Supernatural TV series Grimm films in the show’s established home in Portland, Oregon. The production team was attracted partly by Portland’s forest locations that are appropriate for the story’s fairy tale origins, and also by Oregon’s filming incentives.
The filming incentives programme in Oregon includes a 20% rebate for locally bought goods and services, and a 16.2% rebate on wages paid to local production crew.
Pointedly, the programme is capped at USD10 million a year, so the state’s appeal is limited to TV and low-budget features.
Portland has a reputation for its rainy climatic conditions, although its annual rainfall is actually close to the US national average. Still, the Grimm production team frequently shoots in wet weather conditions in forested locations around Portland.
Grimm has become the highest-profile production to shoot in Portland since producer Dean Devlin’s long- running action drama Leverage came to an end.
We knew that the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales were mostly based in the Black Forest [in Germany], so we wanted something that was similar – moody, with lakes and rivers and forests and all those things that we needed to give us the atmosphere that we wanted.
Jim Kouf, Co-Creator, Grimm
Oregon’s Cascade Range broadly splits the state. The western section gets milder temperatures and heavier rain as the higher ground traps moist air currents coming in from the Pacific. Regions east of the Cascades get more extreme temperature variations but much less rainfall.
Ordinarily the coastal parts of the state have winter temperatures of about 7C, while summer conditions can reach 26C in the state’s central valleys. Fog is a common occurrence in Portland and much less than half of the city’s days get full sunshine in a given year. Snow is common in the Cascades, with some regions getting 550 inches every year.
