Written by new-contact on Mar 9, 2012. Posted in Uncategorised

Editor’s Weekly

Prague has added another credit to its extensive commercials CV this week. Also in the news there’s been drama surrounding Kathryn Bigelow’s international terrorism thriller filming in India and Vancouver Island in British Columbia revealed it had a strong 2011.

Los Angeles-based Caviar Content has chosen Prague as the base for its new live-action commercial for video game Mass Effect 3. The spot is a gloomy affair where the end-of-the-world production design is once again the star of the show. It’s not massively eye-catching but then a thick atmosphere of dread is the main appeal here. Producers will see once again what can be done with the Czech city’s flexibility, but otherwise the location is absolutely anonymous.

Producers watching the live-action Mass Effect 3 trailer will see once again what can be done with the Czech city’s flexibility, but otherwise the location is absolutely anonymous.

Further east filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has run into problems filming her controversial terrorism thriller Zero Dark Thirty. The project tells the story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and will include a revised ending covering the killing of the terrorist leader. Bigelow has been doubling a city in north-west India for Pakistan, but has faced local protests from Hindu hardliners who don’t like seeing Pakistani set dressing.

It’s a reminder of some of the cultural difficulties film productions can run into when shooting internationally. Bigelow’s team has played down the scale of the local protests in recent days and it seems likely the shoot will continue as planned.

Kathryn Bigelow has been doubling a city in north-west India for Pakistan, but has faced local protests from Hindu hardliners who don’t like seeing Pakistani set dressing.

Over in North America the 20,000-square-mile Vancouver Island in British Columbia has announced healthy production figures for 2011, bolstered by Superman film Man of Steel doubling one of its more isolated regions for Alaska. The island’s appeal is easy to see given it’s only a short hop from the city of Vancouver and benefits from the province’s filming incentive programme. British Columbia continues to be a major threat to US production centres like California.

Also this week we spoke to S Todd Christensen, an award-winning Location Manager, as well as Amsterdam-based Location Scout Adri Schagen. Producer and writer Julia Roberson talked to use about her global location filming experiences, while Peter Jones discussed working in Tanzania.

As ever, our Film-Friendly Locations database continues to grow. If you manage a building or a location that you think qualifies as film-friendly, or you’ve filmed somewhere recently that you think should be listed on our website, please contact Ewa.

If you’ve got some great location filming stories to share and you’d like to be part of our profile section, or you have an idea for an article please contact Murray.

If you've been working on location anywhere in the world and you're looking for some press coverage, please contact Nick. We’d all be happy to hear from you.

(Main page image copyright: Jonathan Olley – © 2008 Summit Entertainment)