New HBO comedy series Looking is filming on location in San Francisco. The show will follow the lives of three gay men and is filming a full season after shooting the pilot in the California city in April this year.
The deadline for entries to this year’s Ciclope International Festival of Craft in Berlin has been set for 27 September. Ciclope specifically recognises the craft of storytelling in international commercial production and this will be its fourth edition. The Location Guide is a partner of the festival.
The San Francisco Film Commission is pushing for an addition to the city’s filming incentive programme to help productions with the cost of shooting in privately-owned commercial spaces. A lack of stage facilities in the city is proving a problem in attracting major projects.
A funding boost for creative industries training in Wales could prompt growth in the country’s specialist filming crew base. Creative Skillset Cymru’s Skills for the Digital Economy Programme has won additional funding of GBP500,000 to help launch new training courses over the next year.
Production company MJZ has doubled California for Alaska in a new spot for Volkswagen. Moonlight follows a young couple as they enjoy the freedom of the road driving around a small town in the bright sunshine of an Alaskan summer’s night.
Action sequel Fast & Furious 6 takes the franchise to the UK but filmed many of its London-set scenes in Glasgow. Shooting took place in mid-2012 at a time when production activity in London was more restricted because of the Olympic Games.
Becky Brake first worked with filmmaker JJ Abrams on his action TV drama Alias. She's since become a regular locations collaborator and talks to The Location Guide about big-budget location filming, the Mission: Impossible franchise and working on Star Trek Into Darkness.
Sci-fi sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will film partly on location in Louisiana. The movie will double the southern state for San Francisco as it takes advantage of a filming incentive worth a base rate of 30%.