BBC Worldwide will be boosting its UK filming spend by 10% for the next 12 months, bringing the total to GBP200 million. Drama productions on the scale of The White Queen are likely to be among the type of projects to benefit from the budget hike.
Officials in British Columbia (BC) in Canada have drawn on production figures from 2012 to call for support for their filming industry. Figures from Burnaby in Vancouver – recently visited by Man of Steel – show the city made over CAD400 million from production spending last year.
Hampshire in southern England attracted major features including Les Miserables and Brad Pitt’s World War Z through the course of 2012. Total production spending came to around GBP3 million for the year.
Griffith Park in northern Los Angeles was the most popular filming location in the city in 2012, figures from FilmLA reveal. The park spans more than 4,200 acres and the region known as the Bird Sanctuary generated more than 400 shoot days throughout the year.
Pinewood Shepperton Studios near London has announced increased revenue for 2012 and “encouraging” bookings for 2013. The company has also upgraded its digital television facilities, while also starting work on new studio space.
International location filming in Australia fell sharply in 2011/12, with no big-budget productions shooting in the country. Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby qualified as an Australian production and may have had to film elsewhere without the Producer Offset.
The Location Guide has partnered with the Ciclope International Advertising Craft Festival, which takes place in Buenos Aires from November 5th to 8th 2012. The festival specifically recognises the craft of storytelling in international commercial production and 2012 marks its third year.
The North Carolina Film Office reveals that state location filming in the first half of 2012 has already surpassed the figure for the whole of 2011. Nearly 40 different projects have set out plans to shoot, perhaps taking inspiration from major state showcase The Hunger Games.
New Mexico has seen a sharp fall in the size of its location filming rebate payments over the past year. It’s being blamed variously on a wider industry trend and a period of uncertainty with the state’s filming tax credit that resulted in the annual film fund being reduced to USD50 million.
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2012 takes place in London for ten days from 11th July. Jean-Frédéric Garcia, Publishing Director at The Location Guide, will be hosting the award for the International Category at the final ceremony on 19th July.