A beach in Mauritius was eventually chosen as the setting for a new commercial for Kellogg’s breakfast cereal Special K, after a globe-trotting scout. The spot promotes the company’s online slimming plan and shows a group of women showing off their swimming costumes on the beach.
Hit fantasy drama Game of Thrones, produced by HBO, will return to Northern Ireland for a second season of location filming from late July. As with the first series, the production will be based at Belfast’s Paint Hall Studio, with location filming planned throughout the region.
A company in New Zealand has developed a new stabilised camera designed to make aerial filming easier and more efficient. Shotover’s new rig has a lightweight carbon fibre build and can be carried on flights as excess luggage, making it easier to transport to filming locations around the world.
Ramping up its campaign to hold on to the state’s filming incentives, the Michigan Production Alliance has launched an ad parading hundreds of local filming professionals to emphasise how Michigan has benefitted from the scheme. Keep It Rolling is airing locally in cinemas and on TV.
If you want to hear about why Ridley Scott is the most talented director ever, where to find ‘royal palace’-calibre stately homes, the new Millennium Film Finance Corporation and Egyptian camel-wrangling, then you’d enjoy a chat with feature film Executive Producer Nigel Wooll.
The effects of the global recession were less obvious last year. In 2011, however, the lack of striking location filming in commercials that are likely to be part of this year’s Cannes Lions festival suggests budgets are being watched more carefully.
Rave reviews abound for the newest Arab country to make a dent in global high-end feature film production. But how has Jordan been so successful so quickly? Simple: develop an infrastructure and then give international producers access to an array of fantastic military hardware and manpower.
Sharon Pinkenson has been Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office (GPFO) for 19 years and has transformed Philly into a regular movie maker’s destination. Sharon markets her city and its surrounding area, while co-ordinating all things production-related.
Caroline Norbury is the interim Establishment Director of Creative England, the organisation that will replace England’s Regional Screen Agencies from October 2011. Norbury is the Chief Executive of South West Screen and will be Establishment Director for no more than six months.
It seems sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Business is booming in Malta but the Producer’s Creative Partnership (PCP) has warned that the country’s popularity is stretching local resources dangerously thin. The organisation wants to make sure Malta’s reputation stays intact.