big commercial hit. But the reality is that the crew and cast showed great sensitivity while on location in South Dakota, says Currey. “It’s important to keep in mind that there is more to the Black Hills than Mount Rushmore. The Hills have been sacred to American Indian peoples for thousands of years. To the Lakota, they are Paha Sapa – the center of the world. The production team respected that.»
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Re-shoot? Re-schedule? With over 300 sunny days you can re-move those words from your vocabulary.
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SPI-1518 Ad.indd 1
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The Badlands National Park, South Dakota
This point is neatly illustrated by the
strong relations that the crew built up with respected local figures like Gerard Baker, the first ever American Indian Superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. At the request of the production, Superintendent Baker and his associate Ranger Darrell Martin (now sadly deceased) performed a traditional Indian blessing ceremony before the camera first rolled at Mount Rushmore on April 20. A number of cast members were present at the ceremony, including Nicolas Cage. “The Black Hills were unique to me,” says Nicolas Cage. “They were very special because it’s Native American sacred ground. I found it uniquely beautiful, and still something of a secret. I don’t think people realize how beautiful it is in our own back yard. Being in those places definitely inspired the performances. It gave us all a boost.” Cage’s heartfelt comments are reinforced by others involved in the picture. Helen Mirren might have hated the Black Hills after having to turn down a dinner invite from
BEST JOB IN THE WORLD, TO BE IN THIS INCREDIBLE LANDSCAPE SHOOTING A FILM Queen Elizabeth II in order to turn up for work. But quite the reverse: “I loved South Dakota,” she says. “I loved the people, the landscape and the wildlife. When we were there, we were looking at each other saying ‘Do you realize how lucky we are? Isn’t this the best job in the world, to be in this incredible landscape shooting a fun film?’” Director Jon Turtletaub’s affection for South Dakota was such that he wanted to bring it more into the story. In particular, proximity to Native American culture started to influence his thinking. “We all fell in love with South Dakota. It’s spectacularly beautiful, the people were gentle
and embracing and there’s an enormous amount of culture. By shooting at Mount Rushmore, we started to feel much more about what the stone was before it was carved into American faces. What meaning does this landscape have to people? We tried, as best we could, to let that seep into the storytelling and the moviemaking. It wasn’t just that the people were so warm or that the country was so beautiful, it was that I learned so much about the culture and history of the area. Forget coming back to make movies, I would come back to live here.“ The extended stay meant the production team ended up working at places other than Mount Rushmore’s monument. Using Rapid City as its operational HQ, the company also filmed in unique locations such as Custer State Park’s Sylvan Lake. For one sequence, stunt coordinator George Marshall Ruge put stunt doubles on a 150ft cliff to secure aerial shots. “They had to climb the peak, so it took us three hours to get all six doubles up there, and rig
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them with safety wire,” he recalls. “The
only way up was straight up, the only way down was straight down.” The use of the Lake resulted in one of the more interesting anecdotes to emerge from the shoot, says Currey. “In the film, Sylvan Lake is being portrayed as being located behind the faces of Mount Rushmore. In fact it’s a few miles down the road.” That effect was achieved back in Hollywood under the guidance of visual effects supervisor Mitchell S. Drain who has many years of experience in re-arranging landscapes for movies. “If we’ve done our job well, people who see the movie will be scratching their heads when they go to South Dakota and find out that it isn’t actually there!,” Drain says. Not that anyone in South Dakota minds too much about Hollywood tampering with its geography. “The fact that the film was shot here raises awareness of our beautiful locations, which is good for tourism and for generated additional film business,” says Currey. “For us it is a bonus that it was such a success at box office and has led to a third in the franchise.” There’s no question that South Dakota is working hard to put itself on the movie industry radar. Although filming at locations like Mount Rushmore and the Native American tribal lands requires special permits, Bruckheimer himself has reported on the state’s “co-operative authorities” and the fact that “South Dakotans are glad to share their resources.” Currey’s department also engages
Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha and Nicolas Cage on the run in National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets. Copyright: © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. (Photo: Robert Zuckerman)
THE FACT THAT THE FILM WAS HERE RAISES AWARENESS OF OUR LOCATIONS in regular trade marketing activity, to highlight the diversity of Dakotan locations and the range of tax incentives in areas like production and accommodation. For example, says Currey, “film a nationally or regionallydistributed motion picture, documentary, television film or single television advertising project in South Dakota and the state will refund 100% of the sales and use tax and 100% of the excise tax, on projects which exceed $250,000 in taxable costs.” Amazingly, given all of the positive endorsements of the Book Of Secrets crew, Bruckheimer’s blockbuster was the first high-profile film to have shot in the Black Hills since Kevin Costner wowed audiences with his Oscar-winner Dances With Wolves. “We’ve had a number of documentaries here because of the scenery and the culture, but Book Of Secrets was the first movie for a long time. We’re hoping it will now provide a launch pad for us to grow the sector.” I
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South Dakota: The scenery is stunning, the tax breaks are generous, the people are welcoming and the land is steeped in Native American history)
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FEATURE Among the Hubert Bals Fund-supported films screened at IFFR 2009 is Matheus Nachtergaele’s The Dead Girl’s Feast
The big international festivals make the headlines every year. Film buff or not you will have heard of Cannes, Toronto, Tokyo, even Berlin – all significant events for the global film industry. And then there’s the network of mid-sized festivals around the world that play an international role too, and also an important local role, and many of which have close ties with the film commissions. Marlene Edmunds takes the tour
IT’S FESTIVAL TIME F
ROM Honolulu to Sydney, Rotterdam to Singapore, Busan to Bali, film festivals serve as year round support hubs for the film community, kickstarting careers and allowing local and regional talent to rub shoulders and talk business with top global film veterans. A case in point is the Sydney Film Festival, now in its 55th edition and the only festival in Australia that has an International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) accredited competition. “Nicole Kidman, Jane Campion, Gillian Armstrong and Sam Neill, among other top Australian film talent, have all launched their careers at this festival,” says director Clare Stewart, adding that they also continue to be active patrons. The festival considers itself a pre-eminent showcase for contemporary cinema from Australia and around the world, but it also has a networking mission it takes seriously. “There is a very strong crossover between the film festival and the film industry in Australia,” Stewart says, adding that in 2008, some 48 international guests and 122 Australian filmmakers who introduced their films also participated in Q&A discussion panels and other industry events. Stewart says the festival also works to provide co-production opportunities for visiting producers, directors and sales agents, and also books meetings for professionals interested in shooting in Australia. Over in Korea, the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) is increasingly gaining a
reputation as Asia’s answer to Cannes in its brief to screen new films and bring in first-time directors, with an emphasis on third world and Asian titles. It is also a growing industry networking hub. “It’s all part of a belief in investing in the future of Asian talent,” PIFF executive programmer Ji-suk Kim says, adding that the festival also sponsors the massive Asian Film Market and several other networking sidebars, including the Pusan Promotion Plan, where promising filmmakers and producers can meet with potential co-producers and financiers. The 10-year-old Busan Film Commission (BFC) orchestrates a number of industry events simultaneously with PIFF, among them the Busan International Film Commission And Industry Showcase (BIFCOM), the Asian Film Commissions Network (AFCNet) and the inaugural Asian Pacific Film Policy Forum. BIFCOM is a platform for Asian film commissions to showcase locations, filming equipment and post-production; AFCNet enables the networking of film commissions in Asia; and the Asian Pacific Film Policy Forum, launched in 2008, is a meet for government film policy-makers and film industry professionals. “All of these events have a positive and progressive interrelation with each other in building up the film industry,” says BFC director and multiple award-winning Asian film director Kwang-su Park. “At
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Aerial view of the Pusan International Film Festival
Busan, we are not competing with other aspects of the
Asian film industry, but rather we are looking to see how we can reinforce the links and connections between countries and regions.” Even when there is no direct financial relationship, film commissions often lend their support to film festivals. Such is the case with the Seoul Film Commission (SFC), which works the Seoul Film Festival, Chungmuro Film Festival and Busan/PIFF, in exchanging mutual support. SFC has become a pivotal force in Seoul in giving production, financial and creative support. Treeless Mountain, a low-budget film made with some production support from SFC, had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008 and won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo FILM EX. While Korea’s massive Digital City is not set to open officially until 2010, some of its stations are already being used, among them the Directors Zone. Says SFC executive manager Sung-won Hong: “The Directors Zone provides a space where directors of the calibre of IM Kwonteak, one of South Korea’s most renowned film directors, or even complete newcomers, can and are working. Ultimately, we’d like to see the Directors Zone become a wellspring of creativity for Korean as well as international directors.” The Bali Film Center is one of the Balinale International Film Festival’s principal sponsors, and Deborah Gabinetti is one of the founders of the not-for-profit Bali Taksu Indonesia Foundation that established the film festival in 2007. “The festival provides an opportunity to invite foreign filmmakers to screen their films to an appreciative local audience, experience Indonesia’s accommodating culture and scout the country for possible film locations or story ideas,” Gabinetti says. “Balinale also gives Indonesian filmmakers an opportunity to present their work to a global audience and network with international filmmakers in the hopes of laying the ground work for future collaboration.” Gabinetti says that
BY SUPPORTING THE ARTS IN SEDONA, THEY ARE SUPPORTING THE ECONOMY AND QUALITY OF LIFE AS WELLS free workshops are an important part of the festival, a number of which offer Indonesian students and young filmmakers an opportunity to learn from established international professionals. “We are proud to say that every international filmmaker who attended was more than willing to contribute their time and share their vast experience with such an enthusiastic audience.” A highlight of the 2008 festival was the screening of rare footage shot by Charlie Chaplin during his first visit to Indonesia in 1932, presented by Kate Guyonvarch of Association Chaplin. “According to Kate, Chaplin was so enamored with Bali that he even wrote several pages of a script around his trip that was never realized,” Gabinetti says. Also at the 2008 Balinale, Stan Wlodkowski, producer of American Beauty) and Philip Lee (producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) joined a panel entitled Why Hollywood Is Looking East. “Since then, the two of them have returned with projects set in Indonesia,” Gabinetti says. The 22-year-old Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) is recognized for its cutting edge programing and Asian cinema credentials. “The festival had its start with works that in the beginning very few festivals were screening, including titles from Thailand and Iran,” says festival co-director Yuni Hadi. “Some 60% of the films screened at the festival come from Asia. The festival has several platforms for local cinema, including the Singapore Film Awards, an inaugu-
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event set to launch in 2009, that will honor films shot in Singapore or where a majority of the creative team is from Singapore.” The Singapore Film Commission, part of the Media Development Authority (MDA), kicks in 10-20% of the SIFF budget, but the community is clearly behind the event. Corporate sponsorship provided a massive 50% slice of the festival’s budget in 2008, with Citibank coming in as its biggest sponsor. The MDA has been a major driving force in making Singapore a film and digital hub. It kicked off the inaugural 3DX:3D Film & Entertainment Technology Festival in November 2008 at which DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg forecast that within the next five to seven years, all movies will be made in 3D. The prognosis was further backed up by top studio CEOs attending the event, among them Twentieth Century Fox’s co-chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos, Walt Disney Studios Motion Group president Mark Zoradi, Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association Of America, and IMAX president Greg Foster. At the opening of the festival, MDA CEO Christopher Chia said 3D “was poised to catalyze new revenue streams for digital entertainment and beyond with estimates of the global 3D market revenues hitting $1bn by 2010.” While it heaved with major studio glitterati, the 3DX event was but one of dozens on the festival circuit that focus on the cutting edge of the industry. Transmediale is Germany’s bow to the socio-cultural impact of new technologies; Future Film Festival is Italy’s experimental new media festival; and Canada’s Antimatter is dedicated solely to the exhibition and nurturing of film and video as art. And those are only a few that that took place in the first two months of 2009. The recognition that the digital age is re-defining film is lending itself to far reaching changes at the film festivals themselves. Now in its 38th edition, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has a new format with three main sections, all of which allow fulllength films, shorts, art installations and live performances. Festival director Rutger Wolfson says the new format “matches the increasing integration of full length features, art installations, short film and live performances, silver screen and monitor.” IFFR is an example of how film festivals are a reflection of the value the community places on film, and not just as an art. The City Of Rotterdam has been one of the biggest supporters of the IFFR, with the festival in 2008 receiving some €1.2m ($1.6m) of it’s $10m budget from the city. That amount is expected to rise in 2009. “The festival acts as an intermediary between the local and national film industry in Holland, and the global film community, and in some cases we screen world premieres of Dutch films, such as Rutger Hauer-starrer Dazzle by Cyrus Frisch in 2009,” Wolfson says. “Not all of the international industry will have seen these films and we believe it is a good opportunity for them to do so.” There is method behind all of this enthusiasm for film on the part of Rotterdam, and it’s not just about culture. Jacques van Heijningen has headed up both the Rotterdam Film Commission and the Rotterdam Film Fund since their inception 12 years ago. “The film commission and film fund, as well as the new MediaPort Schiecentraal, an 80,000 sq m digitalized media complex, with hotels, production offices, and restaurants, finished in late November after 12 years of work, are all reflections of the city’s commitment to make film and audiovisual an economic pillar of the community,” Van Heijningen says. At the opening ceremony for MediaPort
A dance performance held during the ‘Charlie in Bali’ screening of rare footage shot by Charlie Chaplin in Bali in 1932
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WE WANT CHINESE FILMMAKERS, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG PEOPLE, TO FORM A BRIDGE WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD Schiecentraal on November 21, 2008, outgoing Rotterdam mayor Ivo Opstelten demonstrated his own commitment by staging a 25-meter jump off the highest building of the complex. Before the jump, Opstelten called MediaPort’s opening “a small step for me, a big step forward for Rotterdam”. The Dutch national government has also put some $1.3m behind the Rotterdam International Film Festival, as well as contributing additional funds for the Netherlands Film Festival, and other film promotion organizations inside the country. Film festivals are increasingly moving to make sure that talent is tapped across all sectors of the globe. IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund has been so successful in backing projects in economically disadvantaged areas of the world – in development, scriptwriting, digital and post-production – that it has become a role model for other festivals. Among 30 new Hubert Bals-supported films screened at the 2009 edition of IFFR is Brazilian actor-turned-director Matheus Nachtergaele’s The Dead Girl’s Feast. The film had picked up the directors prize at the 10th Rio International Film Festival in October. Asa Bernlo, CEO of the Goteborg International Film Festival and chairman of The Goteborg International Film Festival Fund, says Hubert Bals did influence Goteborg’s desire to set up its own fund. “We support projects in the stages where it is generally most difficult to get financing – development and postproduction,” Bernlo says. “We also give support towards technical facilities and training.” At the 2008 festival, the films Snow by Aida Begic and The Photograph by Nan Achnas both had the support of the film fund, which is backed entirely by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
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says so far some 80 projects and numerous workshops and training initiatives have taken place in Africa, Central America and South East Asia under the auspices of the fund. Goteborg itself is the largest film festival in Sweden, pulling in audiences of 125,000 last year, and while there are plenty of industry sidebars, the Nordic Market is one of the oldest and most successful. If a lot of business is done at the festival, however, it doesn’t upstage the screenings. With 67% of the gross net incomes of the festival coming from ticket sales, “Our audiences are our greatest assets and they have priority in terms of our making sure they have access,” Bernlo says. Over in the US, in the Arizona desert, community spirit has been instrumental in keeping the Sedona International Film Festival alive for 15 years. Says executive director Patrick Schweiss: “Our two main industries here are tourism and the arts. We are a community of only 12,000 people but we have 45 significant art galleries and probably 500-600 artists living here.” He adds: “We provide in a sense, a return on investment in that we fill up the hotel rooms and restaurants in late February and early March, at a time when the tourist season is fairly light.” Linda Pallas, chair of the arts and culture committee, city of Sedona, adds: “Financial support of the arts has returned to the city in the business created by visitors and residents, and city leaders recognize this. By supporting the arts in Sedona, they are supporting the economy and quality of life as well.” In Hawaii, the Honolulu International Film Festival (HIFF) also plays an important local role. “HIFF has been our best and most significant vehicle for local filmmakers to get their work exposed, and to interact with a high-level group of international filmmakers in a supportive environment,” says Honolulu Film Office commissioner Walea
At the Sedona International Film Festival: actress, director Kimberly Williams Paisley with country superstar Brad Paisley and Harkins Theater Owner, and sponsor, Dan Harkins]
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Constantinau. The Honolulu Film office covers the City and County of Honolulu, an area that attracts more than 50% of Hawaii state-wide production industry expenditures. The Hawaii State Film Office is also a big supporter of both HIFF and the Maui Film Festival (MFF). “The amazing number of professionals who come here for festivals give us an incredible opportunity to showcase the islands,” says Hawaii State Film Commissioner Donne Dawson, whose job it is to keep Hawaii in the spotlight as a primary filming destination. MFF has become a showcase of what vision and bold thinking can do in a community of film lovers, Dawson says. “If you go back 15 years, it was virtually impossible to see a decent film in Maui until Barry Rivers started the festival as a way for the community and the film celebrities that lived or vacationed here to enjoy film.” MFF’s June festival has a brief to screen films that have compassionate vision and life-affirming stories to tell,
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but sidebar event FirstLight Academy Screenings held in December and early January, represent a major coup for the festival, allowing Maui residents to see screenings of Oscar-nominated films well before the rest of the world. “The reason that the Maui Film Festival was initially able to capture the industry’s interest in participating in FirstLight was because they were 110% aware of how many of their peers and associates spent the holiday season on Maui,” says Rivers, whose connections with major studios and smaller independents helped. “They saw our event as a way to reach out to them just as the nomination ballots
IF YOU GO BACK 15 YEARS IT WAS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE A DECENT FILM IN MAUI were being sent out by the Academy.” In addition to a line-up of luminaries from Hollywood and around the globe who have picked up festival prizes, MFF has awarded one that Rivers says will never be duplicated, its 2007 Visionary Award given to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. “We wanted to honor him as one of the highest authorities on compassionate wisdom on the planet,” Rivers says. Stuck out there in the Pacific, halfway between North America and Asia, HIFF was founded 28 years ago as a showcase for Asian films and talent. Since 2000, it has partnered with the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), at first exchanging information and assistance but now co-involved in several other programs, one called SMART Exchange. “For several years, the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii and the Shanghai University School of Film and Television have screened films at SIFF and at HIFF,” says Chuck Boller, executive director of HIFF. “In 2008 we expanded to include student co-productions, each having a special screening at SIFF and at HIFF. The program has worked so well that I’ve been approached by other leading international film festivals to consider implementing similar exchanges with them.” Says managing director of the Shanghai festival Lijuan Tang: “We want Chinese filmmakers, especially the young people, to form a bridge with the rest of the world. Our friendly collaboration with HIFF over the past years is a good example of how both festivals can share resources and provide international opportunities for film students from both countries to showcase their talents.” Boller’s associations in China have also proved beneficial to HIFF’s sponsors in Hawaii. “The Bank of Hawaii last year gave us funding for the student exchange with the hope of getting some contacts in China. We were able to help through our association with the festival and its parent company, the Shanghai Media And Entertainment Group (SMEG),” he says. Yang Qixiang, vice-president of SMEG, adds: “The exchange between the two festivals is not only about the film art itself but also about the cultural blend of East and West, as well as the financial and tourism development in both municipalities. “This year (2008),” he adds, “ the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival was held in June after the earthquake, and HIFF opened in October amid the gloomy global economy. Both festivals, however, joined hands to promote several programs as we both believe that art brings strength and co-operation leads to development.» I
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“I KNOW THESE SMALL SCOTTISH VILLAGES,” SAYS BILL FORSYTH. “YOU ONLY GET ONE OF EVERYTHING – ONE PUNK, ONE PUBLICAN, ONE MOTOR BIKE, ONE PHONE BOX…” The red phone box in Pennan. Photograph by Lyn Cameron
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“I wanted to let Scotland see itself on screen,” says Bill Forsyth of his Eighties classic Local Hero, which turned 25 last year. As it turned out, he also let the world see a Scotland it had never seen before – and has never forgotten. Bill Forsyth spoke with Joanna Stephens
THE MAKING OF A HERO I
T’S 25 years since a little film about Scotland was launched on to an unsuspecting world. And it’s 23 years since its writer and director, Bill Forsyth, has given his creation much thought. Which is strange, seeing that the rest of the world has spent the past quarter of a century watching it, deconstructing it, making a cult of it, giving awards to it and celebrating it as a masterpiece of British cinema. We are talking, of course, about Local Hero, Forsyth’s bittersweet fable about a Texan oil magnate, a small Scottish fishing community – and a red phone box. To celebrate the film’s 25th birthday last autumn, the BBC’s The Culture Show took Forsyth, whose CV includes such gems as Gregory’s Girl and That Sinking Feeling, back up to the village in which Local Hero was born: Pennan in Aberdeenshire, on the east coast of Scotland. “Ah yes, the red phone box,” Forsyth says. “I used that myself, when I called the office to tell them that we’d use Pennan as the location…” He pauses reflectively. “Of course, there were no mobile phones in those days. I remember the only person on set who had one was David Puttnam, who was one of the producers. It was this monster thing and had something the size of a car battery to make it work. It was very scary – like something nuclear. We were terrified of it.”What a difference 25 years makes. And yet, how little changes in terms of the important things in filmmaking, like a good story well told. And if Local Hero is anything, it’s a good story. The story starts with the arrival in the small west coast village of Furness (aka Pennan) of a yuppie American oil executive called Mac (Pieter Riegert), who has been sent to Scotland by his billionaire boss, Happer (Burt Lancaster). His mission is to buy up the entire village to make way for a giant oil refinery. The canny locals, seduced by the promise of petrodollars, are delighted. But the negotiations – conducted via the famous phone box – are thwarted by an eccentric beachcomber called Ben (Fulton Mackay), who turns out to own the Furness beach and has no intention of selling it. Mac, meanwhile, has seen the Northern Lights and is feeling conflicted. He realizes the deal he is brokering will extinguish the magic of the village, destroy its unique environment and fracture the community he has grown to love. Happer eventually choppers into Furness to sort everybody out, only to be persuaded by Ben to change his focus from oil to astronomy. But not
everybody gets to live happily ever after. Mac, banished to his sterile Houston loft, finds he can’t forget the remote village and its intriguing cast of characters. Surrounded by shells and snapshots, he calls Furness. And calls and calls. The telephone in the phone box rings unanswered. The Culture Show presenter, the British film critic Mark Kermode, says Local Hero was inspired by a news story about oil companies buying up land in Orkney. Pause here, perhaps, to reflect on a present-day situation involving another American billionaire’s plans to build a golfing resort and hundreds of homes in Aberdeenshire, amid fears of environmental and social disruption. Again, nothing much changes. But back to Forsyth, who is remembering his first visit to Pennan after six months of “fruitless searching for my perfect village” on the west coast of Scotland. “But you don’t get that Cornish-village thing on the west coast,” he says. “You get the beautiful beaches, but you don’t get them next to a string of houses huddling in from the storm, as it were. So I discovered that I’d written the perfect village on the perfect beach that didn’t exist in reality. Then the producers said they’d found this place on the east coast that might do. They suggested that we split the village and beach in two, and shoot the village scenes on one side of Scotland the beach scenes on the other. I was a bit naïve in those days and didn’t realize that, in a film, you could join up two pieces of land 150 miles apart…” When Forsyth eventually arrived in Pennan, he had effectively run out of time and options. “I remember it was a Friday afternoon. I had a couple of hours to wander around the village and then I had to phone the office by 17.00 with my decision. In fact, I had to say ‘yes’ – if I hadn’t, it would have put the production back and that would have lost us money. So in the end, choosing Pennan was a typical movie compromise.” No Damascene conversion, then, but a happy accident – as indeed was Mark Knopfler’s poignant theme song, Going Home, another defining feature of Local Hero that almost didn’t happen. The story goes that Forsyth had to be persuaded to include
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“In the end, choosing Pennan was a typical movie compromise,” says Bill Forsyth of the Aberdeenshire village that doubled for his fictional village of Furness. Photograph courtesy of Emma McGuire, senior photographer, Aberdeenshire Council
music
in the film at all. “I was of this puritan streak that, if you had to put music in, then you had somehow failed. I am proud to admit that I was very, very wrong,” is how he explained it recently to the British press. For Forsyth, going back to Pennan with The Culture Show was an unexpectedly emotional experience. He claims not have watched Local Hero for 23 years, fearing that all he would see would be mistakes. But watching it again at the screening in Pennan village hall that formed the centerpiece of the anniversary celebrations was, he admits, bearable. “I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I might be,” he says. “I really didn’t want it to have become part of the propaganda; to be another magical, fictional version of Scotland. But it wasn’t. And it was also more than a nice little story that just meanders along.” In addition to the screening, Local Hero’s 25th birthday party included a live performance by Inspiration, whose line-up includes two members of The Ace Tones, the fictional ceilidh band in the movie; a firework display to rival Mac’s precious Northern Lights; and a surprise bagpipe solo from Kermode, who fulfilled a long-held ambition to – as he cheerfully put it – “crucify” Knopfler’s haunting theme tune while standing on the harbor wall, staring moodily out to sea. “He wasn’t too bad, actually,” says Neil Shirran. As Aberdeen City & Shire Film officer, Shirran was closely involved with The Culture Show program, helping the BBC team to source locations, contact locals, track down extras and generally oil the wheels. As a “massive” Local Hero fan, Shirran relished the chance to be part of a footnote to the film, which still ranks as the biggest thing, cinematically speaking, to come out of Aberdeenshire. Putting on his film commissioner’s hat, Shirran adds: “The Culture Show program was a great way to promote the area. Local Hero is a prime example of the benefits of film tourism to not only Pennan, but also to Aberdeenshire and Scotland as a whole.” He adds that film tourism accounts for 10% of the
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The original poster for the film
total value of tourism in the British economy, accounting for a sizeable $1.8bn a year. And Pennan has certainly done its bit. Down the years, hundreds of thousands of tourists have made the pilgrimage to the village, worshipping at the red phone box that still dominates the main street. It is not, in fact, the same phone box as in the film, which was a papier-mache illusion built on the quay. Not that the deception seems to worry the visitors, whose
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numbers increase by the year. “It’s amazing,” says singersongwriter Marc Ellington (The Byrds, Fairport Convention), who lived just outside Pennan during the filming of Local Hero and is now deputy lord lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, serving on the board of several cultural and heritage organizations. “You can’t go to the village at any time of the year without seeing somebody having their picture taken outside the phone box. But I think the people who come to Pennan are looking as much for the values of the film as they are for the phone box or the pub. These aren’t the sort of people who would visit the set of Baywatch, for example – Pennan’s visitors are drawn by that sense of quirky community that Local Hero did so beautifully.” “Yes, we tried to cover the spectrum of eccentricity,” Forsyth says wryly. “I know these small Scottish villages. You only get one of everything – one punk, one publican, one motor bike, one phone box…” Ellington remembers the filming with affection, recalling ceilidhs in the village hall, a much-loved local dog that was given a walk-on part – and the small-world tale of a New Zealand stagehand called Barry. “One night in the pub, Barry discovered over a dram that the chap he was drinking with was his second cousin. He was absolutely bowled over. All he knew was that his ancestors had come from Scotland; he had no idea they’d actually come from Pennan. As far as I know, they’re all still in touch.” Liam McArdle, the director of The Culture Show, fell in love with Local Hero when he was six. “I saw it at the Odeon in Glasgow,” he says. “It was the first time I’d heard Scottish accents on screen. I loved it. I felt like I was
hanging out with the characters. I still do.” To be hanging out with the legendary Bill Forsyth at the actual birthplace of the film was, McArdle adds, “brilliant”. “The memory I’ll take away from that day is replicating a dozen or so of the actual shots from the film,” he says. “Bill hadn’t worked with video monitors before and he was loving it. While we were recreating the scenes, he kept saying things like, ‘Oh, I think we were a wee bit over to the left when we shot this one…’” So what is it about Local Hero that keeps us, like Mac, calling back for more? Forsyth, who once described it as “Brigadoon meets Apocalypse Now”, thinks it might have something to do with honesty. “I was thinking about all this after The Culture Show,” he says. “Perhaps people like Local Hero because it’s not a manipulative film. It just presents itself to you and you can take it or leave it in different ways and on different levels. And it’s not sugar-sweet either. It has some substance to it.” And he didn’t, he insists, have any premonition back in 1983 that he was making a classic; that Local Hero would go on to win him a BAFTA, several US film critics’ awards and the UK Film Distributors’ Association’s accolade for best use of location in a British film – not to mention the hearts and minds of several generations of moviegoers. “But I do remember Local Hero was a special project for me, because it was one of the first films to be made in Scotland in a serious way,” he says. “I didn’t really understand what it might do elsewhere in the world, but I knew it was very important to Scotland.” I
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AUSTRA
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Baz Luhrmann in Kununurra, Western Australia, on location for the Australia feature film (Photo: Bazmark)
LIA
What better way to sell Australia than to make a movie called Australia? It is a film in its own right of course, but in the new age of branded content many parties came together to make sure it served as many purposes as possible. Already on the map as a successful filmmaking country, not to mention breathtaking locations, Baz Luhrmann’s movie served to remind us of what Australia has to offer the film industry, and tourists alike. Debbie Lincoln looks at Australia, the location
A
USTRALIANS couldn’t wait to see Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia when it opened in December 2008. It quickly became the year’s top-grossing film taking $6.37m at the box office on its opening weekend and pushing even the latest James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace – which took a mere $4.22m – into second place. The second most successful locally-made film of that year was The Black Balloon, earning $2.3m during its entire release period. And comparisons with Quantum Of Solace don’t end there. For like Bond Nº22, which established advertising partnerships with the major sponsors of the film, so Twentieth Century Fox secured permission for Tourism Australia and its industry partners to use promotional artwork from the movie in their own marketing activities, in Australia and overseas – piggybacking on the buzz surrounding Australia the movie to promote Australia the country. Everyone was happy. Tourism Australia managing director Geoff Buckley says the opportunity created by the production of Luhrmann’s epic film Australia was one the organization could not let pass. “We knew that this huge film would create a wave of publicity that would put the country in the spotlight around the globe,” Buckley says. “And we found that the film’s story had a remarkable resonance for what we do marketing the country as a travel destination. “The challenge was always going to be how to ride the power of the film, but with a stand-alone and self-reliant tourism campaign. Getting Baz Luhrmann and his team on board to make that campaign was simply the best result we could have hoped for.” Nick Baker, executive general manager marketing for Tourism Australia said the campaign was unlike any other. “It’s cinematic in style, is based on a story with a beginning, middle and end, is sophisticated and highly emotive,” he said. “It is not the traditional slide-show of pretty pictures of places and people. That’s not to say that the film did not visit a number of “pretty places” during filming. Locations used in Australia include Darwin in the Northern Territory; Bowen, on the Queensland coast; Vaucluse, a suburb of Sydney; Camden, a town just west of Sydney; and Kununurra, part of the Kimberly region. “The film spent a month shooting in Kimberly,” says Mala Sujan, production associate at
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After visiting Melbourne and locations close by, HBO Films decided to base production of their World War II miniseries The Pacific in the city, and filmed 80% of the series in Victoria. (Photo: Film Victoria)
ScreenWest, the film office for Western Australia. “The Kimberley region was chosen because it is uniquely cinematic on a grand scale, to match Baz’s grand Gone With The Wind vision for Australia. Often referred to as the world’s last great wilderness, its wide-open blue skies, rich red rock formations and rugged bush landscape made it an obvious choice.” ScreenWest liaised with Tourism Western Australia while it scouted the area for appropriate locations. Some of the locations proved logistically demanding, but Luhrmann says of his decision to film in the Kimberley region: “We had a choice – to recreate this section of the film in studio, or in another state, or to capture the real thing on film.” True to form Luhrmann went for the tough third option. The film Australia brought other benefits to South West Australia. «The Western Australian Government approved funding of $500,000 to secure filming in the State,» says Sujan. “The Government’s funding was committed because of the financial benefits that the film will bring the state’s economy on many levels.” And the money was given on the basis that the film brought a lasting benefit to the area. “ScreenWest supported funding for three filmmakers to be attached to the production of Australia, in the sound, camera and assistant direction departments,” Sujan says. “ScreenWest’s Attachment Program aims to foster the creative, technical and business skills of local filmmakers by funding production companies to provide mentorship on feature films.” The Kimberley region is also a key focus of Tourism Australia’s new series of television and cinema commercials, directed by Luhrmann. Australia shot indoors too. “The studio shoot for Australia took place entirely at Fox Studios in Sydney, and additional Sydney locations near Fox Studios were also used, for example,
OVER 50% OF AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TV BUSINESSES AND MORE THAN 70% OF POST-PRODUCTION COMPANIES ARE BASED IN NEW SOUTH WALES Strickland House and Centennial Park,” says Paul de Carvalho, director, production attraction, at the New South Wales Film And Television Office. Strickland House was used to recreate Darwin Government House; Camelot, a private property in historic Camden on the outskirts of Sydney, became Lady Ashley’s English upper-class country home; the Fox Studios lot was also used as cattle yards and horse training grounds. No stranger to blockbusters, New South Wales and Fox Studios also hosted the Marvel movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, directed by Gavin Hood and starring Hugh Jackman. With a 300-person crew and a 10-week shoot, Wolverine filmed at the disused Naval base on Cockatoo Island, in the middle of the photogenic Sydney harbor, to create a story that spans centuries. A pine forest in Centennial Park was used for a scene set in the US at the end of the 19th century, and the private home of Brownlow Hill, on the western edge of Sydney, was used to recreate a WW1 trench, an American Civil War battlefield and an African jungle. Brownlow Hill was also a location for Australia. Over 50% of Australian film and television businesses and more than 70% of post-production companies are based in New South Wales. The NSW State incentive (FIAF) is offered on top of the federal Location Offset of 15%. And the region’s new Producer’s Offset and co-production opportunities, offer funding to international producers looking at working in the Australian market. The Australian Government actively supports the film industry,
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Where else can you find a spectacular range of stunning and unique locations, state-of-the-art studios, world-class talent and leading production and postproduction houses all just a few minutes from the world’s most famous beach?
SYDNEY... WHERE EVERYONE IS LAID BACK AND EVERYTHING IS LAID ON. NSW Film and Television Office T. +61 2 9264 6400 www.FilmInSydney.com
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countrywide,
and provides tax incentives to private sector investors and assistance to training bodies. Direct government funding for production is principally through the Film Finance Corporation. In 2006-07, government funding represented 17% of the total funding for Australian-produced and co-produced feature films. And from the start of last year, Australia’s three main screen agencies, Film Australia, the Australian Film Commission and Film Finance Corporation Australia, merged into one agency. The new ‘super agency’, the Australian Screen Authority (ASA), focuses on development, marketing, and strategic planning for the industry in Australia. The move comes with an overhaul to the tax incentives and direct-funding mechanisms for local and foreign productions that, it was predicted at the time, would inject an extra AUS$283m ($232m) into the flagging local industry. Brian Rosen, CEO of the Film Finance Corporation in Australia (FFC), predicted at the launch of the AFA that production could rise to 40 films a year in four years as a result of the enterprise. Another example of State Government support of the film industry exists in South Australia where the South Australia Film Commission (SAFC) offers a production incentive provided by way of a payroll tax exemption. The SAFC also provides equity investment in feature films, as well as a revolving loan facility that can be used, for example, to cash flow distribution guarantees. But as any location scout will tell you, it’s not all about incentives. If a production finds the right place to shoot, it will do all it can to stay there. And South Australia claims unique and diverse locations that can’t be replicated elsewhere, for example the white salt plains of Lake Gairdner, the rock formations of the Flinders Ranges, and the red earth around Coober Pedy. Shot in South Australia, Last Ride, from first-time feature director Glendyn Ivin – winner of the Palme D’Or award for his short film Crackerbag at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival – is a contemporary road movie about a young boy and his father on the run from the law. Originally due to shoot across three Australian states, the producers were so impressed with the local landscapes that the film was shot entirely in South Australia. The six-week shoot stayed put, using locations in the Flinders Ranges,
MIRACLES DO HAPPEN, BUT SOMETIMES IT’S WORTH GIVING NATURE A HELPING HAND including Quorn, Wilpena Pound and Leigh Creek, as well as Woomera and Lake Gairdner. Celina Janjic, executive producer at Boomerang Productions in Sydney, says that while the global economic downturn is being felt everywhere, Australia remains attractive because of the low dollar, and New South Wales – and Sydney – in particular, because of the weather. “Our talent fees tend to be less than America, and Australia has a wonderful talent pool,” Janjic says. “Sometimes we get big studio jobs in summer or winter just because of the talent needed for the job, and affordability. Locations, weather and talent are the biggest draw cards.” The area is a regular draw for commercials production too. RSA Films recently shot a spot for Cathay Pacific Airlines in Sydney, directed by Laurence Dunmore. “This commercial required a slick but generic city which Sydney does very well,” Janjic says. “We needed hundreds
of extras running down the middle of a street, in the middle of the city. We were able to shut down four-way intersections and a large mall, and had our cast and action vehicles take over that part of the city on the weekend, which really impressed our clients and the director.” A commercial for Pfizer, shot with Los Angeles production company Form and directed by Gary McKendry, required a romantic beach hut on a tropical island, along with a traditional American suburban home and neighborhood. “We were able to get access to one of the most exclusive islands in Queensland, which was paradise I might add, and we shot the American home and street in Sydney,” Janjic says. “This job had an extremely quick turnaround, and we took 14 flights over a two week period. Tropical islands are of course logistically challenging when you have a large crew and lots of equipment. We did pull off a miracle with this one.” Miracles do happen, but sometimes it’s worth giving nature a helping hand. Queensland’s permanent outdoor water tank, one of a kind in Australia and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, has already hosted three major productions since it was built in 2007. Each production has used the facility for very different purposes, justifying the investment decision by the Queensland Government’s Pacific Film And Television Commission (PFTC), and Warner Roadshow Studios (WRS). The new tank, and the existing two tanks and eight sound stages at WRS, complement Queensland’s varied and abundant natural water locations. “When you combine our coastal locations with Australia’s largest and only permanent outdoor water tank you have the ideal infrastructure for water-based filming,” says PFTC CEO Robin James. The first production to film in the tank was the Warner Bros. feature Fool’s Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson and Donald Sutherland. Warner Bros. was one of the initial investors in the
An example of the spectacular underwater filming for Nim’s Island, shot in Warner Roadshow Studio’s tank in Queensland
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infrastructure, which was built in 2007. Fool’s Gold di-
rector Andy Tennant said the tank made the filming process less complicated. “Having the tank facility means we can get close-ups that aren’t possible when you are filming underwater in the ocean and can’t control the clarity of the water.” The underwater sequences featuring a live sea lion and starring Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster in Walden Media’s Nim’s Island were filmed during a twoweek shoot in the tank, in September 2007. Nim’s Island producer Paula Mazur said the tank was an important factor in deciding to film in Queensland. “The huge outdoor water tank was integral for filming our underwater scenes. We were also able to build enclosures for the sea lions and pelicans nearby, which is an unusual request to make to a studio,” she said. Andrew Morris, executive producer at production company Luscious International, based in Redfern, New South Wales, says Australia is always in demand if you want diverse locations paired with a very skilled production base. “Big blockbuster films like Superman and Mission Impossible are shot in Australia because we have great technicians who are very experienced and are cost effective on bigger jobs. The exchange rate also provides significant cost savings to foreign productions.” Luscious International has shot all over Australia and New Zealand, but Morris says his favorite locations are those that are “challenging and beautiful with unexpected qualities that please our clients and add that little bit extra”. A notable production for Luscious was a commercial shot
in the streets of the Sydney business district that involved a large number of Sumo wrestlers running down a main street, taking off into the air and taking the form of a large plane. “The spot was set to air globally during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics so we had a immovable deadline to work to,” Morris says. “The turnaround was extremely fast; we had four weeks from briefing to having a finished spot, but we got the job done.” The movie Knowing from Summit Entertainment – starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Alex Proyas, for release this year – filmed for 11 weeks in Victoria, the home of another famous Australian city, Melbourne. The city, which doubled for Boston, was required to close a number of streets simultaneously for the shoot. The production also enjoyed the private use of a multi-lane freeway for several days, on which to shoot a plane crash scene; access to a city train station; and completed three days of filming at Melbourne University. Another recent production to visit Melbourne was Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s World War II miniseries The Pacific. “When HBO Films came to Australia to scout locations for The Pacific they were considering Melbourne to film only the Melbourne scripted sequences,” says John Nicoll, general manager of the Melbourne Film Office. “After visiting the city however, they were so impressed with the diversity of locations and what local crews could offer, they decided to base the entire production in Victoria and filmed 80% of the series here.” As a war epic, The Pacific required expansive battlefield locations, which they
Film
MONTEREY COUNTY We’re camera-ready!
www.FilmMonterey.org See our locations video online.
831-646-0910 Monterey, California
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One of the sets for the Spielberg/ Hanks/Goetzman production of The Pacific, the sequel to Band Of Brothers
found just 40 miles west of Melbourne. A sand quarry
in a small rocky mountain range became the centre playing field for the miniseries’ key battle scenes. This was accessed within 50 minutes via a freeway from the production’s base at Melbourne’s Central City Studios. The Pacific also utilized Melbourne’s city streetscapes. One episode had US Marines arriving in Melbourne for some rest and relaxation. For an entire weekend one of Melbourne’s busiest streets, adjacent to the central train station, was transformed into the same city 60 years earlier. “The Pacific placed very real pressure on the PFTC not only in regard to the logistics of successfully attracting and hosting the production, but also with the responsibility of doing its incredible true stories justice,” Robin James says. There were environmental issues to be taken into consideration too. These included the need for environmental impact studies of land and water in the immediate area to fully understand the nature of the resident and transitory animal life – including rare and endangered species – and vegetation. The various agencies involved wanted to know, for example, what vehicles, props, set pieces and other materials that would come into contact with the local water. But the production was sympathetic to the environmental issues and committed to a three-year re-vegetation agreement for the site.Another significant benefit of the production’s decision to locate in Victoria was the opportunity it provided PFTC employee, Jess Conoplia, now executive manager locations and international production at the commission, to work on the project. Conoplia took leave from the commission and worked in the film’s locations department for six months, returning with greater insight into the production machine. “The role of a film commission is very often one of a mediator between a production company and a government agency, as agencies cannot be expected to have personnel solely designated to addressing film production inquiries. My experience on The Pacific has proved invaluable in aiding this process,” Conoplia says. “As well as obvious benefits to productions coming into a commission’s
geographic zone, it is also helpful for government agencies to know they can call on commission staff to discuss filming procedures and to help develop policy or guidelines to ensure future filming is as smooth as possible.” The Melbourne Film Office administers the Victoria State Government’s two financial incentive funds – the Production Attraction Incentive Fund (PIAF) and the Regional Location Assistance Fund (RLAF). The PIAF grant is designed to attract interstate or offshore productions to film or post produce in Melbourne; and the RLAF grant is designed to encourage productions to use locations outside metropolitan Melbourne. To be eligible the project must use regional Victoria locations during principal photography for a minimum of five shooting days. Both grants can be combined with any one of the Australian Government’s three tax incentive programs – the 40% Producer Offset, 15% Location Offset or the 15% Post, Digital and Visual Effects Offset. “The City of Melbourne is a vibrant cosmopolitan city that can double for many European capitals. It has historical and modern landscapes and streetscapes and a diverse population of over a hundred and fifty nationalities,” says Joe Connor, executive producer at Renegade Films, based in Prahran, Victoria. “The surrounding countryside ranges from rugged coastlines to gentle rolling hills and giant rainforests and snowfields and is ideal for shooting out of season for northern hemisphere producers. And that’s just Melbourne ... the rest of Australia offers a phenomenal range of unique landscapes and locations.” One of Renegade’s most recent productions was with leading British director Tony Kaye for Nissan. “Tony fell in love with Melbourne, the crews and the locations as well as the open mike bars!” Connor says. “Melbourne is the home of live music in Australia and few people leave unimpressed with what the city has to offer at every level.” I
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THEY SAY LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES THE SAME PLACE TWICE.
YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT. WE UNDERSTAND DEDICATION. Filmmakers often go to extraordinary lengths to get the perfect shot in the can. Members of the KODAK IMAGECARE Program also go to extraordinary lengths to make sure your film is processed to worldwide standards of uncompromising quality. So you can worry about the weather, lighting, mosquitoes, catering or whatever. But when it comes to processing, relax. You can rest assured that a KODAK IMAGECARE Program accredited laboratory is as dedicated to the art of filmmaking as you are. Find your nearest participating laboratory at www.kodak.com/go/imagecare
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LOCATIONS MAGAZINE HAS TEAMED UP WITH FILM COMMISSIONS, LOCATION SCOUTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS, TO BRING YOU IMAGES OF STUNNING LOCATIONS AROUND THE WORLD. SOME ARE WELL-TRODDEN BY FILM CREWS, OTHERS STILL TO BE MADE FAMOUS ON THE BIG OR SMALL SCREEN...
LOCATIONS IN PICTURES
HOSPITAL DE LA SANTA CREU I SANT PAU, BARCELONA, SPAIN This picture shows the main entrance of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. The building features in Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen; The Magic Tale by Jordi Llompart; and Manuale d'amore 2 (Capitoli successivi) by Giovanni Veronesi. Situated in the centre of the city, it is based on the original 15th century gothic hospital building. The new version, designed by Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, was built between 1903 and 1930. An important example of Catalan Modernism, it was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997 for its architectural and artistic beauty. Photo: Espai d'Imatge (Turisme de Barcelona)
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THE BRIDGE OF FEUGH, ABERDEEN This photograph looks up to the Bridge Of Feugh in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Films shot in the area include Local Hero by Bill Forsyth, The Queen by Stephen Frears, The Last Of The Blond Bombshells by Gillies MacKinnon, and most recently, One Day Removals by Mark Stirton. But the bridge has never been featured. The Bridge Of Feugh is a stone-built footbridge spanning the River Dee and is a popular spot for tourists wanting to watch salmon leap. The area is also the perfect base for filming Royal Deeside, the magnificent Cairngorms National Park and the stunning coastline of the North East of Scotland. The royal Balmoral estate is 20 miles away — and there are even gritty urban locations nearby. With its 5,000 years of history Aberdeenshire has many standing stones, is home to over 70 Castles — more Castles per acre than any other part of the UK. Photo: courtesy of Emma McGuire, senior photographer, Aberdeenshire Council
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QUEENSTOWN GARDENS AND LAKE WAKATIPU, NEW ZEALAND This photo shows Queenstown Gardens and Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, Otago, on the south island of New Zealand. Most recently the area is known for the stunning locations it provided for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and the Chronicles Of Narnia series of feature films. A variety of high-end commercials have also shot on and around Lake Wakatipu. The shooting of international television commercials and large-budget films has helped to build a legacy of expertise in Queenstown – which now claims one of the highest concentrations of film and commercials professionals in New Zealand. A resort town of 15,000 people, Queenstown is an adventure tourism destination with world-class accommodation, bars and restaurants. Southern New Zealand offers stunning, pristine alpine landscapes, majestic jagged fiords, rocky crags, waterfalls, rivers, beaches, farms, vineyards and towns. Š Natalie Crane, Film New Zealand
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EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND This photo was taken from Calton Hill which is a public park at the east end of Princes Street, and offers the classic establishing shot of Edinburgh showing the Old and New Town, and views to the Forth River and countryside to the south of the City. Feature films shot in Edinburgh include Trainspotting by Danny Boyle, Jude by Michael Winterbottom and Hallam Foe by David Mackenzie. The city has also been used in countless TV series, many with a theme of mystery. Edinburgh and surrounding areas offer cityscapes, dramatic coastlines, unspoilt Georgian architecture, grand mansion houses, ruined and inhabited castles, and soft rolling countryside, all within an hour of base. © City Brand Library / Edinburgh Inspiring Capital
BIXBY BRIDGE, MONTEREY COUNTY, USA This is a view of the famous Bixby Bridge in the Big Sur coastal area of Monterey County. The bridge has been used in commercials for pretty well every automobile company over the years. The meadow in the foreground is part of the Brazil Ranch – which is now US Forest Service land but used to be the ranch property of Alan Funt, well known in the US for the Candid Camera TV show. © Courtesy, Karen Nordstrand, Monterey County Film Commission
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MYAKKA RIVER STATE PARK, FLORIDA, USA This photo is of the treetop canopy of the Myakka River State Park jungle about 30 minutes from Sarasota, Florida, USA. A number of jungle movies, as well as commercials and stills shoots have taken place here. People choose to film here because although it is close to every convenience and a great deal of abovethe-line luxury, including the nearby The Ritz-Carlton hotel, it is a wild jungle with a fabulous treetop canopy, winding river, airboats, aligators, marshlands and more. As the Sarasota County Film & Entertainment Office put it: you can “fake the ‘remote’ jungle with every creature comfort waiting for you nearby”. © Tina Shumway, Film Commission Co-ordinator of the Sarasota County Film & Entertainment Office
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THE BEGUINAGE OF BRUGES, BELGIUM This photograph was taken in the courtyard/inner court of the Beguinage of Bruges. The Beguinage was founded in 1245 by Margaret, Countess of Constantinople, to bring together the Beguines of Bruges, many of whom were widows of Crusaders. To quote Jean-Pierre Drubbel, head of the Bruges Film Office: “The Beguinage, one of Bruges’s most beguiling sights, celebrated for the infectious tranquility of its spirit of place. An island in the city, accessed by a bridge and a gatehouse.” Some parts of the movie In Bruges, by Martin McDonagh, were shot in the Beguinage, but were left out of the final cut. © Jan Darthet - Toerisme Brugge
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CHAMPOTON, YUCATAN PENINSULA, MEXICO This photo was taken in Champoton, which is a developing village 36 miles south of Campeche city on the East coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. No film production has shot here, and the Campeche State Government seeks to promote it as one of Mexico’s unknown spectacular locations. The city of Campeche, on the other hand, has recently been used to portray Cuba in films like The Argentine by Steven Soderbergh and Original Sin by Michael Cristofer, and has the infrastructure to sustain a production of any size. © Tourism Bureau of the Campeche State Government
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, CENTRAL SERBIA This is the crypt of St. George’s Church in the Oplenac Royal Mausoleum located in Central Serbia, less than an hour’s drive from Belgrade. The Mausoleum has thus far been off limits for film producers, and had been used only for documentary and educational productions. But this is one of many new locations that the new Serbia Film Commission is now able to make available for film, television and commercial productions. It’s the kind of place where James Bond would meet his confidential Russian informer ... opulent and decadent. The Mausoleum is famous for 513 mosaics on the walls (212 are in the crypt itself) that were made out of 40 million colored pieces of glass which have 15 thousand different varieties of colors. When lit, there is an explosion of light and color. © Oplenac Foundation
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LA COMUNA SANTO DOMINGO, COLOMBIA This photo was taken in La Comuna Santo Domingo, north east of Medellín City. The Film Rosario Tijeras, a Mexico-Colombian co-production directed by Emilio Maillé, was shot here; this photo was taken during the scout for Killing Pablo’s, a project in progress to be directed by Joe Carnahan. The Metro Cable, in shot, is a cable car constructed to take people uphill to their homes. During the 1980s, this was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Colombia, where Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín cartel, fought his war. Today, it has enjoyed some regeneration and the Metro Cable is one of the city’s tourist attractions. At the top of the hill there is a public library, donated by the government of Spain. The neighborhood has kept its Eighties look, perfect for films that recreate this era. © Silvia Echeverri / Colombian Film Commission
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NEMIAH VALLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA This photo was shot facing south west in the Nemiah Valley, looking towards Chilko Lake in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia. Walt Disney’s The Bears And I, and, within a few miles, segments of Kundun by Martin Scorsese, Seven Years In Tibet by Jean-Jacques Annaud, K2 by Franc Roddam, shot here – as well as a number of documentaries and commercials. A raw, rugged wilderness, the area has a few diverse looks, it’s not under any commercial airways and, as locals say, “the only sounds you hear will be your own”. © David Jacobson
THE BLACK CHURCH AT BÚOIR, ICELAND The Black Church at Búoir (English spelling: Budir) is a beautiful specimen of a 19th century country church – one of the oldest wooden churches in Iceland that is still standing. The muchphotographed church is on Iceland’s Snaefellsnes peninsular, a beautiful rugged arm of the Icelandic west coast that juts out into the Atlantic between Faxafloi Bay and Breidafjordur. The area is typified by big lava fields and beaches. Snaefells Glacier is close by which gives this area a stunning backdrop. The movie 101 Reykjavik by Baltasar Kormákur was shot here, as was a commercial for Telefonica by the late Paul Arden. © Rafnar Hermannsson, Truenorth
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ROCK CITY, MONTANA, USA This photo was taken in Rock City, near Valier Montana in north central Montana. This place has never been filmed, although it was scouted for Starship Troopers by Paul Verhoeven and Galaxy Quest by Dean Parisot. This location boasts four acres of bizarre rock formations that you can easily get lost in. It is owned by the state of Montana, and has never before been shot as a filming location. If you need the look of another planet, this is it. Š Lonie Stimac - Montana Film Office
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SHERIDAN, NORTH WYOMING, USA This photo was taken in the north Wyoming town of Sheridan. It’s an aerial image of Trail End mansion and grounds. Trail End is so far an undiscovered location, and nothing significant has shot there yet. “It’s a State Historic Site,” says Colin Stricklin, Film, Arts, & Entertainment Specialist at Wyoming Travel And Tourism. “It’s a 13,748 square foot Flemish Revival mansion. There are artifacts in every room, manicured lawns, well kept gardens, a carriage house ... and it’s film friendly. Plus, if you happen to need some English countryside, the town of Sheridan offers some of the best rolling hills you can find anywhere. If you’re looking to film a period piece, Trail End has everything you’ll need.” © Trail End State Historic Site
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GRAMPIANS NATIONAL PARK, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA This photo was taken at Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia. Where The Wild Things Are by Spike Jonze, Ned Kelly by Gregor Jordan, and Three Dollars directed by Robert Connolly all shot here. The majestic Grampians National Park and nearby Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park have striking rock faces, green fern-covered forests and spectacular waterways that offer a wonderful backdrop for filming. Many of the nearby towns were settled during the gold rush and, as a result, have heritage main streets with verandas, traditional corner pubs and original farmhouses. The farmland surrounding the National Park is planted with a wide variety of crops including wheat, olives and vines. © Courtesy Tourism Victoria
CALEDON, ONTARIO, CANADA This photo was taken at Caledon, Ontario, Canada, a rural feeder-town area within an hour’s drive of Toronto. Located northwest of Toronto in Ontario’s Peel Region, Caledon is a picturesque, small provincial town, surrounded by several similar quaint country villages. The area is ideal for day-trippers looking to get out of the city, breathe fresh air and soak up some rural charm. Caledon is located along the 700 km (450 mi) long Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO Biosphere reserve with unique rock formations, waterfalls and more. © Oliver JG Nurock
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KANGAROO POINT, BRISBANE This photo was taken from Kangaroo Point, looking over the Brisbane River and Brisbane CBD. Productions that have shot in Brisbane include the feature films Daybreakers by Michael Spierig, Fools’ Gold by Andy Tennant, and The Great Raid by John Dahl, and Scooby Doo II by Raja Gosnell. TV series include The Starter Wife with Debra Messing. Brisbane is Queensland’s capital city and offers productions a range of diverse and accessible locations. The sub-tropical climate boasts an average of 300 days of sunshine a year. The film friendly approach taken by the local council and state government, combined with terrific weather is a major draw card for any production. Brisbane’s International Airport is less than 45 minutes drive from the world-renowned Gold Coast, which boasts the world class Warner Roadshow Studios. © Lindy Burton
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STATE HIGHWAY 62/180, EL PASO, USA This photo shows State Highway 62/180, El Paso, Texas, with Guadalupe Mountains National Park in background. The location has been used in the TV series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; the feature films Dead Man’s Walk by Yves Simoneau, Blue Sky by Tony Richardson, and Lolita by Adrian Lyne; and numerous commercials. The location is valued for its dramatic look and “middle of nowhere” feel. Capitan Peak at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park is the highest peak in Texas. This area is also close to a Salt Flat area, which is very popular with filmmakers for its lone cafes and deserted gas stations. © R. Michael Charske, location manager
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HINCHINBROOK ISLAND, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA This Photo was taken on Hinchinbrook Island, Missionary Bay, Queensland, Australia. It is uninhabited except for the award-winning, environmentally friendly Hinchinbrook Island Wilderness Lodge at Cape Richards. The Island abounds in flora, fauna, palm-fringed beaches, mangrove waterways and rugged granite crags. Location manager Gareth Price, who took this photo, describes the place as “one of the most stunning places on earth, where you feel immersed in nature. Not the easiest place to film but one of the most rewarding”. He adds: “Filming in Hinchinbrook region requires a team effort and I had fantastic help from local and state authorities, which made it a breeze.” Nims’s Island by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin was shot here. © Gareth Price
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VALPARAISO, CHILE This photo was taken in Valparaiso, a principal port of Chile – about 100km from the capital, Santiago – and a UNICEF World Heritage Site. The architecture shown is typical of the area. Valparaíso hosted some 20 commercial and movie shoots last year. Many of these projects were foreign, and most took advantage of the city’s varied neighborhoods, hills and plazas to portray countries ranging from Russia to Brazil. An advertisement for the athletic drink Powerade – that ran during the Beijing Olympic Games – was filmed in the port city. © ProChile
BATH, AVON, ENGLAND This photo was shot from the corner of the Great Bath, showing the upper terrace of the Roman Baths in the city of Bath in Avon, south west England. The terrace was added by the Victorians after the bathing and religious complex was rediscovered in 1879. Feature films shot here include 80,000 Suspects by Val Guest, Joseph Andrews by Tony Richardson, and Agatha by Michal Apted. The TV series Bonekickers shot here too, as well as a number of travel programs and documentaries. The Baths are fed by the only natural hot spring in Britain, with water rising at about 47º Celsius, creating atmospheric swirls of steam on cold days. The site has extensive Roman remains, the Precinct of the Temple of Sulis Minerva; and the beautiful Georgian pump rooms, where the aristocracy used to come and take the waters. © Rachel Bowers, Film Liaison Officer for Bath & North East Somerset Council
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LO CAT I O N S I N P I C T U R E S COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, ENGLAND Entitled Covent Garden at dawn. This is a shot of the Grade II listed Covent Garden market place. The building has retained the wrought ironwork beam; glass work ceiling and flag stone flooring. Bookended by the Covent Garden Piazza this remains a uniquely pedestrianised area of London. Regularly filled with street performers, a wealth of market stalls and large crowds of people, this market place is very much a hub of the UK capital. Frenzy by Alfred Hitchock shot here. The market remains a classic example of Victorian London. From period films and dramas through to magazine and documentary TV programs, Covent Garden offers the perfect backdrop to a famous part of London. Š Film London / Jamie Lumley
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A story that ends with a smile
Long the backdrop to other people’s dreams, The Bahamas is now dreaming of a world-class production industry of its own. The catalyst is Rain, the country’s first international film release – and, Joanna Stephens reports, it is opening the creative floodgates NOT MANY people know this, but you can see The Bahamas from the moon. “Fact,” insists the islands’ film commissioner, Craig Woods. “When the astronauts took pictures of the Earth during the first moon landing, the thing that showed up most clearly was the turquoise waters of The Bahamas.” He pauses reflectively. “I can’t think of a better endorsement than that, can you?” Woods is running through his country’s location credentials, ticking off the boxes of strategic location (Miami in 55 minutes, London in nine hours), experienced crews and talent, a welcoming film-friendly population, a strong currency and a tempting package of government incentives. “And we also do the ‘hot look’ better than any other location in the world,” he adds. He is probably right. As many a film crew and honeymooner will testify, The Bahamas is meltingly beautiful. It is, in short, the cover girl of the Caribbean. Strung over 1,500 sq miles of tropical sea, the seven hundred islands, cays and rocky outcrops that make up the archipelago comprise just 5,382 sq miles of land and are home to a mere 300,000 people. Each island, however, offers its own special version of paradise – its own personality, culture and, in the words of a recent tourism campaign, “stories that start with a smile”. The Bahamas is not one destination, but several hundred destinations, gift-wrapped in jade waters, coral reefs and cooling trade winds. It is no surprise, then, that many of the world’s top filmmakers have responded to the siren call of The Bahamas, or that the islands have served as a backcloth to such monster franchises as James Bond and The Pirates Of The Caribbean. Woods reports that, in 2008 alone, six major feature films have been shot in The Bahamas, including Spike Lee’s Second World War epic Miracle At St. Anna; Universal Pictures’ big-business drama Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen; and Anthony D’Souza’s underwater
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thriller Blue, said to be the costliest Bollywood movie ever. But what is odd is that this filmmaking paradise has not spawned a bona-fide film production industry of its own. Until now, that is. Rain is one of the first indigenous feature films to come out of The Bahamas – and certainly the first to have made an international impact. Written, directed and produced by local filmmaker Maria Govan, the movie debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last October, where it garnered a standing ovation, critical acclaim and the expectation of a lot more festival play to come. Not bad for what Woods describes as a “lowbudget movie with a big-budget script”. And even better for a film that portrays a gritty reality far removed from the picture-postcard Bahamas promulgated by most film, TV and commercial productions. The action centers on Rain, a feisty 14-year-old with a passion for running, who lives a simple, sheltered life with her grandmother on Ragged Island. Following her grandmother’s death, Rain sets off to find her mother, Glory, who abandoned her as a toddler for the glamorous world of Nassau. But
EACH ISLAND OFFERS ITS OWN SPECIAL VERSION OF PARADISE Rain’s illusions are shattered when she finally tracks down Glory to the ghettos of the city. Here, in the shadow of the golden beaches and gilded tourists, Rain finds her mother living in an underworld of drugs, HIV, prostitution and poverty. To escape from Glory’s self-destructive lifestyle, Rain turns to running, where she finds two new friends and allies: an inspiring track coach and a charming, rebellious teenager. The setting for the film has a personal resonance for Govan, who spent four years in
close contact with Nassau’s disenfranchised underclass while making her documentary, Where I’m From: HIV And AIDS In The Bahamas. Exploring this eco-system of crack addiction, sexual exploitation, disease and broken lives was, she says, a profound and harrowing experience – but one that gave her “an enormous gift in return: the inspiration for Rain”. “I really wanted to represent this world on film,” Govan continues. “As a director, I’m committed to making films that break through the postcard image of our islands and illuminate the many dimensions of our history, culture and life, especially in those communities that are tucked away from foreign eyes. A lot of Bahamian mothers are struggling with crack addiction; and it’s also common here for young people to be raised by their grandparents. It’s also, unfortunately, common for fathers to be entirely absent from the scene. Then, for some reason, we have a lot of fast female runners in The Bahamas, and I thought that would be a good way to show the islands filmically... So Rain has a lot of Bahamian nuances, both visually and textually, but I think the actual story is entirely universal.” It took Govan a year to write the screenplay. In 2005, Rain was chosen for the Bahamas Film Development Workshop and the project gradually began to gather momentum. Producers Frank Kuzler, Molly Mayeux, and Nate and Pamela Kohn came on board – as did the local community which, drawn to Govan’s energy and enthusiasm, and the opportunity to be part of a film that, as Woods puts it, “tells our island story”, stepped in with both financial and practical support. Woods was also a staunch ally. Govan has nothing but praise: “Craig is wonderful. He’s incredibly accommodating and really knows what he’s doing. In fact, the Bahamian government is very helpful to filmmakers in general – for example, they offer a 17% refund on anything that you spend on filming in
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Glory in the graveyard
Rain, filmed off East Street in Nassau
Rain sits on Western Esplanard Beach
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“quiet on the set” isn’t necessary when the set leaves you speechless.
With gorgeous views, English-speaking crews, white sand beaches and very little red tape—there are so many reasons you’ll love filming here, even when you’re not filming. For more information about the U.S. Virgin Islands, call the USVI Film Office at 340-775-1444 or visit www.filmusvi.com.
©2009 United States Virgin Islands Department of Tourism.
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The crew film at Potter’s Cay in Nassau
the country. And to me, as a local filmmaker, they were just amazing.” The casting process was the next hurdle. The US actress Nicki Micheaux (Six Feet Under, Soul Food) landed the role of Glory; the legendary Irma P Hall (The Ladykillers, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil) was drafted in to play the grandmother; and CCH Pounder (The Shield, Postcards From The Edge) came in as Rain’s track coach, Ms Adam. All that remained was to find Rain herself. Govan was convinced there was a local girl out there somewhere who could handle the part – some 200 auditions later, she was proved right when a soft-spoken 14-year-old called Renel Brown walked into her office. Brown’s raw talent was immediately obvious, but she was also totally inexperienced, with nothing more than couple of school plays to her credit. Entrusting the lead role to a novice was a bold decision, but one that Govan has had no cause to regret. “In the end, Renel amazed us all,” she says. Filming, which began in early 2007, took place on two islands: Eleuthera, which doubled for Ragged Island, and New Providence, home to Nassau. It was to prove a challenging experience. The schedule was wildly ambitious, the logistics military in their scope and complexity, and money tight. Every piece of equipment had to be shipped in on barges from Florida. Even the honeywagon had to be driven from Los Angeles to Miami before it could be freighted out to Nassau. And that was before the real work started. Location manager Martina Carroll takes up the story. “We had 26 days in which to shoot 46 locations, which is close to two different locations a day. The challenge when shooting to that sort of schedule is mobilisation. Every time you wrap, it takes an hour to pack up, an hour to
WE USED REAL ADDICTS, AND I THINK YOU REALLY FEEL THAT IN THE FILM transport everything to another location, and an hour to set it all up again. So you’re losing three hours of actual filming time a day. Also, moving is very disruptive for the crew, who lose concentration and rhythm. That loses more time, so the days tend to get very long and people get very tired – and tired people get grumpy and work more slowly...” The brutal schedule eventually took its toll on Brown, many of whose scenes involved running – often in the rain. CCH Pounder jokes that Govan was on a mission to make both actresses run past “every monument in town... I thought I’d be on the sidelines with my whistle”. By the end of filming, Brown had developed serious bronchitis, which halted principal photography two days early. A second unit had to be re-assembled several months later, after the hurricane season had ended. Meanwhile, everybody crossed their fingers that Brown wouldn’t undergo a teenage growth spurt. Carroll, however, thinks the hiatus may have been a blessing. “By the end of filming, all of us were totally wiped out,” she says. “That break gave Maria time to go back and look at her movie with a fresh eye. It enabled her to pick up those scenes – many of them beauty shots – that we’d had to drop from the original schedule because of lack of time and budget.” But there were good times, too. Carroll remembers shooting in the village of
Gambier with particular affection. “The people there were just wonderful,” she says. They were so happy and excited that we were there. A film crew can be pretty invasive and people often aren’t prepared for the reality of filming. They don’t realise it frequently starts at 04.00 and goes on all night. You have to be a diplomat, sometimes, to keep everybody happy...” Govan recalls a scene shot during rehearsals for the Junkanoo street parade, a Mardi Gras-style brew of music, dance and elaborate costumes that takes place every Boxing Day. “It was almost guerrilla filming,” she says. “There were hundreds of people playing music around us – it was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other – and we just launched Nicki into this mad environment. But it worked and I think that scene has real sense of authenticity as a result.” Another scene that is totally, and chillingly, authentic is one showing people using crack cocaine. “We used real addicts,” Govan says. “And I think you really feel that in the film.” Carroll admits that she found some of the “grittier” locations daunting. “In the ghetto areas, space is tight. That means you have to spread your equipment out more; put one truck on this corner and another over there... And that makes it harder to keep an eye on everything.” “At times it was incredibly challenging,” Govan agrees. “We would run out of money and have to go out and find enough to keep working... “But this film has always had a spirit of its own. And the thing I’m most proud of is that we never gave up.” So Govan’s “small but wonderful idea”, in the words of CCH Pounder, made the tortuous journey from script to screen. And in its slipstream, surprising things are happening. For Bahamians, Rain has been a lesson in self-esteem, proving that their country has both the will and the way to make world-class movies. “I think we are beginning to see the creation of a true Bahamian film industry,” says Chris Mortimer, one of Rain’s executive producers. “I’m talking about films that are written and directed by Bahamians.” Owen Bethel of Bahamas FilmInvest – another Rain exec producer – reports that he has already received several inquiries from filmmakers interested in having indigenous projects funded via his organisation. He adds that Bahamas FilmInvest is also working with another local director, Kareem Mortimer, who recently completed filming the characterdriven epic Daybreak on the islands. The Bahamian film industry will “certainly take a while” to develop, Bethel says realistically. “I would be cautious to say that we are in the embryonic stage, but it is critical that we nourish it.” Govan, for one, will be doing her bit. “I really want to make another film in The Bahamas,” she says. “I’m desperate to, actually. These islands are so rich in material. They have so many stories I’d just love to tell.” I
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FEATURE
FANTASY ISLANDS Film Commissioners from all over the world gathered in Wellington, New Zealand, in November last year for the annual AFCI Cineposium. Discussions and workshops were, as always, focused on the global industry, while special attention was paid to these very special islands in a number of sessions. Once the event was over, many took the opportunity to take a look at this extraordinary country. Debbie Lincoln did the same, and found a filmmakers’ paradise
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Batch Film’s shoot with director Sam Brown and Rogue Films out of London for the UK Lottery, a nine-day shoot that took in locations across the country
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The Tongaporutu coastal cliffs and caves in Taranaki. JoyRide’s Anzak Tindall says: “Spot the elephant. Funny, we were doing an Indian shoot and there it was!”
A
LL THE hype you might have heard about New Zealand is true. Beautiful, peaceful, friendly, sparsely-populated, in many ways frozen-in-time and un-damaged by the frantic pace of life that exists in so many other parts of the world. It is all of this, and it is also the perfect place to make a film. Yes, it’s miles away from so many places, but once you’re there you have everything. And now there’s a strong production infrastructure too. Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy, along with the Narnia movies and other recent triumphs have together served to strengthen already well-developed local production services that can offer everything to the biggest of bigbudget blockbusters. It’s a long flight for many of us, but once you’re there, life is sweet. Much of the appeal for filmmakers is the variety of locations available – from cosmopolitan urban to rainforest, and everything in-between – and the relative ease
IT’S A LONG FLIGHT FOR MANY OF US, BUT ONCE YOU’RE THERE, LIFE IS SWEET with which crews can get to these, often remote places. “Recently we completed a shoot for Indian advertising agency, Ogilvy Mumbai, for the 4x4 vehicle manufacturer Tata,” says Anzak Tindall, executive producer at JoyRide Films, which is based in Auckland on the North Island. “This was achieved on a tight budget shooting three days on the road with a small select crew based out of Auckland, covering to distance of around 1,000km. During this shoot we shot in three main regions of the North Island – Rotorua, Central Plateau and Taranaki. The client’s script read like a travelog, asking the question: ’If you looked back on your life, what would you remember?’ New Zealand was a logical choice for the agency as the scenes’ requirements included locations such as mature Redwood forest interior; crystal blue river flowing f ro m n a t u ra l u n d e rg ro u n d s p r i n g s ; s n ow y
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The new villas at the Sunset Marquis. Lush green gardens. Colorful new rooms. Pallid British rock stars.
Unique. Even by Hollywood standards. 1200 Alta Loma Road, West Hollywood, CA 90069 310.657.1333 sunsetmarquishotel.com
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mountainside;
prayer flags with Himalayan style mountain backdrop; and a campsite fire burning in a desert landscape.” Tindall says the agency was in awe of how much the landscape changed as they passed through the country, and of what they could achieve in relatively short driving distances. “Many new ideas presented themselves along the way,” Tindall says. “After three days we finished up with more material than could ever be used in the limited 50 seconds we had for the commercial, and then it was a hard task to work out what to drop. The spot is now playing nationwide in India and is a great testament to what a bountiful country New Zealand is. It really was a rich and rewarding film shoot for all involved, and it proved that you don’t have to have a massive budget in New Zealand to have an exceptional creative experience.” Tindall says that “demand from foreign productions has slowed some”, because of the global economic recession, along with the perception from earlier in 2008 that the New Zealand dollar was too high. “But our dollar has now pegged back significantly and those realizing the benefits of such a wonderful variety of accessible locations in relatively close travel space are being rewarded by going the distance.” Paul Prince, CEO of commercials production company The Sweet Shop – which has offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Shanghai and Auckland – reports similar experiences. “The low New Zealand dollar always drives activity to our shores,” he says. “Plus, New Zealand offers everything from sub-tropical beach-
es, mountain ranges, and lakes, to European architecture, the beauty being that most locations fall within a two-hour flight of Auckland.” In 2008, The Sweet Shop director Noah Marshall shot a car commercial for Buick, with agency Bates, Shanghai. “All locations lay within 40minutes drive from central Auckland and included wheat fields, dense forests, aerial shots of beaches and
NEW ZEALAND’S VARIETY LEAVES IT IMMUNE TO SOME OF THE HARSH ECONOMIC DECISIONS complex motorway junctions. Having the ability to source such diverse locations within close proximity of Auckland was financially beneficial and a compelling reason to shoot in New Zealand,” Prince says. Brad Avery of Batch Productions in Queenstown, down in the South Island – and the location for the Narnia and Lord Of The Rings series of movies – says New Zealand’s variety leaves it immune to some of the harsh economic decisions that often have to be made elsewhere in the world. “New Zealand seems to avoid the cyclical ups and downs of some places, because we have unique locations that may not be available anywhere else at the time the production has to take place,” Avery says. An example is a Lexus shoot Batch worked on with director Carl Rinsch and RSA Los Angeles. “The car
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EUROPEISKA UNIONEN Europeiska regionala utvecklingsfonden
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Almost all exterior shots for Dutch feature Bride Flight, set in 1953, were shot in NZ, including locations in Rotorua in the North Island, and in Canterbury, Christchurch, Otago and the west coast on the South Island
testing area near Queenstown, where we filmed, is the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, where you can film a car actually driving through pristine snow conditions. Thanks to the facilities and expertise in New Zealand, it is a worthwhile trip. Another example is a Sprint spot we did with Paranoid Los Angeles that needed an accessible frozen lake in October. Again we were able to provide the location only 45 minutes from Queenstown, which is one of our bases for crew and equipment.” New Zealand also doubled for the UK for a series of TV commercials for the UK National Lottery, which Batch shot with director Sam Brown and Rogue Films, out of London. “It was a nine-day shoot that took us all over the country, because they needed a range of looks and seasons,” Avery says. “By shooting in the Spring, New Zealand was able to offer snow in the South Island and green fields and sunny beaches in the North Island. We also shot a marathon race in downtown Wellington for which we closed off one of the main streets for a whole day. The agency producer said that alone was worth the trip, because it would simply not have been possible back in London.” The Dutch feature Bride Flight, directed by Ben Sombogaart (De Tweeling, Twin Sisters) and starring Rutger Hauer, was released in Europe at the end of 2008. Set in both New Zealand and Holland, scenes were shot on location in Rotorua in the North Island, and in Canterbury, Christchurch, Otago and the west coast on the South Island, in November
IN THE SPRING, NEW ZEALAND WAS ABLE TO OFFER SNOW IN THE SOUTH AND SUNNY BEACHES IN THE NORTH 2007. Period recreations in Christchurch, vast landscapes in the Selwyn District, and the dramatic coastline, provide stunning locations for the movie. Inspired by the true story of the last great air race from London to Christchurch in October 1953, Bride Flight, tells the story of three young Dutch women traveling to join their respective fiancés. They meet Frank, also immigrating to New Zealand to become a farmer. The story follows their lives and loves in this new country. Dutch airline KLM won the race, which was nicknamed The Bride Flight by the international press. Brett Higginson was location scout for those parts of the film shot in New Zealand. “Many of my past scouting jobs have been either for our spectacular scenery, or for locations that could represent somewhere else in the world,” Higginson says. “So New Zealand has often stood in for Oregon, New York, California, the Himalayas, Spain, the UK, Asia, Europe, Hawaii and so on.” But for Br ide Flight, New
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The UK Lottery spot: “We shot a marathon scene in downtown Wellington and closed one of the main streets off for a whole day. The agency producer said that alone was worth the trip, because it was just not possible back in London,” says Batch Film's Brad Avery
Zealand
was New Zealand. The co-production deal meant that a percentage of the movie had to be shot in Europe – so most of the interiors were shot in either Luxembourg or in Amsterdam – while almost all of the exteriors were filmed in New Zealand, with often the South Island, ironically, doubling for the North Island. “We shot in seven separate areas of the country, on both islands, and we needed to dress, close and prop some of the major streets of Dunedin, Christchurch and Oamaru. We had no wet weather cover and were on a tight, fast-moving schedule. This was a huge logistical exercise, which involved liaising with many stakehold-
WE COULD CREATE A SOURCE OF INCOME FROM FILM TOURISM WHILE LOOKING AFTER THE PLACE ers, businesses, residents and councils.” The need for co-operation with local people and businesses is not exclusive to New Zealand, but the country does have quite a treasure to protect in terms of its unspoiled environment, something that is becoming quite a rarity in other parts of the world. Queenstown and its surroundings, as well as being home to many of the stunning locations from Lord Of The Rings and Narnia – and more recently Marvel’s Wolverine – regularly doubles for the lochs (lakes) of Scotland and for alpine Europe, in commercials requiring traditional snowy, mountain scenes. Kevin Jennings, who runs the Queenstown Film Office,
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wants to ensure this environment remains intact for the future. “We want to develop our relationship with the Department Of Conservation (DOC) which looks after the local national parks. We want to study further the relationship between film and tourism,” Jennings says. “One of the things that happens with a film that goes to shoot somewhere is that it actually creates hot spots. It’s not the process of the filming, it’s the aftermath. People learn about a place in a film, and then they come down and start scampering all over it. What I want to get DOC to do is to build walkways with information signage in some of these places, along with collection boxes. If we could work together in that way we could not only make an income from filming, but also create a creative source of income down the road, from film tourism, while looking after the place at the same time.” Jennings is looking at other ways in which the un-touched countryside around Queenstown can be protected, while still serving as a lucrative filmmaking resource. “If you were to look at a film location on the day of filming, and you saw the whole circus, you’d say ’Oh my God it’s Armageddon!’. But come back six months later and you virtually can’t tell that they were there. So we are trying to push ourselves as a renewable resource. If we are able to tread lightly on the earth, then there’s the question of what we do with all the waste from a shoot – where do we take it?” The Queenstown Lakes Distr ict Council
We can get you to places even Google Earth can’t find
New Zealand is one of the best places in the world to shoot. The trick is finding the right location. That’s where our network of regional film offices and Film New Zealand come in. With our local knowledge and experience we will support you and your production, no matter what location you choose. Get in touch for your next production.
FILM
filmauckland.com • filmvolcanic.com • filmventuretaranaki.com • filmwellington.com FNZ0031B
filmsouth.com • filmqueenstown.com • filmdunedin.co.nz
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(QLDC), in association with Film Queenstown, has launched a Green Screen Guide and Directory, tailormade for the region and reflecting the national industry’s Green Screen philosophy. “The key appeal of shooting international movies in our region is the pristine environment. The council has now produced a first class insurance policy to keep it that way and the film industry is right behind that move,” Jennings says. The initiative was successfully trialed in the region last year after the producers of the movie Wolverine volunteered to participate. “Wolverine was enthusiastic to be involved,
WE ARE PROUD TO BE A PART OF THE NEW GENERATION OF SUSTAINABLE FILMMAKERS they were willingly audited and the results were outstanding. The outcome is you can watch the new movie in the knowledge that it comes with a significantly reduced carbon footprint,” Jennings says. The production made 670 tonnes of waste, 615 tonnes (92%) of which was diverted from landfill using re-cycling, re-use and other practical applications, saving the film company an estimated $55,000. The significance of the QLDC initiative was not lost on Wolverine star Hugh Jackman. “It’s great to be a part of a project that benefits the local economy while looking after the environment. The cast and crew really got behind this initiative, and we are proud to be a part of the new generation of sustainable filmmakers,” he says. The green philosophy also found favor with the movie’s producers who are planning to return to the area with future productions. “It’s great to see
Castlepoint in Wairarapa, near Wellington, on New Zealand's North Island (Photo: Pahiatua Digital Photography)
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Home-grown talent AN INDUSTRY panel from Weta, Park Road Post Production and other Oscarwinning creators of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and King Kong spoke at the AFCI Cineposium 2008 about working in New Zealand, and the ways in which their projects benefited from local talent and unique locations, giving a rare behind-thescenes look at how such mega-projects get made.Among the participants were Alex Funke, who directed the visual effects photography for such projects as the original Battlestar Galactica TV series of 1978, and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian. A native Californian, Alex has called New Zealand his permanent home since moving there in 1999 to work on The Lord Of The Rings. Also on the panel was Michael Hedges, a re-recording mixer working in the film industry for over 15 years, who has won two Academy Awards, for The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, and for King Kong. Panelist Dan Hennah served as supervising art director and set decorator on all of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings films. He earned Oscar nominations for the first and second instalments and shared the 2004 Academy Award, with production designer Grant Major and set decorator Alan Lee, for Return Of The King. Grant Major, also on the panel, was nominated for four Academy Awards and four British Academy Of Film And Television Awards (BAFTAs) for his work as a production designer on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and King Kong. He won his Academy Award and a Los Angeles Film Critics Society Award for The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of the King. Grant’s career in design began at Television New Zealand. Another of the panelists, Jamie Selkirk is a film editor and producer, known particularly for his work on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which he co-produced with Peter Jackson. He received the Academy Award for Film Editing for the last film of the trilogy, The Return Of The King. Selkirk is a co-owner of the Weta group of companies and the Stone Street Studios complex in Miramar. He runs the studio facilities and working in an operational capacity for Weta Digital.
Farmland outside Queenstown was the location for the set of Wolverine's family home. After the film crews had gone home sheep were again able to graze on a pristine plain thanks to the green initiatives of the film's producers and local authorities
the Queenstown region supporting this initiative; we will definitely look at shooting there again,” says Wolverine producer John Palermo. While Queenstown can double for the mythical spaces in Wolverine, Narnia and Lord Of The Rings, as well as Scotland and Europe with its stunning lake and snowcapped mountains, so Auckland can double for Ireland, as it did in a recent beer commercial. “New Zealand is in high demand for commercial shooting at the moment,” says Treza Gallogly of The New Zealand Film Connection, an Auckland-based line production company specializing in facilitating the production of television commercials in New Zealand. “For one thing, our dollar has dropped against most currencies. One of the company’s most recent productions was for Carlsberg Beer, for Irish agency IIBBDO, and MJZ, UK. "I had the pleasure of working with Lenard Dorfman (US director), and the world-class DOP Seamus McGarvey, who was Oscar-nominated for Atonement. The script called for a thatched Irish pub, and a gorgeous Pacific Island beach. Not to mention gorgeous Pacific Island hula dancers ...,“ Gallogly says. “Of course, the Irish pub could have been shot in Ireland, but it was much cheaper to bring the whole job here to New Zealand to shoot. So we built one ourselves, in central Auckland.” As the commercial was shot during the rainy season in the Pacific Islands, the production team chose to shoot the beach scenes in New Zealand too. “We came up with a raft of gorgeous beaches which fitted the bill, and ended up at
Local Oscar winners Alex Funke, Dan Hennah, Grant Major, and Jamie Selkirk share their experience and expertise at the AFCI Cineposium in Wellington
Whale Bay, about two hours north of Auckland. There we built two sets: a hula hut, and a beach bar.” The biggest challenge was the accessibility of the beach locations. “All the set materials, and equipment had to be barged onto location, or carried down, and up, a 700-meter dirt track,” Gallogly says. “Some of the dancers flew in from Rarotonga, but all the rest we cast out of Auckland. It was wonderful working with them, and bringing such deep culture into an advertisement.” Batch Film’s Brad Avery sums up these islands best when he says “Of course, New Zealand offers the usual suspects of beautiful locations and talented crew, but it also gives our clients an amazing experience that makes them want to come back again. A lot of our clients are repeat customers. Our favorite locations are the ones waiting to be discovered. There are so many places here that nobody has ever shot before.” I
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FEATURE
A PLACE OF
HISTORY
Visit the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and you can see and feel their complex histories - both recent and ancient - in the walls of the cities, in the breathtaking landscapes and even on the faces of their diverse populations. And now, these rich cultures and often painful pasts are providing the backdrops for a growing number of international productions that are coming to this part of the world. Marlene Edmunds reports
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Fire And Ice (2008), filmed at Romania’s MediaPro Studios
I
N LATE November last year, director Dominic Sena moved the cast and a 300-plus crew from the film Season Of The Witch – including Oscar-winning Nicolas Cage – over the Austrian border into Hungary to finish shooting on the 2010 release. The film tells the story of a 14th century knight who transports a young woman, accused of being a witch, to an abbey where the monks believe her powers caused the Black Plague. And both Austria and Hungary provided the perfect atmosphere for the story. But the attraction of Hungary is not just the ambience, according to Adam Goodman, joint managing director of Hungarian production services company Mid Atlantic Films. He says that many of the crew that had been on the set in Austria were Hungarian, and they were following the shoot home. “Hungary strikes the right balance between skill base and cost,” says Goodman, and he knows from experience that the infrastructure is there to support large studio as well
as smaller independent projects. His company has handled not only Season Of The Witch but also Hellboy II: The Golden Army, multiple Emmy-award winning TV series John Adams, Robin Hood, Eragon, and a host of other big projects that have also been shot in the territory. It’s no secret that 20 years into a major economic and political transformation, the former Eastern Bloc territories of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Slovakia have emerged as savvy and fiercely competitive film locations. Romania claims to be as much as 30% cheaper than Hungary and the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria claims to be another 10% cheaper than Romania. Lithuania beat Romania and Poland in the bidding for the $50m World War II film Defiance, starring Daniel Craig. But it’s not only about money. These are stunning territories with varied climes, and they are also part of a history that has left behind a trail of Celtic and
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SECURITY GUARDS WERE NEEDED TO EXPLAIN TO PEOPLE WALKING BY THAT IT WAS THE SETTING FOR A FILM Roman ruins, Turkish baths, mosques, castles, ornate
palaces, and Stalinist as well as post-Stalinist Soviet-era architecture. In Lithuania, the director of 2008’s Transsiberian, Brad Anderson, was given his own train set, a Soviet-style locomotive with eight cars and 40 kilometres of track for the Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer A-list shoot. Plenty of Russian extras and Russian set dressings were part and parcel of the deal worked by local producer Lithuanian Film Studios (LFS). In Thick As Thieves (2008) Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman plotted in the Nu Boyana Studios nestled among Bulgaria’s mountain peaks, while the same Vitosha ranges had also stood as a backdrop for Alaska in 2009’s The 4th Kind, starring Milla Jovovich. Korean production outfit Mass Message flew two directors, a producer and crew half-way around the world for a one-night commercial shoot at the Prague State Opera house. “If you are looking for a classic opera house like the one we needed in this shot, you won’t find it in Seoul,” says director Young-wook Paik.
LITHUANIA has famously hosted Defiance and Transsiberian, and has also attracted Black Book producer Fu Works’ latest co-production with Isabella Films, Winter In Wartime, released at the end of 2008, which precipitated the opening of new studios. At press time, Lithuanian Film Studios was set to unveil a new state-of-the-art film complex 15 kilometers from Vilnius International Airport and 14 kilometers from Vilnius Old Town. The new studios boast two 1,000 sq m of soundproof stages opened at the end of 2008, with another seven set to open 2009-2010, up from four stages. HUNGARY still leads the way in terms of large-scale productions, partly because it has maintained a tax incentive scheme that works for international studios and independents from both inside and outside the EU. Season Of The Witch, produced by Atlas Entertainment, Relativity Media, Mosaic Media Group and Mid Atlantic, will be one of the first productions to use Hungary’s new enhanced tax rebate since it was ratified by The European Commission mid2008. “We will be taking full advantage, including the 20% tax rebate, and provisions that allow a maximum of 20% of
the Hungarian budget to be spent outside of Hungary,” says Mid Atlantic’s Goodman. The global economic downturn and the fallout from the writer’s strike has caused a slowdown in big budget productions across Europe. Hungary, in addition, experienced some nervousness over re-ratification of the tax rebate. But, says Goodman, “Everything is coming back. Our slate for 2009 is shaping up to be very busy indeed. Season Of The Witch obtained a SAG waiver that allowed them to move forward unlike some of the studio movies, and there are other films on the horizon.” Interiors for Season Of The Witch were shot at Mafilm’s Fot Studios using existing medieval back lot sets, while exterior work involved several rural locations outside of Budapest. Among them is Dobogoko, located some 30 kilometres outside of Budapest and 20 kilometres from Fot. “It’s a fairly unique mature old forest with undulating rock formations and ravines that lends itself to the dark ambience of the film,” Goodman says. “Finding this kind of location a mere 30 kilometres from a major metropolitan city is fairly rare.” Hellboy II was shot mainly at Korda Studios, a huge new complex that boasts five large sound stages totalling over 8,400 sq m, and another 5,800 sq m superstage, the latter set to open this year. With a clear interior height of 66 feet, it will be bigger than the James Bond 007 stage at Pinewood. According to Korda Studios’ CEO Lazlo Krisan, it will be what he believes to be the world’s largest sound stage. Hellboy II was also shot in areas around the city of Kicelli, where the near 300-year-old church venue was transformed into the King’s council chamber. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas [2008] was shot at Kerepesi Cemetery, the Pere Lachaise of Hungary, and among other locations, at the limestone-cellared wine quarter Budafok. Paris scenes included shoots of the Danube and the renowned monument to Baroque and classical architecture, Esterhazy Palace. UK-Hungarian co-production holocaust film Good, starring Vincente Amorim and Viggo Mortensen, was also filmed in Budapest under some delicate circumstances, says Laurin Film producer Zsofia Kende, “Good was shot during three nights and two days in the middle of downtown between the vast block of flats, in an area where many Jewish people lived. The fact that we had to set up Nazi flags and symbols all around meant that security guards needed to explain hundreds of times to people walking by that it was merely the setting for a film.” Laurin also handled the shoot for Gwen Stefani’s 2007 music video Early Winter, filmed at the Nyugati railway station built by French architect Eiffel.
Czech Film Commission
We speak Filmmaking Looking for partners you can trust with your project? Need experienced and reliable professionals who understand your needs? The Czech Film Commission offers the most complete resources for filmmaking in Prague and the Czech Republic. Whether you’re looking for locations, facilities or crews, we speak your language. Czech Film Commission | Národní 28 | CZ-11000 Prague tel: +420 221 105 254 | mobile: +420 724 329 956 | info@filmcommission.cz
www.filmcommission.cz
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BAVARIA: GERMANY’S TOP FILM AND MEDIA LOCATION
F U NDI NG
SERVICE
INFORMATION
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH
Film Commission Bayern
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich phone: 0049-89-544 602-0 fax: 0049-89-544 602-21 e-mail: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de www.fff-bayern.de
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich phone: 0049-89-544 602-16 fax: 0049-89-544 602-24 e-mail: location@fff-bayern.de www.film-commission-bayern.de
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Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, shooting at Barrandov Studios Hungary
offers tax refunds of up to 20% of production costs incurred in the country – specifically on preproduction, shooting and post-production, to the first master print. Information on this, and shooting in Hungary generally, can be found at the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (www.mmka.hu).
THE CZECH REPUBLIC was among the first of the former Soviet satellites to begin offering production services and locations at tantalizing prices to international filmmakers. Not surprisingly, considering the territory’s amazing film history, boasting such names as Jan Sverak and Milos Forman, a pool of behind-the-camera talent was ready and willing to provide skilled crew, sets, services and location expertise at unbeatable prices. “Prague is a beautiful city. It’s a combination of all styles of architecture from Renaissance and Baroque to the very modern. Prague wasn’t bombed during the war so it still has some of its edifices from the 13th century, and it was built on hills, so the vistas provide stunning shoots,” says Ales Komarek, partner in the Czech Republic’s Partnership Pictures, whose work includes The Brothers Grimm (2005) and Hart’s War (2002). Partnership Pictures has a running list of clients for commercial shoots, including Leo Burnett Chicago, Patricia Murphy Films in London, and a number of Scandinavian outfits, Flodell Film included. Says Komarek: “Scandinavians like the cosmopolitan atmosphere, the nightlife, the views and ambience of Prague, and the weather is temperate in comparison. Our spring/summer season typically lasts a long time. You can film exterior shots here from March to the end of September/mid-October.” But the Czech Republic may be looking at some hard times ahead in terms of locations.
THE CZECH GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE FILM INDUSTRY IS AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE While it was the first territory to really bring in big Hollywood productions, its failure to pass a tax incentive that will keep it competitive is a situation few players are happy with. The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) was one of the biggest projects to come to the Czech Republic. “It was a pivotal project in terms of showing what can be done here,” says Ludmila Claussova, director of the Czech Film Center-Film Commission. She says the Czech Republic has been so successful in the past that the Ministry Of Finance believes a tax incentive is not needed. “We are definitely seeing a drain on the projects that might have come to us but are going to Romania and Bulgaria instead because they are cheaper, or to Hungary because it has a tax incentive,” Claussova says. “The infrastructure, crew, talent base, locations, everything is here but the budgets are not competitive. Unless tax incentives come into play the industry could lose a great deal in the next year or two.” Janka Vozárová, chair of the board of directors and general director of Barrandov Studios, agrees. “The Czech government needs to recognize that the film industry is an important resource to the national economy as well as a great promotion for the tourist industry,” she says. The move to privatization for former Eastern bloc countries was not easy, but grand old dames of the cinema like Barrandov Studios, whose roots go back to the 1930s, and the Havel brothers, have brought with them credentials
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The Bavaria Film Group. Your European Studio.
Robert & Horst, München
Geiselgasteig
Bavaria Film GmbH, Bavariafilmplatz 7, D-82031 Geiselgasteig, www.bavaria-film.com Markus Vogelbacher, Phone +49-89-6499-2241, eMail offer@bavaria-film.de
Photos: © Luftbild Bertram | Bavaria Film
Airplane, Submarine and more permanent Sets Sound Stages up to 3.000 sqm / 32,300 sqft Full Service Studio Lots Mountains & Castles Europe’s City No. 1 for Life Standard Tax Incentive and Funds
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that time has done little to diminish. Barrandov’s cos-
tume department, as an example, is one of the largest in Europe when it comes to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Second World War. It recently outfitted not only UK TV series Tudors I, II and recently signed for III, but also actor/director Robert Englund’s dark gothic fantasy Vij, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian and GI Joe. Barrandov boasts some 14 sound stages and a 160,000 sq m backlot where such films as Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, (2008), Oliver Twist (2005) and The Brothers Grimm were created. In late 2006 Barrandov opened its 4,000 sq m MAX stage, the largest soundproof stage in Europe at the time. Like other studios in the new member states, Barrandov is increasingly figuring commercial shoots into its revenue picture. Two years ago it opened a 1,000 sq m sound stage completely devoted to commercials, and in mid-2008, a green-screen second stage slated for commercial shoots was also unveiled. By year-end 2008, Barrandov had racked up shoots for some 100 commercials. Rental equipment companies like Panalux, service production outfits such as Partnership Pictures and post-production services such as Universal
THE INCREASE IN CO-PRODUCTIONS IS A NEW TREND FOR US, AND WE’RE SEEING IT AS A GOOD ONE Production Partners (UPP) work hand in hand with the big studios in augmenting the growing pan-European profile of the new EU member territories. UPP is among one of Europe’s most respected post-production outfits. The company started up in 1994 and most of its work these days comes from an even split between its audiovisual effects – movies, TV films and miniseries – and its commercials department. Its latest Emmy nomination for Best Visual Effects came for the Sony Pictures film The Company. Lighting and equipment company Panalux’s biggest office on the continent is located at Barrandov Studios. “We have enough equipment at the film studios to start any job, and what we don’t have, we can get within a very short period of time from our UK headquarters,” says Roman Porkert, managing director of Panalux Czech Republic. Porkert is among those who are seeing a new dynamic shaping up in the locations industry that looks to co-productions, commercials, and even video shoots, as well as big international features. “The new wave of Eu-
ro co-productions is keeping us busy and it is one of the more positive things that I can see coming out of the EU membership,” he says. “The increase in co-productions is a new trend for us, and we’re seeing it as a good one,” says Romania’s Castel Film Studios marketing manager Bogdan Moncea. “In past years, most of our work has come from the US, but this year we’ve only done one project from North America. We’ve been very busy, however, on two pan-Euro projects.” Le Concert is a French-Romanian-Belgian co-production directed by multiple award winning director Radu Milhaileanu. The $12m budget film was shot half in Romania and half in France. Castel also premiered late last year the Romanian-French-Luxembourg film Silent Wedding, directed by Horatiu Malaele, and distributed worldwide by France’s BAC Films. “Our membership in the EU means that Romania can become a viable co-production partner and get audiovisual coproduction funds,” Moncea says. “When talent like Cristian Mungiu brings home the Palme D’Or, of course, it doesn’t hurt.” Barbarossa, an Italian Romanian co-production, starring Golden Globe winner Rutger Hauer as 12th century German emperor Frederick Barbarossa, was shot on location and wrapped at Castel in September. Among the 2009 line-up of projects is Dutch-German-Romanian coproduction Gijsbreght Van Aemstel, to be directed by multiple award winning film and theatrical talent Theu Beurmans. The shoot will call for the recreation of an entire sector of Amsterdam’s inner city from the 14th century on the Castel lot. Moncea says that the shooting of Euro productions not only ensures a steady flow of work to complement the Hollywood line-up, but, he adds, “There is another significant difference. The Euro projects tend to have more below-the-line budget, so more money goes into production and costumes and sets and a bit less into the development, script and director salaries. Because of that the smaller budgets can do bigger films.” From a profit point of view, of course, Hollywood is still in major play at Castel. At the beginning of 2008, the Steven Seagal project with the working title Last Night was also filmed there. “We’ve done several films here with him, both in our studios and in the Bucharest area, so he’s become sort of a regular visitor,” Moncea says. The MediaPro Group, the largest media consortium in Romania, bought up the 40-year-old state owned studios in 1998. MediaPro Studios, aside from the obvious draw of the 19 fully equipped film and TV stages, four of which have water tanks, and a warren of workshops, it also has a 40-hectare park
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a lake as its backlot. The studio houses not only MediaPro Pictures, the largest producer of film and TV programming in Romania, but also Domino Pictures, its commercials making arm. Some 50% of the work done by MediaPro is international – it also services all network Pro TV and Acasa TV entertainment and fiction productions. MediaPro Studios chief operating officer (COO) Andreea Stanculeanu says that the studios, in particular, are renowned for set construction facilities. “For Jacquou le Croquant (2007) we built a 6,700 sq m replica of an 18century French village in just 12 weeks, a job that won us a nomination for a Cesar – and for The Cave (2005), we constructed a spectacular underwater set.
ROMANIA is not just about scary movies. Its access to the Black Sea, the Danube Delta, and Carpathian Mountains have inspired such location shoots as the Anthony Minghella-directed US civil war movie Cold Mountain (2003). Bucharest, once considered the Paris of the East in the 1930s, offers unique locations, among them, the Palace Of The Parliament, the largest civilian administrative building in the world behind the Pentagon. Greek director Costa Gavras shot some of the scenes for Amen (2002) in the 150 meter-long and 18 meter-wide Hall Of Fame, a room that boasts oak gliding doors and crystal windows. The charms of Romania have not gone unnoticed by French director Luc Besson who shot both Banlieue 13 (2004) and Haute Tension (2003) there.
BULGARIA’s Nu Boyana studio is located in the Vitosha mountains, an area convenient for cold weather shoots. CEO and chairman of the board of Nu Boyana Studios David Varod says Bulgaria is “One of those few countries where you can shoot one day at the beach and the next on a mountain. With this variety you can duplicate a lot of other locations worldwide, and if we don’t have it directly here we can still make it for a fraction of the price.” He
Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman in Thick As Thieves, shot in Nu Boyana Studios
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A New York City street scene for Ninja 2009 shooting at Nu Boyana Studios nestled among Bulgaria’s mountain peaks
adds: “A lot of people are still amazed when they find out The Black Dahlia (2006) was made here in Bulgaria, since a lot of the scenes actually take place in the 1940s in Los Angeles.” Interior scenes for Dahlia were shot at the Hotel Bulgaria and courthouse in Sofia and in the Palace Of Culture in Pernik, among other sites. Nu Boyana is a reincarnation of the former Bulgarian state-owned Boyana Film Studios, the main feature film and TV production facility in the territory during the communist era. The studios are now owned by LA-based Nu Image Inc., also parent company of Millennium Films and a shoot location for many of its films, among them Ninja 2009, Thick As Thieves, and The Prince And Me III. The studios have six sound stages of 300 to 1,500 square meters, and standing sets of modern New York Streets, ancient Rome, and the Middle East. Built for the Jackie Chan starrer Shanghai Knights (2003), the New York street scene was recently used for Ninja 2009 and comes with a fully-operational subway entrance, traffic lights, busses and cabs. The transformation from central to market economy brought major advertising networks to former Eastern bloc territories for the first time and an explosion of new commercials shot locally. Milin Djalaliev, managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi Bulgaria, says 100% of the work done locally is aimed at the Bulgarian market, although some clients such as P&G and Fujitsu-Siemens adapt international campaigns. “Most of the local advertisers still prefer to trust local creatives. There are different customs, mixes of culture and heritage in the region so our local approach is still the most effective.” He says that among the top five TV advertisers for Bulgaria in 2007, five of them used mainly local creatives.
LATVIA is now looking for a share of the lights, camera, and action but it is pinning hopes on luring in more than the usual suspects. Producer and director Laima Freimane’s business strategy reflects the new kind of bigpicture thinking and optimism among EU players.
Apart from mountains, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got it pretty well covered !
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eight-year-old production company Screen Vision launched new locations support outfit Five Level Production in 2008 but, says Freimane, “Our first target is not necessarily the traditional Hollywood players.” Make no mistake. She’s happy to get them, as well as to work with western Euro partners, but Freimane’s game plan now extends to luring Russian and Central Asian shoots as well. “Latvia,” says Freimaine, “offers the look of Europe for as much as 20-40% savings on shooting costs, something that is very attractive to Russian and Central Asian producers such as in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Production is increasing in those territories and they are looking for the best deals.”More than 50% of the Latvian population speaks Russian. Riga, Latvia’s capital city, is a short hop by plane from Moscow and St. Petersburg and while flights from Central Asia are longer, they are also direct. Freimane’s game plan underscores what many across the pan-Euro film community are now seeing, and that is both the upside and the downside of a greater borderless Europe. For now, she’s seeing the upside. There is local infrastructure in Riga, she says, but should it be needed, “within a matter of days, crew and equipment from surrounding territories such as Estonia and Poland can be brought in. If equipment has to be rented,” she adds, “I take a look at the entire borderless Euro region to see how we can get the best prices.”
POLAND hosted the Lech Majewski directed The Mill And The Cross (2009) which teamed Charlotte Rampling, Rutger Hauer, and Michael York in a Polish-Belgian-US co-production on location in the historically much fought-over Silesian region. Poland has a fund in place that helps entice films into the territory, but it is hopes to offer more. The Polish Film Institute earlier this year helped draw up a far reaching plan to transform tax and financial incentives for making movies in that territory, including giving generous tax shelters and incentives to producers shooting in Poland, and massive tax credits for companies investing big spend in filmmaking in Poland. In the meantime, Poland is making big waves in the new European film climate and taking risks as well. French-Polish-Italian co-production Resolution 819 took home the Marcus Aurelius $97,000 prize at the Rome International Film Festival in October of 2008. On top of that, Krakow-based Gremi Film signed up to provide 32% of an unspecified budget for City Island, directed by Raymond De Felitta and starring Andy Garcia. It is the first time that a Polish company has become involved finan-
A New York City street scene for Ninja 2009 shooting at Nu Boyana Studios nestled among Bulgaria’s mountain peaks
cially in a co-production featuring a major Hollywood star. Gremi has previously been involved with Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching and Janusz Kaminski’s Hania. The Lodz City Film Unit in Lodz, Poland, serves as the film commission for the country and can be contacted by productions requiring more information before visiting Poland. With many now members of the European Union, and key players in a revamped 21st century pan-Euro entertainment industry, these territories are on the move, opening shiny new studios, investing in international and pan European co-productions, and bringing home major festival prizes. The low cost of filming remains a key attraction for most of this vast and ever-evolving area of Europe. And at this time, cost is more crucial a consideration than it has been for many years. I
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FEATURE Like all areas of life, the film industry in the former Yugoslavia suffered badly during the war of the early Nineties. But today things are on the move again – and in Serbia, there are plans afoot to develop a film commission ...
SERBIA TAKES ACTION S
ERBIA’s thriving film industry hit its peak in the early 1980s, when Yugoslavia ranked as one of the top destinations for overseas film productions. During the filming of Around The World In 80 Days starring Pierce Brosnan, in 1989, the former Yugoslavia represented a total of 18 countries, and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, served as seven world cities. This demonstrates the diversity of locations and settings that are available in the country. During the unrest in the region in the 1990s, the industry shrank significantly. Now, the Serbian film industry is positioning itself as a key destination for foreign film productions, with revenues in 2006 almost 400% higher than in 2002. This growth is expected to continue by virtue of the increase in local talent as well as cost competitiveness, diversity of locations, and a comprehensive production services industry The recent decision by Ralph Fiennes and River Road Entertainment to shoot a modern day version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus in Belgrade further demonstrates the increased buzz around Serbia. In the past couple of years, other foreign film productions shot here have included Liliana Cavani’s Einstein (2007), Vittorio Storaro’s Caravaggio (2006), Oliver Parker’s Fade To Black with Danny Huston and Christopher Walken (2005), and Luc Besson’s horror film District B13 (2008). The range of services available in Serbia also continues to expand to support foreign productions. Last year the post-production company Cinebox 100 established the first film laboratory in Serbia, Cinelabs Beograd. And recently, Pink Films International (PFI) completed its worldclass studios in the vicinity of Belgrade. PFI Studios offers 42,000 sq m of sound stages, multiple production offices and facilities, and an extensive backlot. Avala Film, the biggest studio in the Balkans, is in the processes of privatization and there is investor interest in retaining the assets as a production studio. Serbia’s production companies enjoy strong working partnerships with key industry players and counterparts across the Balkans, making the country a
hub for regional and international productions; incentives, including VAT refunds, are available for foreign film productions in Serbia. A renewed international demand for information on filming in Serbia has produced an initiative to establish a Serbian Film Commission and several industry leaders have been working together for the past several months to create a vision of the Film Commission’s structure, services, and promotional activities. The first tangible result of this industry collaboration is a new Film In Serbia website, launched at the 2009 AFCI Locations Trade Show. The website www.filminserbia.com provides information on production and post-production service providers, logistics of operating in Serbia, sample locations, past productions, crews and equipment suppliers. I
In the past couple of years, foreign film productions in Serbia included Rian Johnsons’s con-man comedy The Brothers Bloom (2008)
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Michele Pfeiffer in “CHERI” at the Hôtel Mezzara (rue La Fontaine, Paris), a house designed by the great Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard. © Cheri Production Ltd/Bruno Calvo.
CHERI By Stephen
Frears with Michele Pfeiffer
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JULIE AND JULIA By Nora
Ephron with Meryl Streep
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Sommers with Dennis Quaid
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MAKING A SCENE
Michelle Pfeiffer as Lea in Chéri
The other side of Paris
In Stephen Frears’ Chéri, we see Paris without the clichés. But it took some effort on the part of director and crew to find this view of the great city. At one point the maverick Frears contemplated CGI — to remove the Eiffel Tower from view. Max Leonard reports IN PARIS the past seems ever present, alive on every street just under the surface of the current moment. However, when faced with adapting a ninety-year-old novel for the silver screen, how easy is it to peel back the layers of time and shoot a period drama on location in this, the most cinematic of cities? When he took on Chéri, released by Miramax Films in 2009, Stephen Frears and his crew found that with a bit of scouting and a dash of ingenuity it was possible to bring a fresh and compelling vision of Paris to celluloid. Adapted from a novel written in 1920 by the French writer Colette, Chéri is set between
1905 and 1912 and tells the story of Fred Peloux, the 25-year-old son of a courtesan who is widely known as Chéri (‘dearest’ in French). He is having an affair with Lea, another courtesan on the verge of retirement, but, believing it to be only a trifle, they break off when Chéri gets married. Frears is a director whose filmography testifies to his preference for authentic location shooting: Dirty Pretty Things (2002) was acclaimed for its portrayal of London as experienced by immigrants, and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) soaked up the atmosphere of the chateaux around the French capital where it was mostly shot. Chéri
reunites Frears with Dangerous Liaisons’ star Pfeiffer, and that film’s Oscar-winning screenwriter, Christopher Hampton, yet despite this past success in France, the director and production designer, Alan MacDonald, first considered locating to Budapest for primary shooting. “Stephen and I decided that actually that would have been a mistake,” says MacDonald, who also worked with Frears on The Queen in 2006. “It made sense to shoot in Paris, to give it the reality we were after. With Chéri we were looking for heightened realism.” The script demanded elegant period architecture with interesting
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CHERI - MAKING A SCENE
interior/exterior transitions, but their first
sorties into the hubbub of the modern city were not promising. Preliminary location scouting started with a tour of significant scenes from the book, places that unfortunately had changed beyond recognition. Second stop was the Musée d’Ennery, an exquisite collection of Oriental art and Chinoiserie housed in an authentic Napoleon III-era courtyard house. It was this museum that had inspired Hampton to write the screenplay to Chéri, four years previously, and the filmmakers had earmarked it for Lea’s house. However, its location on the busy Avenue Foch, and its unsuitability for crucial opening and closing shots militated against its use. Their luck changed when they found a disused building by renowned Art Nouveau designer Hector Guimard. Guimard’s buildings, which are exactly contemporary to Chéri’s story, are important relics of a time of great change: “This was a special moment in the history of Paris, in the history of ideas, in the history of art,” says Olivier-René Veillon, executive director of the Ile de France Film The exterior of the Hector Guimard house. Guimard’s major contribution to the Parisian cityscape is the iconic entrances to the Metro system
CHATEAU LECOQ WAS A MARVELOUS HOUSE, WITH A FANTASTIC SERIES OF ROOMS Commission. “It was the time of Proust and also the first moment of modernity.” Guimard’s work epitomized the French take on Art Nouveau, the precursor to Art Deco whose flowing lines and spirit of experimentation marked a break with the design strictures of the past. His major contribution to the Parisian cityscape is the iconic entrances to the Metro system that he designed, but his architecture, always controversial, fell out of favor within his lifetime and was only critically rediscovered in the 1960s. Situated in the bourgeois 16th arrondissement, an area of quiet, tree-lined streets and embassies, Guimard's hôtel particulier was perfect for Lea’s house. A protected building, this former private house
had been used in more recent times as a dormitory for prospective female candidates to the grandes écoles, the prestigious French universities that often require an extra year of study to enter. It was, however, empty and in a state of some decrepitude; the production team was closely watched by the Paris authorities as they papered over the white emulsion on the walls and repainted wooden fittings. Indeed, after shooting had finished, they had to strip it all back and restore it to the somewhat dubious 'original' colors specified by its guardians. Once decorated, however, it demonstrated that the tasteful, sophisticated Lea (played by Pfeiffer) was fully involved in the spirit of her age – a time when the automobile, the electric lightbulb and telephone were starting to become part of everyday life. “What is interesting about Guimard’s house is that it’s one of the first built in Paris with central heating,” says MacDonald. “A lot of houses of that period were still being built with corridors and small rooms that one could close off, which were easier to heat. Whereas central heating allowed Guimard to create bigger spaces, to open it up into a romantic, luxurious environment.” In contrast to Lea, Madame Peloux (Chéri's mother, played by Kathy Bates), is over-the-top and old fashioned, which led to a problem: how do you signify in a period drama that a person has dubious taste? “Of course, a general audience doesn't know whether something is in fashion or not – to them it looks right for the period,” reflects MacDonald. “We had to push the contrast between the two worlds and make Lea’s house ultra-modern, so that in comparison the other environment seemed unfashionable. We were looking for two very distinctive properties illustrating diverse architectural styles – neo-classical and Art Nouveau – that were relevant to the period.” The team had to journey further than anticipated before they found the right spot to create this contrasting environment. “In the novel Mme Peloux lives in Neuilly, which in 1905 was really the start of the Parisian countryside. Neuilly today is full of roads and tower blocks, so it looks nothing like it did,” says co-producer Raphaël Benoliel. “But as a producer I didn’t want to be more than an hour from Paris, because it would have been difficult on the budget we had.” They settled on a small, neo-classical chateau owned by French comedian Yves Lecoq in Villiers-leBâcle, 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside Paris in the Essonne department of the Ile de France region. The central architectural characteristic of Mme Peloux’s house in the book is a large wooden-framed conservatory; in a significant scene, she and Lea walk through it into an Impressionist-style garden. Yet the Chateau Lecoq didn’t have either. “Stephen and I realized very quickly that I was going to
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Michelle Pfeiffer on the balcony of the Hector Guimard house
have to build a conservatory on to an
existing house. All the conservatories we found were too small, or of such poor quality that they were not safe to film in, says MacDonald. “Chateau Lecoq was a marvelous house, with a fantastic series of rooms that led from an entrance hall into a salon with French windows. I worked out I could build a massive conservatory on the side, with an incredible aspect.” A conservatory was duly built from scratch, complemented by a 100-meter colonnade of rose bushes to mask the disappointing garden from view. It was just one part of the balancing act, of the grand logistical jigsaw puzzle that period shooting on location demands. Of course, there is an upside to shooting in period French properties: many, including some of the hotels used as secondary Parisian locations, have an inherent elegance and original light fittings and furniture. None, however, was more sumptuous than the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz. Pfeiffer's character, hurt by Chéri's marriage, moves to this far southwestern corner of France, so the production decamped with her for a few crucial scenes. Built as a summer palace by Napoleon III for his wife, Eugénie, in the 1850s, the magnificent building has been open to tourists since 1893. In fact, it remained so throughout the shooting, but its situation and its period look were such that the crew made the compromises necessary to meet the management’s demands. One huge scene saw the hotel restaurant dressed, lit, shot and struck out in seven hours. At this, MacDonald laughs: “We embraced their limitations and
A life less ordinary SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE was born to bourgeois parents in the Parisian hinterlands in 1873. Aged 20, she married a famous bohemian 15 years her senior and published her first novels, the scandalous Claudine series, under his name. She soon left the unfaithful Willy and took to the music hall stage, shocking Paris in 1907 when she kissed her fellow performer and female lover, the Marquise de Balbeuf, on stage at the Moulin Rouge in an Egyptian-themed pantomime. In 1912 Colette married a newspaper editor, had his child, and had an affair with her muchyounger stepson – events which pre-dated the writing of Chéri by some years. After divorcing in 1924 Colette continued to move in artistic and literary circles, and in later life became friends with Jean Cocteau. When she died in 1954 she received a full state funeral.
managed to make it work – by the skin of our teeth!” The film's relatively modest budget stretched to the Hotel du Palais but precluded any extravagant Parisian exterior shoots in the vein of The Da Vinci Code or A Very Long Engagement. One shot, of a car crossing the Concorde bridge, was achieved early on a bank holiday morning, with the roads briefly shut to traffic and an angle tactically picked to exclude all signs of modern life. The most demanding exterior location was a street that was closed off and relaid in cobbles, with all cars removed and all street signs, graphics and window boxes erased from view. And, although this was a logistical burden for the designers and art department, the authorizations were fairly
simple to arrange: after all, even modern-day films often require similar arrangements. The predominance of interior locations made sense for the film narrative-wise, and the two houses were lavishly dressed in the wealthy styles of the two female leads. This means the film is truly location based, with little added in post-production. CGI is, in MacDonald's words, being used merely to “tidy up” the location footage. Guimard's house, for instance, is being slotted into a more picturesque row of buildings. The approach, says MacDonald, has helped the film avoid slipping into Parisian stereotypes. “Of course one is conscious not only of the cinema, but also of the image of Paris in people’s minds. We decided that because we were portraying the demi-monde, the underground world of the courtesan, we didn’t want to deal in cliché.” He goes so far as to say that Frears contemplated using CGI to remove the Eiffel Tower from the background of a scene, before abandoning the shot and going for something less obvious. Benoliel approves. “Those iconic shots really have nothing to do with the film, because it’s a film that happens in rooms and in intimate places. We had a few establishing shots, but we didn’t need the big street shots just to show we had the money.” Veillon and the Ile de France Film Commission, meanwhile, are excited by what the production has uncovered. “We’re very curious to see the vision of Paris that Frears will bring to the screen,” he says. “Hector Guimard’s buildings have never been seen in the cinema – this is a secret Paris, one not readily perceived, and we hope this will help with its rediscovery.”I
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LOOK TO NORWAY - A LOCATION WITH A DIFFERENCE
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MAKING A SCENE Woody Allen, cast and crew, on location in Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona… and Woody A simple story and a simple title. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona was not a straightforward shoot, as its high-profile cast and director had to film in the midst of hoards of adoring fans. All that, and the director was falling in love with the movie’s lead character. Julian Newby reports
WRITER and director Woody Allen has once again cast a city as the lead character in his latest movie. He did so in 1979’s Manhattan; the city was New York. In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the city gets third billing – although Allen insists it plays the star role. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a film that is indelibly linked to its location,” the director says. “When I was writing the script, I wasn’t thinking of anything other than creating a story that had Barcelona as a character. I wanted to honor the city because I love Barcelona very much and I love Spain in general. It’s a city full of visual beauty and the sensibility of the city is quite romantic. A story like this could only happen in Paris or Barcelona.” The story is a well-worn one: a swarthy but sensitive male artist fixates
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V I C K Y C R I S T I N A BA R C E LO N A - M A K I N G A S C E N E
on more than one woman at a time, and a
complicated love triangle develops. It was shot in Barcelona over July and August 2007 – Woody Allen shoots never drag on, although in Barcelona sometimes the city got the better of him. “The main problems we had with the shoot were the constant, last-minute changes to the shooting schedule,” says Julia Goytisolo, commissioner of the Barcelona – Catalunya Film Commission. “The director (Allen) was discovering the city almost at the same time as he was shooting in it, so he was always proposing new locations. If, during the weekend, he had visited some monument, park or building that he had fallen in love with, on the Monday we would receive a new and unexpected shooting permit application. And that’s probably what made the film seem so fresh.” The problem was that Barcelona is a comparatively small city with narrow streets, especially in the old city center where it is difficult to park the trucks and other production vehicles needed for a shoot. So to facilitate Allen’s last-minute requests, Goytisolo had to maintain a constant dialog with the local police department. “This was crucial, in order to ensure the happy coexistence of this production and the numerous other shoots that were going on in the city at the same time, as well as the daily life of people working and living in the city.” Another problem faced by crew, actors and the film commission was the high-profile nature of the movie. “The cast members, especially Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson, are well known in Spain, and Woody Allen is an idol in Barcelona,” Goytisolo says. “Barcelona is the European city where Allen’s films usually get the biggest box office.” To make matters worse, a highprofile newspaper managed to get hold of the first week’s production schedule and published a list of dates, times and locations. “Crowds gathered everywhere the film went and this made it difficult both for the crew and
THE DIRECTOR WAS DISCOVERING THE CITY ALMOST AT THE SAME TIME HE WAS SHOOTING IN IT
the police to do their job.” But the benefits to the city far outweigh the problems. One of the sponsors of the film, Turisme de Catalunya, reached an agreement with the distributors in some European countries whereby audiences were given a brochure about Catalunya, which included pictures, Catalan recipes, some basic Catalan vocabulary, and details on how to get further information online. And Turisme de Barcelona has since launched a website detailing movie tours of the city (www.barcelonamovie.com) – with the addition of the Vicky Cristina Barcelona tour coming this year. I
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Sarasota revisited
Ten years on, and the part played by a run-down house in 1998’s Great Expectations remains an important part of Sarasota’s movie history. Andy Fry re-visits the Cà d’Zan mansion VICTORIAN novelist Charles Dickens might have raised an eyebrow at the idea of his classic novel Great Expectations being transformed into a contemporary movie set in New York and Florida. But there’s little doubt he would have approved of the Cà d’Zan Mansion, the iconic location that acts as the emotional heart of Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 film.Those familiar with the Dickens classic will recall that it is the story of a young apprentice blacksmith called Pip, who is unexpectedly asked to work for a rich, eccentric woman called Miss Havisham. Pip is summoned to her dilapidated mansion, where he meets and falls in love with Miss Havisham’s haughty and self-centered adopted daughter Estella. In Cuarón’s film of Great Expectations, Kent-born Pip becomes Finnegan Bell or Finn, a boy living in a quiet Florida fishing village, filmed on location around Cortez Island. And the Cà d’Zan mansion becomes home to a modern day Miss Havisham, reinterpreted by the late, great Anne Bancroft. It is here, behind a set of imposing iron gates, that the story’s hero, Finn,
(played by Ethan Hawke) meets his unattainable beauty — who is still called Estella in this version, and played by Gwyneth Paltrow. In the movie, Finn grows up to be a painter and pursues Estella to New York, where he becomes embroiled in the lavish art scene. But the psychological centerpiece of the story is the home of Miss Havisham (renamed for the film as Ms Dinsmoor). It is here, after being deserted at the altar as a young woman, that a gorgeously batty Anne Bancroft lives her life as a heartbroken recluse. Embittered by her experiences, she plots her revenge by coaching Estella to be a torment to the male sex. Interestingly, Cà d’Zan, which is located in the beautiful Florida county of Sarasota, was not first choice as the location of Ms Dinsmoor’s deterioration into madness. “The production team were already in Florida looking over a famous villa and estate called the Vizcaya,” recalls Lee Morse, a local locations expert who runs her own company BestWest Films. “For some reason, the Vizcaya didn’t work out so me and my partner suggested using the Cà d’Zan
mansion, built in the 1930s by John Ringling, the circus entrepreneur who owned Barnum & Bailey.” The Cà d’Zan had two things going for it, according to Jeanne Corcoran, director of the Sarasota County Film Office. Firstly, there was its unique Venetian Gothic look, a mix of the Doge’s Palace in Venice and the old Madison Square Garden tower in New York. Secondly there was the fact that the mansion was in a state of disrepair: “John Ringling built the mansion and an Art Museum when things were going well in the 1920s and 1930s. But he lost his money during the Great Depression and the Cà d’Zan went to ruin. When the money did return, some of it went towards the upkeep of the mansion, but most went into the restoration of the Art Museum and the creation of an Art & Design College on his estate.” Corcoran says the Great Expectations production team was immediately taken with the look of the Cà d’Zan, and the fact that it was a waterfront property. But they also needed to be convinced that the surrounding area could offer the right support
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Robert de Niro as Lustig and Ethan Hawke as Finn in Great Expectations
structure for a lavish feature film
production. “Alfonso Cuarón loved the Cà d’Zan mansion because John Ringling had given it a magical, larger-than-life quality. But Great Expectations was a $38m film and they were talking about shooting a third of it at this location,” Corcoran says. “So they needed to be certain that the local crew, site access and accommodation measured up. Fortunately, Sarasota has a track record in the film, TV and commercials businesses which stretches right back to the 1980s.” Having made the decision to go with Cà d’Zan, principal photography began on July 8, 1996. It was an unusual shoot, recalls Morse. “The Cà d’Zan wasn’t in good shape, but production designer Tony Burrough still needed to add his own influences to get exactly the look Cuarón was after. So you had an odd situation whereby the crew was trying to make parts of the mansion look more dilapidated while the estate’s restoration team were tidying up other parts.” The exterior shots presented a very interesting challenge. While Cà d’Zan’s interior was suitably shabby, Tony Burrough had to take the mansion’s wellmaintained formal gardens and create the impression of a wedding party that never took place. Weatherbeaten marquees, broken crystal, a creaking grand piano and the rotting remains of a wedding cake told the story of an unattended banquet. “The funniest moment was when the crew covered the lovely-looking lawn with dead greenery to make the scene look even more forlorn and rundown,” Morse says. “A local couple walked by, saw the mess and said, ’Boy, they’ve really let this place go to pieces.’” There was, however, a good understanding between the crew and the restoration team. “The estate management people were very accommodating. For
THE FILM KICKSTARTED A HUGE FUNDRAISING EFFORT TO GET THE MANSION BACK IN SHAPE example, Alfonso Cuarón uses a lot of green tones in his films — green costumes, green furniture and so on. To extend that overall effect, he wanted to paint the exterior of the mansion in a pale green. The Cà d’Zan restoration team helped pick out a green wash which could be applied to the walls for the five week shoot and then removed without any lasting damage to the site.” Most of what is visible on screen is the result of bold and vibrant set design. But at the end of the movie, the house burns down, with Ms Dinsmoor/Havisham inside. “For this, they needed to give an impression of the building with no roof,” says Morse, “so they used computer graphics to get the desired effect.” Unfortunately, Cuarón’s lavish interpretation of the Dickens story was not a great success at the box office and drew mixed reactions from critics. It was also famous for the number of creative spats between Cuarón and the film’s scriptwriter Mitch Glazer, a subject dealt with in Art Linson’s warts-and-all expose of Hollywood entitled What Just Happened? But there was a positive upside for Cà d’Zan and Sarasota. “When our local leaders saw it on screen, they couldn’t believe how run down this utterly unique and irreplaceable piece of Sarasota’s history had become,” Corcoran says. “So the film kick-started a huge fundraising effort to get
the mansion back in shape. $25m was raised to bring the mansion back to its former glory. So we owe a big thank you to Hollywood for doing that!” Ironically, from Sarasota’s point of view, the film did not spark a run of projects, says Corcoran. “Not long after the film there was an economic downturn which forced a lot of people to move away in search of work, including me. That talent drain made it harder for Sarasota to pitch competitively for film work, particularly when we have Miami close by.” Now, however, Sarasota is experiencing its own Cà d’Zan-style renaissance. “For the last 18 months, there’s been a big drive in Sarasota to attract production work, because there’s more of an appreciation of the beneficial impact it has on local employment and tourism. The restored Cà d’Zan has been busy with commercials and TV work and there’s also been interest in our other locations, which range from pristine beaches, interesting metropolitan centers to state park wildernesses.” One project Corcoran is chasing after is a new TV series being developed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty). “Alan studied at Florida State University and now he’s working on a series which is described as a screwball comedy set in the 1930s. It would be perfect for Cà d’Zan and Sarasota County, so I’m hoping he remembers us fondly.” Even if that doesn’t work out, Great Expectations continues to do a great job for Sarasota, she says. “It’s out there in the DVD and syndication markets year in, year out. As long as people can see the Cà d’Zan on screen then that’s a great piece of product placement for all of Sarasota’s film locations.” I
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ADVERTISER AFCI Locations Trade Show Alabama Film Office Association of Film Commissioners International AusFilm Barcelona-Catalunya Film Commission Bavaria Film Bayern Film Commission Berlin-Brandenburg Film Commission Birmingham-Jefferson Film Office British Columbia Film Commission Chile Colombian Film Commission Czech Film Commission District Of Columbia Durban Film Office Entertainment Partners Inc Film Brazil Film France, The French Film Commission Film in Florida Film in Iceland Film New Zealand Film Victoria Flanders Film Commission Fresno City Film & Entertainment Commission Gauteng Film Office Global Watch Gyeonggi Film Commission Hawaiian Islands Honolulu Film Office Ile de France Film Commission Italian Film Commission Jefferson Parish Film Office Kodak Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Madrid Film Commission Malta Film Commission Melbourne Film Office Mexican Film Commission Mid-Nordic Film Commission Mississippi Film Office Mobile, City of, Film Office Montana Film Office Monterey Film Office Namibia Film Commission Nevada Film Office New South Wales Film and Television Office North Finland Film Commission Norwegian Film Commission Oklahoma Film and Music Pacific Film & TV Commission Panama Film Commission Phillippines Film Development Council Puerto Rico Film Commission Pontact Productions EPZ Ltd Riofilme Commission Rochester/Finger Lakes Film and Video Office Rotterdam Film Commission San Francisco Film Commission Santa Anita Park Sarasota County Film & Entertainment Office Savannah Film Commission Scottish Screen Serbia Singapore Film Commission South Padre Island Studio Babelsburg Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas Swedish Lapland Film Commission Thailand Film Office Toronto/Ontario Film Office Tucson Film Office United States Virgin Islands Virginia Film Office Warner Roadshow Studios Wyoming Film Office
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VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING YOU SPEND IN HAWAII to make your movie or commercial falls into our generous 15% to 20% tax incentive program. That’s substantially more savings than you’ll find with other incentive programs. Not to mention the fact that you’ll be shooting in Hawaii.
FILM OFFICES OF THE
H AWA I I A N ISLANDS HAWAII FILM OFFICE hawaiifilmoffice.com 808 586-2570
KAUAI FILM COMMISSION filmkauai.com 808 241-6386
HONOLULU FILM OFFICE filmhonolulu.com 808 527-6108
MAUI FILM OFFICE filmmaui.com 808 270-7415
BIG ISLAND FILM OFFICE filmbigisland.com 808 327-3663
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