Production services company Scout Asia has opened a new office in Sri Lanka. The company is based in the city of Galle in the southern tip of the country, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
India and Spain have signed a location filming agreement designed to boost production in each respective country. Neither nation offers a formal filming incentive programme but the deal is intended to improve how they share their filmmaking and artistic resources.
Chris Baugh, a veteran Location Manager, has been recognised for his work on Ben Affleck’s Argo at the California on Location Awards (COLAs). Baugh won in the Studio Feature Film category for his work doubling various California locations for Iran.
Filmmaker Ben Affleck recreated Iran on location in the Californian cities of Los Angeles and Ontario for his new movie Argo. Set in 1979, Affleck’s film tells the true story of a team of CIA agents who posed as sci-fi moviemakers as they set out to rescue US diplomats caught in the Iranian revolution.
José Padilha’s big-budget remake of sci-fi classic RoboCop will be getting an incentive payment for filming partly on location in Detroit. Like the original 1987 movie the film is set in a future Detroit, although this time most of the shoot actually took place in Ontario.
[slideshow id=321]MAP Productions has put the new GoPro HERO3 HD camera through its paces in an epic shoot across New Zealand. Footage switches from sedate aerial images to stunning views filmed by a series of athletes over an action-packed five minutes.
Tax experts in the US have criticised the value of filming incentives and say that state authorities are increasingly disillusioned. They argue that local economic benefits are short-term and that US communities are tired of being used as doubles for elsewhere in the country.
[slideshow id=320]Shanghai is the setting for a new Volkswagen spot from The Sweet Shop. Senior Rebels features an elderly couple trying to recapture their youth as they buy flashy trainers, spray graffiti and skateboard. It ends in an inspiring encounter with a VW Beetle.