Future of Location Filming

I recently got an opportunity to visit Disney's new Infinity Stage one cold morning last week at their Burbank lot to witness a demonstration of ILM's StageCraft? technology made famous on "The Mandalorian". As illustrated in the image above, being Angelenos, we were all bundled up in our puffer jackets for the cold LA 60?F morning, but were soon transported from Burbank to New York, and halfway around the world to the tropical Maldives in the space of a couple mouse clicks, all without any of the hassle of flights, visas, or worry about fluctuating currencies & political strife.

Obviously, there are still many limitations to this technology, but as I discussed 7 years ago, 'Lost' helped establish Hawaii as a viable production center able to cheat Australia, Iraq, Korea, Los Angeles, and the United Kingdom through the magic of digital set extensions. Orca Studios in the Canary Islands understands that need to be able to accomodate those brief one page establishing or flashback scenes in order to land the larger productions, and has invested in developing an ILM's StageCraft stage there.

Amazon's Glenn Gainor was instrumental in developing Sony's own proprietary Innovation Studios before his move, and pointed to the increasing difficulty to control a practical location and the potential loss of historical landmarks such as the Notre Dame Catherdral in Paris for posterity, “archiving the world” as he called it—creating a bank of real world assets that could help filmmakers be “in two or three locations in one day.”

The creative advantages of filming on a practical location has always been weighed against the cost of building a set on a stage. If it was cheaper to take the company out into the real world than it was to build out a whole new set on stage, the studio could justify the tens of thousands of dollars in location and permit fees involved.

As location fees in congested and sensitive neighborhoods can easily reach in excess of $100K per day, coupled with lingering covid concerns of bringing 200 cast & crew into a strange neighborhood or travelling to another country, the appeal of shooting virtually suddenly seems more viable.

Does this mean the end for location mangers and film commissions? Far from it, but as Army cavalry forces learned after the development of mechanized armor in World War I, they were forced to adapt in order to remain relevant.

For Location Managers, someone still has to scout the locations and facilitate the acquisiton of plates for the shots. As long as they remain a part of the conversation, discussing how and why shooting practically might be advantagous, as well as knowing when the desire for a popular tourist attraction, mission critical military asset, or fragile historical location might benefit from a small plate crew and principal photography shot virtually, they'll still serve a purpose. Simply letting the VFX team lead the conversation and handle plate acquisition is a great way to go the way of Kodak and Blockbuster.

The need to acquire plates and update them as both your region and technological?requirements grow is where film commissions can still play an important part in this equation. Sure, Hollywood will pay to get and keep frequently filmed locations 'on file', but for iconic locations not previously accessible due to tourist traffic or remote & ecologically sensitive locations unable to support a production crew could be acquired by the film commission itself, utilizing local crew, with licenses sold to the studios for their use to go back into state coffers. Also, for rural communities without a significant local crew base or hotel beds, but with a unique physical location, investment in a virtual stage like Orca might be an option to expand your viability to Hollywood.

Orca's Adrian Guerra has planned a multi-prong strategy, archiving plates of Spain and the Canaries to be licensed for use on virtual stages in Madrid and Los Angeles, as well as providing the virtual stages to accomodate, “Besides the obvious uses for sci-fi/fantasy environments, this technology is accesible for smaller productions. We can avoid small locations where a director is only going to shoot half a day or time spent at certain locations that are very expensive or have limitations like a hotel or hospital, where you can create your own.”

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