It’s been another busy week for the commercials industry in South Africa, Australia and Spain. Meanwhile, several film commissions are looking for ways to boost their international profiles. In addition we’ve had fascinating insight from West Virginia-based Location Manager Tom Trigo, as well as Rex Baldwin.
Filming incentives have been in the spotlight again this week. There have been suggestions at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival that a filming incentive scheme of some kind is in development for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Elsewhere, the Colombian President is trying to pass a scheme to help boost his country’s features industry.
Whiskey brand Jim Beam, feature Moneyball and TV show House MD won some of the big prizes last weekend at the California On-Location Awards (COLAs). Gongs went both to individual location professionals and specific teams, with the team categories often involving a dozen or so people.
A new filmmaking partnership has been formed between Film Rio-Rio Film Commission (FR-RFC) and the Ile de France Film Commission. The agreement will promote audiovisual production in both regions through the availability of production services and co-productions.
We’ve been talking to several Location Managers this week to get their expert views on filming in Hawaii, Cape Town and Buenos Aires. The success of Dolphin Tale in the US has lifted Florida’s filmmaking profile and India has hosted the latest commercial from VW. There’s more Bond news too, with the production heading to Scotland in 2012.
The California On-Location Awards (COLA) take place this Sunday (October 16th) and are set to honour location filming professionals working in the Golden State. Gongs will include Location Professional of the Year, Location Team of the Year and Public Employee of the Year.
It’s been a big week for the UK film industry with the launch of Creative England, the organisation that’s designed to replace the UK Film Council. Then there’s Kristen Stewart’s new film shooting in Wales and the Bond franchise making plans to film in Istanbul. We also spoke to Stefan Teuber, a Location Scout based in Austria.
Guam in the Western Pacific Ocean has announced plans to open a film office. At the moment there are no formal processes in place for production teams looking to film on the island, but the film office move is the result of requests from local production companies.