Hawaii’s Big Island got a production boost in 2014 hosting the TV game show Wheel of Fortune, but the county still failed to attract any large-scale features. Recent movie productions like Battleship, Jurassic World and Godzilla have shot in other parts of the state, particularly Oahu.
Filming for the movie version of the wildly popular erotic novel Fifty Shades Of Grey helped boost production on Vancouver’s North Shore last year. The shoot included stage work at North Shore Studios, as well as location filming across the city.
Planned spending figures from the California Film Commission reveal that TV production will be prioritised under the state’s boosted filming incentive. State authorities are more than tripling the annual film fund and expanding support to big-budget movies and TV shoots.
Government funding of CAD 1.2 million has been awarded to Creative BC to help boost British Columbia’s creative industries, including the film and TV sectors. Vancouver is one of Canada’s main production centres and has recently hosted Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Godzilla.
Hawaii location filming for Jurassic World had a big impact on the US state’s production industry. The dinosaur sequel was shot partly on the island of Kauai County north-west of Honolulu and producers spent around USD 3 million locally.
BBC motoring series Top Gear is set to film highway scenes on location in the Okanagan region of central British Columbia. The province is a production hub in Canada and offers a 25% production services tax credit on qualified labour costs.
The visual effects company behind big-budget features like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Edge of Tomorrow is to shift its head office from Culver City in California to Vancouver. Sony Pictures Imageworks is making the move partly because of British Columbia’s production incentives.
Legendary Pictures built San Francisco on location in Vancouver for Gareth Edwards’ new adaptation of monster movie Godzilla. British Columbia also doubled for settings including Japan and the Philippines, while Hawaii stood in for the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific.