March 2020 was hotting up to be a very busy time at Scout Productions but in a matter of days we watched helplessly as production after production pulled the plug on their shoots. Who would have thought the film Industry would ground to a halt with in a few days?
As Friday 13ths go, March 2020 had a particularly bad one. That Friday morning and over that weekend, one by one, every shoot on our calendar began to cancel. On Monday 16th March, there was almost nothing left.
There would be few Location Managers who aren’t used to working with big names, and that is true even here in the remote Australian outback. Another quirk of living here is that you have to not just Location Manage and Fix but even shoot, both on the ground and in the air.
In early spring I scouted a gem of a location dubbed Iceland’s best kept secret. The Westfjords is the country’s most remote region, and Europe’s most westerly point, and little known to filmmakers. Only one Hollywood picture, Justice League, has ever ventured there to shoot.
I arrived in Fiji, with only 13 days notice, to start work on the feature film Adrift directed and produced by the acclaimed director Baltasar Kormakur. I hadn’t seen the script and assumed we would be filming on a beautiful beach on some deserted island. All I actually knew was the name of the film and that it was based on a book about a ship wrecked sailor. My illusions of a mellow laid back shoot on a tropical island were quickly shattered and I had to hit the ground running.
I started in the film business in 2008 when I joined the art department of a feature called Incendies. I was soon working on a number high-end productions in different locations throughout Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
The next time you see the bathtub scene in Fifty Shades Freed, think of me. I know that sounds weird but I’ll explain it to you before the end of this piece.
Due to its historical links with both Asia and Europe, Turkey has always been a melting pot of civilisation. This is reflected in its locations and people. Perhaps this is why 157 foreign productions chose to shoot here in 2017 with a record 3370 location shoot days. It is so rich in shooting and casting opportunities you can only do it justice by visiting and seeing it with your own eyes.
Hong Kong is the perfect backdrop for filmmakers to shoot their film, TV and commercial productions. The architecture is daring and refreshingly different while the contrasts between the modern and traditional are interesting and surprising.