This week we’ve covered eye-catching new commercials from Garmin, VW China and a Brazilian language school, with filming locations found in Austria, Beijing and California respectively. New figures from Britain revealed that the UK had a good 2011, while Columbia Pictures is scouting Malta and North Africa for its new Tom Hanks project Captain Phillips.
We’ve covered two doubling projects from the commercials industry this week, with the French Dairy Council doubling Buenos Aires for France and Dr Pepper turning Barcelona into an unidentified US metropolis. Elsewhere there was bad news for Pinewood Studios in the UK as its expansion plans failed to win approval, while Raleigh Studios is expanding to Utah.
One of our most popular stories this week has been news of HBO TV show Game of Thrones filming on location in Iceland for its second season. Over in the US New Mexico has finally secured location filming for The Lone Ranger, while North Carolina may be on target to become a major production centre.
The warning signs have been around for a while, but Eastman Kodak has finally filed for bankruptcy protection. Over the past few weeks and months the iconic photographic products company has been trying to sell its patents portfolio, but clearly this has not been enough.
This week we covered a creative new online advertising campaign from Honda. The UK is in the spotlight again with the release of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, while the British Prime Minister has called for the UK film industry to back more commercial projects. Elsewhere, US filmmaker Nicole Ballivian is planning a shoot on the West Bank.
England is busily organising its new filming support structure, while traditional global filming hub California has revealed a general production increase for 2011, despite a massive fourth-quarter dip. Elsewhere, Peter Jackson’s hobbit films completed their first stage of location filming and news broke that Kodak may soon file for bankruptcy.
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.
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.