Producers from nearly a dozen Ontario production companies have visited India to encourage more co-productions between the two regions. The Canadians visited Mumbai and Goa, and took part in a programme at the International Film Festival of India focussing on Canadian filming.
Kodak, one of the world’s most recognisable suppliers of film and photographic products, is likely to file for bankruptcy within the next few weeks. The company has had its share of problems since foreign competitors entered the market in the 1980s, but more recently the growth of digital photography has had a big impact.
Marvel Studios will start filming Iron Man 3 in North Carolina in May. Shooting is scheduled from May to September, using EUE/Screen Gem Studios as a base. It took a full year of negotiations to secure the shoot, with Michigan, New Mexico and Georgia all originally in contention.
Creative England has unveiled its new Location and Production Services (LPS) team. The team has seven members with two more to be recruited in the coming months and has several offices across England. They offer a full filming liaison service as part of Creative England.
California saw a 4.2% rise in location filming for 2011, but the number of TV and feature production filming days fell sharply in the fourth quarter. During these three months TV production declined by nearly 11% and feature filming days by more than 25%.
A new film shot at Baja Studios in Mexico could help put the facility back on the filmmaking map since it hosted James Cameron’s Titanic, as well as Master and Commander. Little Boy is set in California and is the first feature in several years to shoot on location at the 35-acre studio.
Peter Jackson has offered a video diary update on the Hobbit shoot in New Zealand. The initial stage of location filming lasted nearly eight weeks and wrapped in December with a main unit of around 500 crew members, plus around 200 people on the second unit with Andy Serkis as director.
It’s been a good year for the established production hubs around the world, with regions like Buenos Aires, South Africa, Eastern Europe and New Zealand maintaining their appeal for commercial projects. Australia has seen a production resurgence, while in the US the spectre of budget deficits has put real pressure on state filming incentives.