Written by Kianna Best on Jul 1, 2025. Posted in On Location / Production News

Back to Nature

From Jurassic World and Lord of the Rings to neo-western series Territory, projects of all sizes are shooting in national parks. We uncover why and what you need to know.

National parks and protected areas serve as natural soundstages that provide filmmakers with a diverse range of scenic elements – from snow-capped mountains and dense forests to desert expanses and dramatic coastlines. Unlike artificial sets, these landscapes offer an organic aesthetic that enhances visual storytelling and immersive audience experiences.

One of the recent stand-outs to choose these natural soundstages is Jurassic World Rebirth, which doubled several locations in Thailand for prehistoric landscapes, including Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Ko Kradan at Hat Chao Mai National Park, and Ao Phang Nga National Park. Filming specifics are being kept under wraps, but the trailer clearly showcases the parks’ dramatic backdrops, blending lush forests, limestone cliffs and tropical beaches in which the action takes place.

It's a similar story for New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, which shot extensively at national parks across New Zealand, and the follow up Amazon Prime TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which chose national parks, including Teide in Tenerife, Spain, and Windsor Great Park in the UK for season two.

Windsor’s vast woodlands full of 1,000 year-old oaks were used for scenes involving Galadriel and Elrond, such as Buttersteep Rise where 12 sets were built, including a castle and trebuchets, and around Virginia Water lake with its man-made cascade waterfall. The site was actually still open to the public during filming, but the production were given permission to section themselves off. They filmed for a day and then it was back to normal.

These landscapes offer an organic aesthetic that enhances visual storytelling and immersive audience experiences.

Windsor Park has hosted many other productions over the years, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, World War Z and Universal Pictures’ recent box-office hit Wicked: Part One. “We filmed university scenes and woods at Windsor, which has such diversity in the types of trees and different forests that it offers, but also [the park team] is so unbelievably helpful. Nick Day, who runs the filming department for Windsor Great Park, is the most film-friendly person you'll ever meet,” says Joan Schneider, the film’s unit production manager.

Some productions choose to immerse themselves fully in the park landscapes. For example, the neo-western series Territory, released on Netflix in late 2024, utilised locations across South Australia and the Northern Territory, including Kakadu National Park. The series showcased vast cattle ranches and perilous rivers, reflecting the rugged lives of its characters. Filming in these remote areas posed logistical challenges, with crews often residing on-site to accommodate the isolated settings. But this commitment to authenticity only enriched the series' narrative depth and visual appeal.

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES, HIGH REWARDS

National parks closer to civilisation, particularly cities, tend to prove easier for amenities, crew, equipment and accommodation. A good example is The Peak District, located handily near Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby and neighbouring studios in Manchester, as well as heritage properties such as Chatsworth and Haddon.

It might take a bit longer to get permits from a national park to fly a drone or helicopter but when the permit is granted, we don't have to pay the National Park any money.

“On the doorstep of The Full Monty’s Sheffield home [including Disney+ recent television series based on the original British classic] the gritty moorlands and rugged vistas of the Peak District also helped to support the narrative of the BBC’s upcoming drama series Reunion with Eddie Marsen,” explains Tom Marshall, marcoms manager at the Peak District National Park Authority.

National parks can also prove logistically easier in terms of less human and car traffic to deal with than shooting in towns and cities, and at a fraction of the cost.

“For a campaign for car brand McLaren, crew were able to work within the traffic-free tunnel network of the Monsal Trail in the Peak District, allowing a race-licenced driver to undertake speed work on a cleansed and safe site,” explains Marshall. “This allowed for drone, static shooting positions, tracking and additional audio in a matter of hours before visitors were once again making use of the route on two wheels or four hooves. The resulting kaleidoscopic sequence was just one of a series of shots all captured within the Peak District’s boundaries.”

PERMITTING

Productions obviously need to get permits to film at these national parks, which can take longer than filming at other sites, but one of the great benefits is that most don’t charge for permitting.

“It might take a bit longer to get permits from a national park to fly a drone or helicopter or something like that but when the permit is granted, we don't have to pay the National Park any money,” enthuses Joachim Lyng, managing partner at Film In Norway, a country which offers hundreds of national parks.

There have also been some legislative changes to permitting in some parts of the world, particularly the US. In December 2024, the Senate passed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act, eliminating the need for photographers and videographers to secure permits for filming in national parks, as long as the filming occurs in areas open to the public, does not harm park resources or visitors, and involves fewer than six people. This move aims to encourage more small-scale film production, while ensuring the protection of park resources.

PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT

Although possibilities may seem endless when shooting in park areas, there are, of course, environmental concerns and logistical challenges in these protected spaces, with an influx of crews causing disruption.

Parks are understandably careful about where productions can shoot and ensure they don’t leave too much of a footprint, not damaging any of the landscape or leaving anything unwanted behind.

“Quite often with the filming of especially bigger productions, even though they will be in areas that people come to walk in, we find that they want to drive as much as possible to get to the different areas,” explains Bronwyn Lally at Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in the Brecon Beacons.  “Especially if it is wet, in those cases we have to advise them against that and make them think about little things to not churn up the ground or disrupt the land.”

Filming in mountainous national parks can potentially be particularly disruptive, damaging and logistically challenging. “You're taking multiple helicopter runs, dropping gear up to three days prior to the shoot, setting up tents and camps because if weather is inclement when you're already shooting on the mountain you can't fly off. Then you have to stay overnight. We have to have some permanent tent structures that are robust enough to be able to manage bad weather,” says Hans Dayal, an experienced production and location manager whose credits include Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, and Shooter with Mark Wahlberg. “During pre-scouts we assess whether our footprint is going to be able to be invisible to wherever we’re shooting. That takes a lot of management.”

During pre-scouts we assess whether our footprint is going to be able to be invisible to wherever we’re shooting. That takes a lot of management.

Moreover, the presence of film crews can strain the resources of protected areas. Infrastructure may not be equipped to handle large-scale productions, leading to potential overuse and wear. The visual integrity of these sites can be compromised if not managed responsibly, detracting from their natural beauty and the experience of other visitors.

PLATE SHOOTS

Some productions just use national parks for plate shoots, including to capture scenery for virtual reality productions. These tend to be more eco-friendly methods of filming and logistically straightforward.

Several major productions have done LIDAR and 360 degree filming at Bannau Brycheiniog in the Brecon Beacons, for example, and then transferred the locations to studio spaces.

High-definition drone footage and 3D scanning allow filmmakers to digitally recreate landscapes for postproduction, reducing the need for physical presence while still maintaining (some) visual authenticity. But not all in the industry are convinced this is the best way of working.

“You can control your day and you know exactly what your plate looks like, because you've been to the spot and done your 360-shot. It's very convenient,” says Dayal. “But for those who love of being in the mountains [and other park locations] is you get a lot more, you can move around a little bit more, and do things that make it feel just a little bit more authentic and give you better value.”

Overall, filming in national parks and protected areas offers filmmakers unparalleled settings and is cheaper than filming on city streets. But there are environmental and cultural sensitivities to consider. Having the support of the park authorities is key to making sure the filming process runs smoothly.

APES TO PRATT

Forthcoming action drama Way of the Warrior Kid directed by McG, starring Chris Pratt, produced by Skydance Media for AppleTV+ shot scenes at a dam in Malibu Creek State Park, CA.

“We needed to shoot a scene where a guy has to jump off a rock face into a river,” explains DP Shane Hurlburt who suggested the location based on viewing Google Earth. “The location manager worked with Parks and Rec to get us access with four-wheel drive vehicles.”

McG wanted to the stunt to be performed from an iconic Southern California 1920s bridge which they found at Tajunga in Southern CA. Since it had no water underneath the shot was a composite of the dam at Malibu, the Tajunga bridge and VFX.

Prior to being opened to the public in 1976, the park was owned by 20th Century Fox and used extensively as a backlot to film numerous shows, notably Planet of the Apes (1967) and M*A*S*H (the 1970 movie and opening sequence to the television series). The park is composed of Kaslow Nature Preserve, Liberty canyon Nature Preserve, Tapia Park, and Udell George Nature Preserve.

 

This article was first published in the Cannes 2025 issue of makers.

Click here to read more about our bi-annual magazine.