Written by new-contact on Feb 24, 2012. Posted in General Interest

Editor’s Weekly

We’ve covered three new commercials this week, with filming locations encompassing three of the main global production hubs; Prague, South Africa and Buenos Aires. It’s also been another week of developments with filming incentives in the US.

Independent Films has recreated the Normandy D-Day landings near Prague for a new commercial for the PlayStation Vita games console. The spot blends several different gaming genres and the D-Day scenes take clear visual inspiration from Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. It’s the production design that’s the real star of the show though, rather than the Czech location. D-Day in modern cinema – and gaming – is all about the period uniforms, gritty style and sandy explosions, and this is all delivered with aplomb in an anonymous Czech quarry.

D-Day in modern cinema – and gaming – is all about the period uniforms, gritty style and sandy explosions, and this is all delivered with aplomb in PlayStation's new commercial, filmed in an anonymous Czech quarry.

Buenos Aires continues its role as Generic Modern City in a new apocalyptic spot from beer brand Shock Top. The production spent a couple of days in the Argentine capital filming in-camera special effects scenes, but the focus of the finished spot is firmly on digital meteors and a CGI alien, which is fun in its own way. Buenos Aires may be a production hub at the moment, but the continuing trend is for the city to remain an anonymous setting as international production companies are drawn to cheaper costs and a skilled crew base.

Continuing the CGI theme Anton Rollino of One Step Beyond in South Africa has written a contributor piece for us about the production of a new commercial for Whipped Vodka. The production doubled a South Africa swimming pool for an Icelandic spa, although the focus is once again steered away from the location by background CGI and foreground male models. As with the Shock Top piece, the physical location has been used as a basic and fairly anonymous foundation on which to build eye-catching digital fireworks.

Buenos Aires may be a production hub at the moment, but the continuing trend is for the city to remain an anonymous setting as international production companies are drawn to cheaper costs and a skilled crew base.

Over in the US, Tennessee and Oklahoma are fighting to stay in the filmmaking game in terms of the incentives they offer. Oklahoma faces the possibility of losing its programme completely, while Tennessee wants to be able to offer more money. Both states are small-time players on the national scene, but their industries are active on their own scale and aspire to bigger things.

Also this week we spoke to Bettina Bettati, who leads the Valdivia Film Commission in southern Chile, and also Location Scout Sam Holdren about filming in West Virginia.

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.