Written by James Peak on Feb 3, 2010. Posted in On Location

Victoria locations recreate WWII for HBO’s The Pacific

The Australian state of Victoria is a place that is proud of its film-friendly reputation. In the last four years, four large international productions have made it, and its capital Melbourne, their home wooed by a heady mix of production pluses.

Warner Bros and director Spike Jonze used the state's huge range of locations for their visually stunning Where The Wild Things Are, Summit’s Knowing recreated Boston for Melbourne prices and Miramax’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark spent two months at the state of the art Melbourne Central City Studios.

The Pacific, Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ companion piece to the award-winning Band of Brothers, also made good use of the state’s locations which proved to be a smart choice for the most expensive mini-series of all time.

Central to the success of the shoot was a great relationship between the production team and Film Victoria’s Melbourne Film Office (MFO). Kate Marks, General Manager of the MFO, explains:

“One of Melbourne’s busiest streets, Flinders St, closed for two days to allow The Pacific to shoot there. Everyone - the creative team, the local council, public transport authorities, local police and Film Victoria all worked together to make it happen.”

The Pacific's Producer, Tony To, continues:

“Part of the miniseries required us to recreate 1940’s America. We were able to find locations in Melbourne that allowed us to do this, as well as to do the same with Melbourne in the 1940’s. With the help of the Film Commission we were able to close down busy central locations, like the Flinders St shoot. There were also complicated battle sequences where we had to recreate different terrains - the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima, the rocky ridges of Peleliu, and the muddy, rain-soaked terrain of Okinawa. We needed an area for enormous amounts of pyrotechnics, as well as huge terrain sets. The perfect place was the You Yangs, where we were able to control 3,000 acres.”

Drew Rhodes, Location Manager on The Pacific, concurs:

“Whenever we came up against a problem which required the weight of state government backing to solve it, the support was available immediately.”

Ben Lowe, also a Location Manager on The Pacific, was impressed by the level of detail in this support:

“The councils were extremely supportive and the community really embraced the production. If we thought there was a location we felt worked, but it was maybe a little too far to get in the car and visit, the Council would send us some reference photos first to let us know if it would work or not."

But what about the range of locations available? Rhodes was pretty happy with them as well:

“As The Pacific is a period piece, scouting the locations and then transforming them was an enormous task. We elected to turn back the clock through the great period architecture, which worked really well. The process sometimes turned up interesting local stories. For instance, we filmed on a south Melbourne railway line, now a tourist train route, only to discover that it used to be the same line that carried US Marines to their training camp nearly 70 years ago.”

Marks understands why big productions gravitate to Melbourne:

“We’re probably one of the most flexible filming locations because of our mix of locations, skilled crews, film-friendly councils and our financial incentives programmes. We can stand in for so many places too. On the big screen Melbourne has doubled for Boston, 1950s Maine, Texas, Los Angeles and Sydney."

Marks also explains that it is easy to take advantage of some pretty sweet deals if you base your production in Oz:

“If you’re approved as an official co-production you’re potentially eligible for investment from Screen Australia. On top of that you’re also eligible for the Producer Offset, which provides a 40% Federal Government rebate for feature films and up to 20% for TV and other formats. Australia has a co-production treaty with the UK, US, Europe and Canada, Singapore, China and others.”

Tony To provides the final words on his experience of filming in Victoria:

“Sandra Sdraulig, CEO of Film Victoria, and the MFO were very persuasive in getting us into Melbourne, Victoria and the state incentive they offered was very straightforward and attractive. When we got there, they provided a world-class crew and facility. But also, it was a really great place to live, which was important on a show of this size with a long duration.”