If AI isn’t your copilot a techsavvy YouTuber could be
ISLAND INSPIRATION
Wild & Exotic: local knowledge makes island filming special
01−05−2025−15
WHILE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO RINGFENCE TRADITIONAL ARTISAN CRAFTED CINEMA RELEASES, THE LIONS ARE MORE PROGRESSIVE.
EDITOR
Adrian Pennington
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Chris Evans
LOCATIONS EDITOR
Kianna Best
CONTRIBUTORS
Jeremy Lee, Jordan McGarry, Adrian Bull, Andy Hooper
HEAD OF PRODUCTION
David Lewis
INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGERS
Jo Tait, Rodrigo Carrasco
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
Clara Lé
COVER
Hello Morning
ART DIRECTION
Les éditions du bois du Marquis
PRINTERS
Gemini Print, UK
AI hovers over Cannes this year, but while the Lions embrace AI as a co-creator in many award-winning campaigns, the tech remains a pariah to the Palme d’Or. If the jury had known last June that French indie Emilia Pérez had its performances tuned by AI would it have garlanded its female leads? It is unfair to malign either that movie or The Brutalist which both use AI, subtly, as a tool to perfect the storytelling. Their biggest crime was not to be up front about it. Look out for credits, however small, in the making of movies premiered on the Croisette.
While Cannes Film Festival continues to ringfence traditional artisan crafted cinema releases (and continues to ban streamers like Netflix which acquired Emilia Pérez after its Cannes breakout), the Lions are more progressive.
AI was the undisputed star of Lions 2024 with agencies and brands alike leaning into its creative potential, just as it is embracing the rise of creator communities over traditional ad agencies.
makers explores this dichotomy in this issue. In Jordan McGarry’s interview (page 34) with Charismatic AI there’s veritable excitement about new forms of content waiting to be co-created by machine. If the Hollywood studio system is collapsing, scriptwriters don’t need to take it lying down. We talk to a pair of seasoned scribes (page 88) using AI to bring their vision to life while keeping humans in the loop.
Another view comes from casting directors concerned about the retrograde effect of AI (page 62) on industry diversity with serious questions to answer about incubating the generation of acting talent.
We’re not all about AI though. If you’re inspired to shoot in an airport (page 54) or on a little known island (page 93) or in Scotland, Japan or Kurdistan using good old location management, cameras and crew… then head this way.
Adrian Pennington, Editor
SOCIAL MEDIA & PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE
Barbara Van Orden
CIT MANAGER
Daniele Antonini
FINANCE
Desmond Kroats, Farhana Anjum, Noor Huda
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Jean-Frédéric Garcia
CONSULTANT
Ben Greenish
FOUNDER
Murray Ashton IN MEMORY OF Sue Hayes
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>NEWS
008 News In Brief
Production news from around the world
010 The World At A Glance Mapping global production trends
012 Tech & Facilities News
From cameras to studios, the latest in production technology news
>CLOSE UP
016 Around The World
GIANT LOCATIONS
With location manager Douglas Dresser
019 Report
FOCUS 2024
039 Interview With JOHANNA COELHO
The cinematographer discusses her passion for creating & playing with images
050 Comment
TIME IS EVERYTHING
060 Making Of A STONE ONLY
ROLLS DOWNHILL
Extensive planning & mental stamina is required to shoot split-screen music video
068 Report
CANNES FILM 2025
075 Interview With LINCOLN WALLEN
Framestore’s CTO discusses the new interactive AI-driven social experiences
077 Profile
UNTOLD STUDIOS
Andy Hooper discusses the role of cloud technologies in near-live production 115
The London based global creative studio has become a multi-award winner
>FEATURES
024 DPs in the Director’s Chair
Cinematographers are filmmakers but few make the move into directing
034 Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL
Using AI is becoming standard practice in many if not all areas of content creation
040 Screen Agender
Female directors are still in the minority despite recent successes
044 Fluent Devices Come Home to Roost
Many brands have only recently become converts to sweating their distinctive assets
>AROUND THE WORLD
From incentives, studios & virtual production to location highlights & recent productions, makers offers an insight into some of the world's filming hubs.
029 Japan
Far Eastern promise
049 Jordan
Arabia’s Switzerland
081 Comment NO TIME TO DIE
Filmmakers crafting movies on film keep the media punching above its weight says Adrian Bull, CEO, Cinelab Film & Digital
099 Interview With MIRANDA WAYLAND
The CEO of the Creative Diversity Network is one of the industry’s most experienced leaders in DEI
106 Report
CANNES LIONS 2025
112 Making Of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL
Locations with authenticity & scale sourced for border hopping espionage thriller
054 First Class Filming
Productions have been filming at airports for years but what can they shoot?
062 Recall for Simone
AI is being used to enhance the casting process & acting performances
070 Scouting for the Volume
How does the role of the location manager change when working on virtual productions?
078 Esports on the Rise
It may soon become hard to distinguish traditional sport from a video game
The studio model is being upended by seismic business pressures & the disruptive potency of AI
088 The Game is Changing
Social media personalities are reshaping sports fandoms, making athletes more relatable & events more accessible
093 Cast Away
Highlighting some of the remote island filming hotspots around the globe
108 Back to Nature
Projects of all sizes are shooting in national parks. makers uncovers why & what you need to know
125 Profile
NEXUS STUDIOS
The studio has evolved from a branded content animator into a global producer
140 Making Of
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH
Back to the future for evergreen franchise of mankind meddling with nature
143 Profile
SURGENT STUDIOS
Originally Silver Rain Games, the studio landed a deal with Electronic Arts to develop an original video game in 2021
119 Spies
Like
Us
Spy thriller series are dominating the market at the moment but can this trend continue?
126 Foundations
for Exploring Future Media
The UK’s industry will soon be reliant on a new network of tech labs
132 The Beginning of the End for Flat Content
Streaming volumetric video is being pitched as a new era in music & XR entertainment
144 Atomized TV Breeds Creative Response
makers speaks to industry experts about how the television landscape is being transformed by multimedia
NEWS in brief
PRODUCTION NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
BBC STUDIOS TAKES SAMPHIRE STAKE
BBC Studios (BBCS) took a minority stake in Samphire Films, the unscripted content production company founded by Sophie Leonard and David Hodgkinson (pictured above).
Samphire Films is in production on “large-scale factual-formats and premium documentary projects” for buyers in both the UK and US. Prior to co-founding Samphire, Leonard was creative director at Minnow Films and Hodgkinson was a commissioning editor at BBC Documentaries.
BBCS has also struck a partnership deal with Bango Studios, a new company set up by Rumpus Media founders Emily Hudd and Iain Wimbush to focus on “premium talent and original formats.”
BBCS’ other investments in indies includes House Productions (Conclave), Clerkenwell Films (Baby Reindeer), Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve) and Voltage (Scoop).
40% RATES RELIEF FOR ENGLISH STUDIOS
Film studios in England now receive business rates relief following the roll out of a 40% reduction. The scheme is available for eligible studios in England until 2034. Studios will not need to apply for the relief, as local authorities will award it to eligible properties. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all devolved on business rates. Across 2024, production spend across the whole UK totalled GBP5.6 billion, a 56% increase from the previous year. Projects that shot in 2024 included Bridgerton at Shepperton Studios, The Fantastic Four: First Steps at Pinewood and the Peaky Blinders film at Digbeth Loc. Studios.
BALTICS TO GET FILM STUDIO
Estonia is to open a new EUR16 million film studios in 2026. Construction is supported by the Estonian government and located close to the town of Jõhvi. It will also house digital and multimedia incubators.
Teet Kuusmik, a member of investment agency Ida-Viru, said: “Our main goal is to bring international film production here, supported by local companies. We want to reach full-scale service provision within five years, so that the entire production process – from filming to the finished film – can take place in Jõhvi.”
GAP BETWEEN BIG AND SMALL INDIES GROWS
Changing commissioning strategies at UK broadcasters are putting at risk the health of the production sector, asserts independent production trade body Pact.
The Changing UK Content Investment report explained that PSBs are focussing on ‘fewer, bigger, better’ productions that can cut through and drive viewing on their VOD services. The knock-on effect was to increase polarisation between the largest and the very smallest producers.
Pact CEO John McVay, said: “If recent trends continue, the balance of the production sector could be at risk. Further progress in improving the diversity of off-screen talent and crew would come under pressure and the whole cycle of creative renewal could be challenged. This could also affect the UK’s global competitiveness and ability to attract inward investment.”
The report explained that the UK television production sector relied on creative talent being incentivised to build and develop businesses. It attracts third party funding to the sector, and commissioners benefit from innovative ideas and audiences benefit from new stories across the UK. The cycle of renewal has worked extremely well over the last two decades, supported by a balanced PSB regulatory framework.
PAPER OWL OPENS IN BELFAST
BAFTA-nominated indie Paper Owl Films has opened a 5,000 sqft studio in Belfast to house creatives working across animation, production, design, live action and postproduction.
Gavin Halpin, MD said: “Remote working has seen amazing innovation in animation pipelines in recent years, but we have missed that in-person contact that the creative industry thrives on. By creating a hybrid pipeline, our projects have optimum technical efficiency while retaining crew flexibility, allowing us to have exciting in person collaboration and continue to work with global talent.”
Paper Owl is in production with Pablo: Boy Meets School for BBC Children’s, Crayola Studios and RTÉJr, and preschool animated series Nikhil & Jay with King Banana and Cake for CBeebies.
ITV AND BBC STRIKE CHINA DEALS
ITV Studios and China’s Zhejiang Media Group have partnered to co-develop non-scripted IP for the local and global market. The first co-developed project the companies are working on is Go! Fishing!
Shen Jian, of Zhejiang Media Group, said: “We are definitely seeing an appetite globally for new formats that explore universal themes through different cultures. I am personally very much looking forward to the collaboration which we expect to produce a new co-developed concept to launch in China and internationally in 2025.”
Meanwhile, BBC Studios has extended its partnership with China’s Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co to create Asia: Wildlife at the Extremes, a 3D giant screen adaptation of the landmark BBC’s Natural History series, Asia. BBC Studios and Orient will co-distribute the film globally, with BBC Studios using SK Films to distribute on its behalf.
Paper Owl co-founders Gráinne McGuinness and Gavin Halpin
THE 22%
DROP IN DOMESTIC HETV SPEND IS A REMINDER THAT MANY IN THE INDUSTRY ARE FEELING THE PRESSURE.
NETFLIX SPEND BIG IN MEXICO
Netflix is investing USD1 billion in Mexico over the next four years and another USD2 million to upgrade facilities at Mexico City’s Estudios Churubusco. According to Netflix, the streamer has shot productions in 25 of Mexico’s 31 states since 2015’s Club De Cuervos, the first series it produced outside the US. Netflix’ Latin American headquarters are based in Mexico, where it employs 400 people.
DIMENSION STUDIO LAUNCHES LIVE DIVISION
Production studio Dimension has launched a division dedicated to “taking live experiences to the next level.” Dimension Live harnesses the studio’s expertise in virtual production to “realise new creative and technical possibilities” in live events, including music and stage performances, virtual concerts, live attractions and location-based entertainment.
The team will work from early concepts and technical design to production and execution. Dimension Live is partnered with London live events space HERE at Outernet for which it has developed a photorealistic digital twin of the venue with lighting and screen content displayed on a giant LED screen.
Executive Producer Mark Bustard said: “We are bringing the power and agility of realtime technologies to the design and delivery of new concepts that create the highest-quality experiences for audiences looking to be entertained on a whole other level.”
BRITISH COLUMBIA BOOSTS TAX INCENTIVES
The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) is boosting its film and television tax incentives in a bid to maintain its appeal as a destination for overseas producers.
Increases to the Film Incentive BC (FIBC) tax credit, which supports Canadian-content productions (from 35% to 36%), and the production services tax credit (PSTC) that provides a tax incentive for international projects made in BC (from 28% to 36%), come into force this year. Productions with more than CAD200 million (USD140.5 million) in BC-based production costs will receive a 2% bonus to further encourage large-scale projects.
Foreign productions account for over 80% of total production spending in the region, meaning strong relationships with global studios remain key. In 2023-24, BC paid out CAD909 million in film industry credits and the sector contributed around 1% of local GDP.
Netflix has backed Mexico-made films including Oscar winners Roma and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio as well as the adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s revered Mexican novel Pedro Páramo (pictured above), released last year. Other Netflix Mexico originals include House Of Flowers, Where The Track Ends and the recently announced Love Sick and The Dead Girls.
Last year, Netflix launched a USD1 million fund to help develop diverse and creative talents behind the camera called the Netflix Fund For Creative Equity in Mexico.
ITV DOUBLES DOWN ON DIVERSITY
ITV is to ring-fence GBP80 million in commissioning spend for diverse projects over the next three years. The broadcaster has also doubled its Diversity Development Fund that helps develop qualifying ideas to GBP1 million.
The broadcaster says that shows funded by the scheme between 2022-24 had greater diversity off-screen compared to other ITV shows. Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent off-screen contributions were 63% higher, for example.
Forthcoming projects with Diversity funding include ITV1 crime drama Code of Silence, starring deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis. Also ITV Drama, is Saviour, produced by Nisha Parti’s Parti Productions alongside Drama Republic.
New ideas should be pitched to ITV’s commissioning teams and must fit existing editorial briefs for specific departments “with a particular focus on 25-54 year-olds.”
UK inward investment up
Film and high-end television (HETV) production statistics released by the BFI show inward investment spend in the UK in 2024 went up 43% on the strike hit 2023 figure.
Inward investment in the UK generated by film and HETV production during 2024 reached GBP4.7 billion. The figure for 2022 was GBP5.37 billion.
The figures shows that international feature film production spend in the UK delivered GDP1.9 billion, with HETV inward investment spend delivering GBP2.8 billion. Total US inward investment spend in the UK on film represents an 83% increase from 2023’s figures, with HETV UK spend increasing by 25%.
Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive, said: “After a disrupted 2023, including the impact of US strikes, production spend rebounded – demonstrating the UK’s strength as a world-leading destination for filmmaking.
“At the same time, we know these figures don’t tell the whole story. The 22% drop in domestic HETV spend is a reminder that many in the industry are feeling the pressure. What happens next will be critical. Continued investment in skills and infrastructure, alongside strong government support is essential to ensuring the UK remains a magnet for international productions while strengthening our independent sector.”
“CONTINUED INVESTMENT IN SKILLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE, ALONGSIDE STRONG GOVERNMENT SUPPORT IS ESSENTIAL TO ENSURING THE UK REMAINS A MAGNET FOR INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS.”
Major investment feature films and HETV titles contributing to 2024’s growth in spend, included How to Train Your Dragon (Universal); The Running Man (Paramount); Bugonia (Square Peg USA/Element Pictures); Peaky Blinders: War (Netflix); Slow Horses seasons 5 and 6 (Apple TV+); Hamnet (Amblin) and 28 Years Later (Sony/DNA).
White Owl Film Studios, the largest Indigenous-led studio in Canada, opens on the Wahnapitae First Nation, northern Ontario.
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA
Survival thriller Apex from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, shoots near Sydney for Netflix.
BASQUE REGION, SPAIN
Production services company Adisar Media, owned by Mediapro, opens a new site in Galdakao.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
Half Man, the new drama series from Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd films in and around the city, produced by Mam Tor Productions for the BBC in co-production with HBO.
ITALY & CROATIA
Six-part crime procedural A Taste for Murder produced by Eagle Eye Drama with ITV Studios for BritBox films on location in the two countries.
PALESTINE
Michael Winterbottom and Mohammed Sawwaf film docu-drama Gaza Year Zero on location in Palestine. Sawwaf and his team filmed in Gaza while Winterbottom co-directs and edits from London.
THE GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
UTAH & EASTER ISLAND
Sandra Hüller and Willem Dafoe head the cast of Kent Jones dramatic feature Late Fame on location in New Jersey. 1 2 3 8 9
The region doubles for LA in comedy feature Spa Weekend produced by Black Bear and Suzanne Todd Productions and for director Derrick Borte’s action thriller Bear Country, starring Russell Crowe.
Wild Horse Nine from director Martin McDonagh starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell (produced by Blueprint Pictures, Searchlight Pictures and Film4) shooting in the two regions.
MALTA
BBC 8-part drama Two Weeks in August produced by Various Artists Ltd, written and created by Catherine Shepherd, shoots in Malta and Gozo with local prodco Pellikola.
JAPAN
Tokyo-based prodco The Seven films Quiztopia, a live action sci-fi drama adapted from the popular manga series, produced for Netflix and starring Takayuki Yamada.
HUNGARY
Ruben Östlund’s satire The Entertainment System is Down, set on a long-haul flight between England and Australia shoots in Budapest. The production acquired a real Boeing 747 for the project.
ENGLAND
DC’s superhero title Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow filmed at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden starring Milly Alcock with Craig Gillespie directing. The Harry Potter series is also set to shoot at Leavesden later this year.
ATLANTA, USA
Scream 7, the latest in Paramount’s horror franchise, shoots in the Georgian capital city for director Kevin Williamson.
NEW JERSEY, USA
NEWS tech & facilities
FROM CAMERAS TO STUDIOS, THE LATEST IN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY NEWS
PRODUCTION PARK STUDIOS EXPAND
West Yorkshire studios Production Park (pictured above) are expanding to include four additional production studios tailored for live music and film, as well as new facilities for education and collaboration.
The Academy of Live Technology, housed within the park, will benefit from a larger campus to deliver innovative training programmes, preparing the next generation of professionals in live entertainment and creative industries. Wakefield Council has injected GBP3.2 million into the new facilities, the first of which are expected to open in Q2 2025.
FILMLIGHT GRADING REMOTELY
FilmLight has released a solution for remote colour grading. FilmLight REMOTE (pictured) provides post-houses and colourists with the ability to work remotely “without sacrificing the high-quality and low-latency monitoring that is essential for fast and efficient workflows.”
Incorporated into Baselight 6.0, the tool allows users to integrate a FilmLight control surface, UI monitors, mouse and keyboard with professional monitoring over the internet.
FilmLight’s Martin Tlaskal said: “In today’s environment, there is an increasing call for remote working, whether you work on dailies, editing, VFX or finishing. But the world of colour correction has
DNEG GROUP BUYS METAPHYSIC
DNEG Group’s AI and content technology company, Brahma, has acquired AI content creation technologies developer, Metaphysic, the company behind the de-aging tech used on Robert Zemeckis’ Here.
As the debate in Hollywood surrounding the ethics and legal questions of using AI and tech in digital content creation has only grown, the acquisition of Metaphysic aims to accelerate Brahma's push into AI products to create photorealistic video, images and audio for Hollywood-grade content.
The agreement includes Abu Dhabi-based investor United Al Saqer Group and the DNEG Group investing another USD25 millioon into Brahma, an AI and content technologies company launched by DNEG Group. Thomas Graham, CEO of Metaphysic and president of Brahma, become CEO of Brahma. Post-transaction, Brahma is valued at USD1.43 billion.
Metaphysic has also brought its AI digital likenesses tools to other Hollywood projects like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Alien: Romulus.
EASTBROOK STUDIOS OPENS
Eastbrook Studios’ owners MBS Group and Hackman Capital Partners say the launch of its new film and television campus is London’s largest. The East London complex including 12 soundstages and backlot spans 21.5 acres.
MD Brantley Bissette, said: “This new creative hub is among the world’s finest. Our modern and technologically advanced stages have the flexibility to welcome productions of every scale and type. We’re extremely proud to be delivering world-class infrastructure to all productions.”
its own particular challenges and previous offerings have been limited in terms of the ability to drive both the colour grading control surfaces and the monitoring of high-quality images with low latency. FilmLight REMOTE addresses this by offering the first complete remote grading solution without sacrificing quality or speed.”
JW BAGS MOUNT PLEASANT
JW Collective has added Clerkenwell facility, Mount Pleasant Studio, to its roster of creative services. Facilities include U-shaped infinity cove plus green screen and chromakey drapes packages and new LED Volume.
Jane White, Founder, JW Collective, said: “Mount Pleasant Studio is a secret weapon in the middle of London, offering everything you need from a small studio with the support of an experienced management team.”
The studio has hosted shoots for commercials, music videos, interviews and live-streamed events including for Beats, Comic Relief and The Macallan.
PANASONIC
UNVEILS FOUR 4K CAMS
Panasonic released four new 4K professional camcorders to its range – the AG-CX20, AG-CX18, HC-X1600 and HC-X1200. All are 4K 60p 10-bit camcorders with a compact, lightweight body and featuring a 25mm wide-angle lens and 24x optical zoom. They are pitched at single-operator shoots and for filming where high mobility and image quality performance are required. Prices range from USD1299 to USD2199.
JELLYFISH PICTURES FOLDS
London-based Animation and VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures went into administration in March making the majority of its 69 employees redundant.
In common with a number of other companies across the visual arts and creative industries, the company had experienced challenging trading conditions for some time as a result of high cost inflation and the cumulative impact of the writers and actors’ strikes which caused projects to be delayed or cancelled.
THE REDUCTION IN GLOBAL CONTENT PRODUCTION, COMBINED WITH RISING CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND BUSINESS RATES, TRIGGERED A REVIEW OF OUR EXISTING PLANNING CONSENT.
CAMERAS GET EVEN SMALLER
A fixed point of view camera from Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies’ is claimed as the world’s smallest with a global shutter. A global shutter eliminates motion artefacts, ensuring crisp imaging of action. Weighing just 55g, including lens and stereo microphone, the AtomTwo (pictured below) could be worn by referees during a game or mounted on a lightweight drone.
Not to be outdone, fellow German developer Proton unveiled the “world’s smallest slow-motion mini cam.” Also targeting sports production and featuring a global shutter, the Proton High Frame Rate (HFR) camera captures frame rates of up to 240fps and has a C-mount lens system.
The HFR function is available in a ‘flex’ format allowing the camera head to be separated from its processing unit. This means operators can mount the head unit in tight places while positioning the processing unit elsewhere for cable management and stability.
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION GOES TO UNIVERSITY
Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is adding virtual production facilities with a 6 x 3m LED wall. CJP Broadcast Service Solutions is converting an existing video production studio that previously had a fixed green screen. The new facilities will be primarily used by students on foundation, graduate and postgraduate courses at the University’s School of Creative and Digital Industries.
Dr Russel Stone, head of the School of Creative and Digital Industries at BNU, said: “Our goal is to put something in front of students that is relevant to their employability. We work very closely with the media industry – alongside our High Wycombe campus our students also study at our teaching base at Pinewood Studios.
ENTRY LEVEL ALEXA
ARRI made its top-tier ALEXA 35 camera system (pictured above) “more accessible for a wider range of users and production types” by introducing a cheaper model and flexible licenses.
The existing camera, with all its software-based features, is now be known as the ALEXA 35 Premium. It is joined by the new and lower-priced ALEXA 35 Base model, with a core feature set that can be upgraded. The Base model includes ProRes recording up to 60 fps in 4K 16:9, and three independent 10-bit monitoring outputs in SDR and HDR colour spaces.
The feature licensing concept makes the camera future-proof as users can unlock specialist and high-end features as needed. Each of the licenses can be installed for seven days, 30 days, one year, or permanently, so owner-operators can activate them for a short-form job, a longer-term project, or a new career direction.
EXPERIMENTAL CREATIVE LAB OPENING AT PINEWOOD
Pinewood Studios is to house the UK’s first national R&D facility for creative industries. The CoSTAR lab, which will open in January 2026, will offer virtual production technology, with a 236m2 sound stage and a series of R&D spaces featuring spatial audio, volumetric capture and multisensory devices. Partners include Royal Holloway, NFTS, University of Surrey and BT.
A cloud-based Creative AI Compute facility, an incubation and partner business space, as well as prototyping facilities, will enable creative companies across the country to access the infrastructure. The Lab is funded from GBP75.6 million worth of investment by the UK Research and Innovation Infrastructure Fund.
Separately, Pinewood Group is consulting on revised proposals for the expansion of its Buckinghamshire studios. The aim is to add film stages and production facilities as well as a data centre.
David Conway, CEO, Pinewood Group said: “The reduction in global content production, combined with rising construction costs and business rates, triggered a review of our existing planning consent and we believe the revised proposals provide a credible alternative.”
VFX phoenix after Technicolor collapse
Almost as soon as the meltdown of Technicolor’s creative postproduction business was declared, green shoots rose from the ashes.
In the US, the creative team at Technicolor-owned The Mill launched new venture, Arc Creative, in partnership with Dream Machine FX. It will focus on shortform VFX including high-end advertising, game cinematics and trailers.
Dream Machine, led by chairman David Li, is a portfolio of VFX brands including Important Looking Pirates (whose recent credits include Shogun), Fin (credits The Creator), Zero VFX (Challengers) and Mavericks VFX (The Handmaid’s Tale).
“We have always held The Mill in the highest regard and the shutting of its doors is a sad day for the entire industry,” said Li. “We are excited to support all of the talented individuals who are working together to continue The Mill’s legacy and build Arc Creative.”
The Mill was founded in London in 1990 and won numerous Cannes Lions, Clios and Visual Effects Society Awards as well as 2000’s VFX Oscar for Gladiator.
Technicolor, which also included stalwart VFX brands MPC and Mikros Animation, filed for bankruptcy at the end of February.
VERSA STUDIOS MANCHESTER LAUNCHES
Versa Studios Manchester has opened in the former iconic home of Granada Television. The studios have over 200,000 sqft of production space, a pair of 4Kenabled production galleries, motion capture and VR/AR facilities plus dressing rooms and event areas.
Already home to BBC’s Morning Live and The Crystal Maze, the studios have also hosted productions for Sky, Amazon, Paramount and Netflix are run by founder and executive director Charlie Ingall.
Sarah McGettigan, former Head of TV at Pinewood, is Versa’s Head of Sales leading sales strategy across Versa’s facilities in Manchester, London and Leeds.
SIX LOCATIONS CHOSEN BY LOCATION MANAGER DOUGLAS DRESSER
1 ALASKA: Frozen tundra, glaciers and wild animals. I've scouted Alaska twice (for a commercial and a movie). There is nothing like landing a helicopter on a glacier that is moving beneath your feet.
2 ICELAND: The Government of Iceland realised early on that they could introduce their country to a global audience through cinema. The unique landscapes and otherworldly locations have made Iceland internationally known as a world class filming destination.
3 KOREA: Filming the historical drama Pachinko in a UNESCO World Heritage site was an amazing location. Living in the Hahoe Folk Village, Andong, in a 300-year-old house in the late fall with floors heated by wood fire makes you appreciate things like indoor heating and a proper bed.
4 COLOMBIA: I love when you get to make a motion picture in a world that is like a dream. When the colours come alive and the sounds and smells of the environment engulf you. When the magic of the movie and music of a city – Cartagena – makes you wonder what is real and what is make believe.
Growing up in Los Angeles and visiting a film set in his early teens, Douglas Dresser knew at an early age he wanted to make movies for a living. A love of travel, photography, and cinema made Location Management a natural choice.
Doug has made movies all over the world. Whether a large-scale action franchise or a historical period drama, he brings his expertise, passion, and enthusiasm to every project for a global audience. His credits include Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Baby Driver (2017) and The Revenant (2015).
5 DEATH VALLEY: Scouting for Lamborghini and filming in the lowest place in North America with a superstar crew in the harshest environments. Fighter jets roaring overhead and racing a Lambo through the desert makes you realise that we are honoured and privileged to do this for a living.
6 KASHGAR: We shot the motion picture The Kite Runner in western China and in the mountain region near the border of Pakistan. The Karakoram Highway is the highest international highway in the world and was once part of the Silk Road. It was one of the most amazing (and difficult) places to make a movie. The crew lived in yurts for a two-week period with 10 crew members per yurt!
FOCUS
On the Future
FOCUS London 2024 brought yet another high-quality event covering everything from indie film developments to the future of AI, television and the next generation of screen professionals.
While FOCUS remains a constant on the screen events calendar, consistent growth and adaptation to industry changes makes every year a fresh experience. The latest edition featured a new element to the conference structure, incorporating a series of bitesize sessions in Ted-talk format delivering industry nuggets in a compact 10-minute package.
Around 4,000 attendees from 70 countries visited FOCUS at the Business Design Centre to participate in the panels involving more than 200 speakers and copious networking opportunities. There was an
even bigger exhibitor lineup, bringing attendees face-to-face with the makers and facilitators of the industry. Representatives from Barbados and Kurdistan were among 283 exhibiting companies and sponsors creating a buzz across the show floor.
“FOCUS provides an unmatched opportunity to showcase the art of location management, exchanging ideas, and build collaborations that elevate storytelling and inspire creativity on a global scale,” comments John Rakich, LMGI president.
The showfloor at FOCUS 2024.
FOCUS PROVIDES AN UNMATCHED OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE THE ART OF LOCATION MANAGEMENT, EXCHANGING IDEAS, AND BUILD COLLABORATIONS THAT ELEVATE STORYTELLING AND
INSPIRE CREATIVITY ON A GLOBAL SCALE.
Here we present some of the key talking points of the event:
INDIE STRUGGLES
Projects like Kneecap, How to Have Sex and The After have all enjoyed critical and commercial success, but their producers and FOCUS panellists shared that the highs have also been combined with struggles and frustrations.
“If your instinct is pushing boundaries and finding new stories or new talent, then it’s really painful going into meetings [with financiers and sales agents] and hearing the same thing over and over again,” said Nicky Bentham, producer and co-founder of Neon Films during the Indie Film in a Changing Landscape: Staying Original in a World Craving Familiarity session. “There are people that love originality, but they often want to keep their jobs more than they want to take a leap.”
With franchise favourites and reliable risk-free IP dominating the market, indie filmmakers are having to pull out the stops to break through. That said, “there are opportunities for new talent and ideas to break through with public funding schemes and co-production partnerships available for projects which have that “something special,” said Jack Tarling, producer at Shudder Films and Mother Tongues Films.
Wild Swim Films producer Emily Leo added: “You’re backing a project because you believe in the voice or talent or the perspective because it has something to say about the world that feels needed.”
AUTHENTIC APPEAL
Shola Amoo, writer and director of The Last Tree, and Ewan Dunbar of Red Stag Entertainment share the sentiment that authenticity is key.
Although Amoo stressed there is still a journey to bring more underrepresented stories to mainstream audiences, there are an increasing number of diverse projects catching the eyes of buyers.
“Companies are definitely seeing the strengths of how stories representing different cultures are universal,” Dunbar highlighted, referencing Scandinavian series The Bridge and The Killing which made the crossover to prime billing on the BBC. “Because they come from different cultures, they’re often giving slightly different perspectives for audiences on the same things they face every day in social situations.”
“YOU’RE BACKING A PROJECT BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE IN THE VOICE OR TALENT OR THE PERSPECTIVE BECAUSE IT HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE WORLD THAT FEELS NEEDED.”
International streamers are not immune to IP and franchise fodder but the reach of the platforms can also be a saving grace for productions with global appeal. Although oversaturation of content can create an overwhelming amount of choice for the consumer, weekly episode drops can counter the binge-watching craze and prompt creators to develop stories that retain viewer attention week by week – much like old-school broadcast.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES RISK-FREE
Shola Amoo during Telling Authentic Stories with Universal Appeal: Adapting to the Ever Changing Entertainment Industry.
Indie Film in a Changing Landscape: Staying Original in a World Craving Familiarity.
MICKEY MOUSING ON NOSFERATU
Composer Robin Carolan gave fascinating insights into writing the score for Robert Eggers’ hit horror film Nosferatu
THE ART IN AI
Back in 1889, Oscar Wilde talked about art imitating life, and Garden Gnome founder Andrew McLean emphasised just that as he painted a picture of a 2030’s entertainment industry steeped in AI-enhanced art in the session Entertainment 2030: The Convergence of Art, Algorithm, and Audience
“With the technology that we have at our fingertips now we don't need to sit together in a board room and put our fingers in the air and guess,” McLean said. “We can understand historically, we can forecast and we can model future cultural states.”
BECAUSE THEY COME FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES, THEY’RE OFTEN GIVING SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FOR AUDIENCES ON THE SAME THINGS THEY FACE EVERY DAY IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS.
“The original 1922 version of Nosferatu was so iconic I was nervous coming on board,” Carolan admitted. “When I read the script, one of the things I was really excited about was that even though this is a horror film, it leant into the melancholy of the story. Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp's character) is much more at the forefront. If it had been a straight horror film, I probably would have been less enthused.”
Carolan was nervous too because he’s principally an electronic musician and Eggers wanted him to only use instruments from the 19th century. He started by building a playlist of references “things that might trigger something” including Beethoven, Bartok and “some really obscure Ukrainian film music” (1968’s The Eve of Ivan Kupalo) to help shape the score’s otherworldly tone.
He researched what Transylvanian music of the 1800s sounded like, finding a Toaca, “a giant xylophone that is suspended in Romanian monasteries” and asked percussionist Paul Clarvis to custom-build one. With classical musician Daniel Pioro, he assembled 60 string players, a full choir, ancient horns and woodwinds and a harpist.
Eggers also demanded that the music match the actions on screen, a technique known as Mickey Mousing. “Any small movement that an actor makes, however briefly, the music is supposed to sync with it and signal something. Robert was very detailed about this. He’d point out a frame of Ellen bleeding and say ‘We need something’. He was quite open to letting me figure it out.”
In the hands of creatives, AI technology in five years’ time should increase levels of efficiency and productivity than years prior, he argued. By anticipating elements such as popular themes, top talent and cultural indicators, producers can influence project outcomes and minimise the risk significantly, McLean argued.
“AI will continue to persist in the entertainment industry, but as with any previous developments in technology, human guidance and intervention is critical,” he said. “As creatives are given the means to measure and predict the success of a project at inception, balancing the amount of trust and responsibility we give the technology is going to be crucial.”
FOCUS 2025
The global screen industry is evolving at lightning speed but FOCUS London continues to keep its finger on the pulse creating a space where screen professionals at all levels are able to meet on common ground, exchange ideas, and create new opportunities.
Let’s meet again, when FOCUS returns on the 8th and 9th of December 2025 at the Business Design Centre, London.
For details please see focus.london
Robin Carolan & Anna Bogutskaya during Composer Robin Carolan’s Artistry and Collaboration on Nosferatu
Andrew McLean during Entertainment 2030: The Convergence of Art, Algorithm, and Audience.
DPs in the Director’s Chair
Cinematographers are filmmakers but remarkably few make the move into directing – or are backed to do so. When they do it is usually a passion project. A recent spate of releases from DPs (and an editor) turned director got makers thinking about their motivations.
American athlete Clarrisa Shields overcame prejudice about the appropriateness of female fighters in the ring to become America’s first female boxing gold medalist, at the debut of Olympic women’s boxing at the London 2012 Games. Her story is told in The Fire Inside and not by coincidence by Rachel Morrison, the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Cinematography (for Mudbound), in her feature directorial debut.
“As a female DP, I know what it’s like to be in a craft that people do not picture women in, where it isn’t enough just to be good at your job,” Morrison says. “There’s still a tendency to have women tell only women’s stories. The industry thinks of women for rom-coms, or melodramas, and it’s the men who are given opportunities in action movies or sports stories.”
The film has won overwhelming critical plaudits but she says it was nonetheless a gamble for Amazon to invest in the story – and in her. “It’s not just that it’s
an original, non-IP, mid-budget movie. We also don’t have huge names. That’s really scary to studios these days. It’s hard to get people out to see movies that don’t star Zendaya or Timothée Chalamet.
“As a cinematographer, I thought you go to the movies for the visuals. What I realised with this film is that the biggest difference is the feeling of being inside the ring with each punch landing or hitting the mat that the audience hears in surround sound.”
Cinematographers may be different beasts to directors but they are also filmmakers so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if they exchange the camera for the director’s chair. Nicolas Roeg is perhaps the most celebrated example. A second-unit cinematographer on Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and cinematographer on features including François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451, his visual sense remained a hallmark of the films he directed.
CINEMATOGRAPHERS MAY KNOW HOW TO TELL THE STORY BUT DO THEY HAVE A STORY TO TELL?
THAT TO ME IS THE DIFFERENCE. DIRECTORS HAVE TO HAVE A BURNING PASSION TO TELL THE STORY
Nonetheless it took Morrison some years before making the move. “I didn't set out to be a director. It was more that every director that I worked for said to me, ‘You think like a director, you care like a director. You should be directing.’
John Ridley, the creator and showrunner of anthology series American Crime invited Morrison to direct a couple episodes in 2014. “At the time it hadn't even occurred to me but I figured what do I have to lose. I did it and it went great.”
Still unsure she spent the next five years shooting movies including Black Panther before Barry Jenkins invited her to direct his screenplay for The Fire Within.
“It took people like [Black Panther director] Ryan Coogler to push me out into the arena and then finally, it started to percolate,” she says.
Rodrigo Prieto is another highly respected cinematographer, best known for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Babel (2006) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). His feature debut released last winter on Netflix is an adaptation of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo’s 1950s novel Pedro Páramo
“I’d been thinking about directing because I do like working with actors,” Prieto explains. “Also, this is a novel that I've loved since I first read it in high school. When I got the call from [producer] Stacy Perskie that Netflix had bought the rights and were looking for a director, it was an automatic ‘yes’ from me.”
Prieto spoke to some of his director friends for advice. “The first person I turned to was Martin Scorsese because at the time we were in Oklahoma prepping Killers of the Flower Moon. He told me to make sure I stick closely to the original material because if not, ‘the producers will kill you’.”
A NATURAL PROGRESSION
As cinematographer, Paul Cameron has helped lay the template for the look of modern action films. Collaborations with accomplished directors include:
PERFORMANCE DIRECTING
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Tony Scott (Man on Fire), Len Wiseman (Total Recall), and Dominic Sena (Swordfish) among others. Collateral (2004) which he shot for Michael Mann was one of the first major studio films to embrace digital cinematography.
He moved into the director’s chair, helming two episodes of Paramount+ series Special Ops: Lioness, starring Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman.
“After shooting a lot of movies with A-list talent I am used to being around high-end actors and functioning in a high-end way,” Cameron explains. “On some films where I’ve been a DP there’s often been more communication between myself and the actors then they’ve had with the director. I feel comfortable speaking with actors about performance.”
He noticed how Tony Scott befriended actors and won their confidence. “Then, when he had conversations about scenes and intent or character arcs, he can hit on them in a much more playful way since he has this bond,” Cameron observes. “That taught me a lot. Making TV drama you have so little time with actors to build their trust in you so that they feel they can experiment and try things.”
“I DIDN'T SET OUT TO BE A DIRECTOR. IT WAS MORE THAT EVERY DIRECTOR I WORKED FOR SAID TO ME, ‘YOU THINK LIKE A DIRECTOR, YOU CARE LIKE A DIRECTOR. YOU SHOULD BE DIRECTING.”
Cameron was part of the initial conceptualising, scouting, and narrative development of the Paramount+ original, setting the look by photographing the first two episodes and directing two more.
“Directing is a natural progression,” says Cameron who previously helmed episodes of HBO’s Westworld. “I’ve always been very interested in script and I love to discuss storyline and script
THE FIRST PERSON I TURNED TO WAS MARTIN SCORSESE. HE TOLD ME TO MAKE SURE I STICK CLOSELY TO THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL BECAUSE IF NOT, THEY WILL KILL YOU.
development in preproduction. When I scout locations I find that being a director is very much like being a DP. I see the scenes, I see the dialogue and see the actors come into the space, how a scene manifests and how it resolves.”
He continues, “Working with DPs means I can offer very specific ideas about how to handle things. It is difficult at times not to be the DP when I direct but it’s also an incredible relief not to have to worry about rigging or changes of weather as much as I would normally. Not having to micro-manage all of that was good.”
WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK
Perhaps inspired by photographing Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Dark Knight Trilogy, Wally Pfister chose high concept sci-fi Transcendence (2014) starring Johnny Depp as his directorial debut. Well received in some quarters it bombed at the box office and he hasn’t directed since.
Veteran Australian cinematographer John Seale (Witness, Mad Max: Fury Road) had worked with Peter Weir, George Miller and Barry Levinson before directing low budget drama Till There Was You (1990) starring Mark Harmon on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.
“I made a terrible mistake there,” he admits. “A cameraman's ego can sometimes outweigh the logic of what he’s doing. What I think it did for me was made me a better cinematographer because I learned the immense demands that are put on a director like organising actors, wardrobe and makeup. It wasn't my bag but I never look back with regret on that.”
Each discipline requires a different mentality, according to three time Oscar nominated DP Ed Lachman (Far from Heaven, Carol, El Conde). “Put it this way, cinematographers may know how to tell the story but do they have a story to tell? That to me is the difference between a director and a cinematographer. Directors have to have a burning passion to tell the story.”
With Larry Clark, Lachman co-directed the controversial Ken Park (2002) from a Harmony Korine script. He also directed and photographed Songs for Drella, a 1990 concert film with Lou Reed and John Cale.
“There are certain projects I like to direct because I feel I have more control over the image but I'm very happy to be just a cinematographer. Then I can be in that world and not have to deal with everybody else's problems.
“When you're a cinematographer you know how to tell the story and you have to come up with a solution to tell the story,” Lachman adds. “Plus, you
have a crew to help you solve the problem. When you're a director, everybody comes to you to solve the problem. It's a different mindset.”
This experience chimes with Morrison. “I'd heard that directing can be a solitary profession but it never registered to me because as a cinematographer all I see is my director surrounded by people,” she says. “Now I’ve lived it, I understand the sheer quantity of micro decisions a director is making at any given time. You have to deal with your DP, finish the edit and fix sound design and you're still championing the movie years later. If I go back to shooting I’ll have a lot more empathy for my directors now.”
EDITORS TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT
It’s rarer to find editors slipping into the director’s chair but the motivation for William Goldenberg to move out of the cutting room is similar; passion and circumstance. “After I was lucky enough to win an Academy Award, I got a lot of managers and agents saying, ‘do you ever think about directing?’”
Goldenberg’s resume includes an Oscar for Argo and four additional Academy Award nominations cutting films for directors Michael Mann (Heat), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Paul Greengrass (News of the World).
“DIRECTING JUST CAME TO ME AT A CERTAIN POINT WHERE I FELT CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO TELL A STORY THAT I WAS PASSIONATE ABOUT ON MY OWN.”
“As I got more and more experience working with all these directors, I started to feel like I want to do this too,” he says. “It wasn’t like I was in film school wanting to be a director. Directing just came to me at a certain point where I felt confident enough to tell a story that I was passionate about on my own.”
This was another sports biopic, that of Anthony Robles who was born with one leg but defied the odds to pursue his dream to become a wrestling champion. Filmed as Unstoppable, and produced by Ben Affleck, it is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
“I realise that I sort of treated my actors the way I like to be treated as an editor by a director,” Goldenberg explains. “In a way, a director is trying to get a performance out of the editor. They’re talking to you about what they want the scene or performance or the movie to be, and I found talking to actors very similar. You start talking about intentions and what you’re trying to get out of a scene. These actors are gifted, that’s number one, but it helped that I had the vocabulary to be able to talk to them and get a really positive response.”
International producers are being drawn to Japan’s expanding open crew and studio base, its variety of locations and surprisingly low costs with a new financial incentive.
Japan has changed phenomenally in the past decade,” exclaims Peter Grasse, head of Mr Positive production services. “Previously, everything was ‘you can’t shoot there’ or ‘that’s not possible’, which put off western producers. But attitudes and approaches are changing with young bilingual crews who have more of a ‘can-do’ attitude.”
Combine that with the studio space, the collapse of the yen, the introduction of a 50% tax incentive and variety of landscapes gradually opening up more to productions and it’s easy to see why producers are now flocking to the country.
COUNTRYWIDE APPEAL
“They’re not just shooting Tokyo or focusing on the pagodas, but filming here for weeks using local crew,” insists Grasse.
Recent projects to shoot in the country include Columbia Pictures’ Gran Turismo and Bullet Train, Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Apple TV+ series Sunny, Netflix’s The Electric State, starring Chris Pratt, and 20th Century Studios’ The Creator
“A LONG SOFT PREP IS INVALUABLE. THERE CAN BE ENDLESS MEETINGS AND CUPS OF GREEN TEA AND DISCUSSION WITH FORMS AND DIAGRAMS ENSURING LOCATIONS UNDERSTAND OUR NEEDS.”
“We filmed part of The Creator in Tokyo for a modern look,” says Indochina productions’ Nicholas Simon, a producer on the film. “The local crew are fantastic and used to working on big productions.”
“Tokyo is more film-friendly than ever, and big cities like Osaka, Kobe, Sapporo and Nagoya are also keen to offer unique location options,” says producer Georgina Pope, who recently formed a joint venture with Japan’s leading film studio, Toho, called Toho Tombo Pictures, to provide production services for foreign projects, including The Electric State
“Everyone had this outdated notion that shooting here was tough, but things have changed and the country is getting ready to take on a lot of projects from abroad.” To help achieve this, there is a growing network of location offices offering support in terms of location information, extras and logistics.
It is a country of contrasts. “There’s the traditional atmosphere of Kyoto, where we shot Sunny, or the red-light districts where numerous bars are crowded together in narrow alleys,” says Mao Okuno, assistant producer at production service providers, Twenty First City, which also worked on Gran Turismo
Simon points to the appeal of sites outside the big cities, and is planning to shoot a series taking place in the temples. He admits that while a lot of the
LOCATION HIGHLIGHT
The pretty little port city of Otaru and Daisetsuzan National Park, both on Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island), are ideal filming spots. Otaru boasts a network of canals, old warehouses and interesting herring mansions, which have been the backdrop of many local productions, including the new J-drama Beyond Goodbye (pictured above), and would work perfectly for international romantic dramas.
Daisetsuzan is a mountainous area of unspoilt wilderness known as the ‘playground of the gods’ with serene alpine landscapes and mountains. Several nature docs have filmed there. Just be aware there are wild animals that inhabit the park, including brown bears. Filming requires permits and careful planning to minimise environmental impact.
A: “We are redeveloping Toei Kyoto Studio Park. The first phase, scheduled for completion in 2026, includes the construction of a new set specifically designed for period drama productions, further strengthening Kyoto’s position as a hub for historical filmmaking.
Toei is one of Japan’s leading film studios and while we have primarily focused on producing films and television drama for the domestic market, we recently established the Production & Strategy Office within our International Division to strengthen our global efforts.
Q: Has Shogun’s success shone a new light on the country?
A: The remarkable success of Shogun has drawn significant attention to Toei Kyoto Studio from overseas, particularly from Western countries [though the Disney+ series shot in Vancouver]. We are developing several exciting international co-pros. However, we are also highly interested in working with Asian markets, where there’s a strong appreciation for Japanese culture. Additionally, we intend to incorporate virtual production from the early stages of development for future in-house productions.
places are gorgeous, including stunning national parks, “they don’t always have the infrastructure to support film crew next to them.”
“It’s a unique place and things are changing,” he adds. “I’m not sure you’d take a full Mission Impossible there yet, but with the right sequence, production and director, you could do a huge set piece for Bond or Mission. You’d just have to be smart, acquiescing and have a bit more time than usual.”
Pope advises producers to be as nimble as possible, especially when shooting in Tokyo. The streets are narrow, there is little room for huge trailers so the best way to approach Tokyo is to be mean and lean.
This approach applies to the costs too. “Staging a large multi-camera shoot in Tokyo is still cheaper than many cities in the world. The soft yen can further stretch your dollar.”
Commercial productions are also getting in on the action. “We’re shooting for a big Asian bank who wanted to film in Switzerland and Shanghai, but instead combined both scenery in Japan where the snow is incredible,” says Grasse. “It was the same for a New Zealand production about a ski location in Slovenia. They were looking at Romania, but realised shooting in Japan would be cheaper and just as effective.”
He also points to the extensive road network around the country, with many of the car companies, and major films (like Fast and Furious) shooting in places like Hokkaido, Nagano and Kyushu, which are easier to film on than downtown Tokyo.
“We are blessed with a great transportation system of road and rail and it is literally possible to transport crew on a bullet train in the morning and have them shooting at the other end of the country the same day,” says Pope.
DOUBLE TAKE
One thing to bear in mind, though, is that local officials appreciate careful planning, says Grasse. “We had a production that thought they could just come and shoot for a couple of weeks with ease, but were then annoyed they couldn’t just put a robotic arm on a city street in Tokyo. I told them that takes about three weeks to permit.
NEW 50% TAX BOOST
Owned and managed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade Industry (METI), Japan’s Visual Industry Promotion Organisation (VIPO) and the Japan Film Commission (JFC), the programme will fund up to 50% of qualifying spend in Japan, with a cap of USD6.8 million (JPY1 billion).
Applications must be submitted by a Japanese production company and need to meet one of the two following requirements:
• Direct production costs in Japan exceed USD3.38 million (JPY500 million) or total production costs exceed USD6.8 million (JPY1 billion) and direct production costs in Japan exceed USD1.35 million (JPY200 million).
• Projects are scheduled to be released, screened, broadcast, or distributed in more than ten countries.
“The key is to be positive and respectful, plan in advance and follow the right procedures, and then a lot of things become surprisingly possible.”
Pope agrees: “Something I always tell visiting producers, especially for bigger projects, is that we need real lead time here to work on locations. A long soft prep is invaluable. There can be endless meetings and cups of green tea and discussion with forms and diagrammes ensuring locations understand our needs. But once you get all that done, Japan does want to host films and the Japanese concept of ‘omotenashi’ (selfless welcoming) is alive and well.”
“STAGING A LARGE MULTI-CAMERA SHOOT IN TOKYO IS STILL CHEAPER THAN MANY CITIES IN THE WORLD. THE SOFT YEN CAN FURTHER STRETCH YOUR DOLLAR.”
Studios are opening their doors to support international productions. One of the biggest and oldest is Toei Tokyo Studios boasting 11 sound stages, outdoor backlots, and permanent sets designed to recreate 16th to 19th century Japanese architecture at a low cost.
“Until now, we have prioritised our own productions and have not actively sought international projects. However, we aim to gain more experience in international co-productions and expand our own projects into the global market,” says Ken Takahashi, head of production services and sound stages.
The studio is home to 200 actors specialising in period dramas, supported by experienced crew with expertise in historical productions.
“We also have a dedicated art department capable of handling large-scale productions and boast an extensive track record of location shoots across Kyoto and the Kansai region,” says Takahashi. “Kyoto is renowned for its picturesque traditional streetscapes, but it also provides a wide variety of filming environments, including modern business districts, bustling shopping and dining areas, historic buildings, shrines and temples, 19th-century Western-style architecture, and natural landscapes all within easy access [from the studio].”
Toei has set up a virtual production facility with a stage that features a 270-degree semi-circular LED panel capable of displaying 19K resolution imagery. “What differentiates us is our in-house creative team, which includes talent recruited from Hollywood and other major CG production hubs, allowing us to develop high-quality virtual assets internally,” adds Takahashi.
The other main studios in Japan are Toho, offering eight sound stages, a green room, post-production facilities and production services, Shochiku and Kadokawa Daiei, which also has a virtual production facility.
Japan’s quality crew base is another strong drawcard, although it’s important for international producers to understand the slight difference in working practices. “For example, the Japanese system often has four assistant directors. One is liaising with the art department, one with the wardrobe department, and one with the actors. I’ve found on recent films
that we’ve created a hybrid of the Japanese and the American systems. I reckon American film crews will adopt some of our AD structures because they’ve realised it’s not a bad way to work in a place like this,” concludes Pope.
SOMETHING ELSE
West Japan Railway plans to build the world’s first 3D-printed train station. The new structure, measuring about 108 sq ft, will be in the southern prefecture of Wakayama, 60 miles south of Osaka.
Structural components will be prefabricated with 3D-printing technology before being ferried to the site where workers will assemble them within six hours.
“Introducing innovative technologies such as 3D printing will facilitate the modernisation of railway infrastructure planning,” the operator said in a statement.
Using AI is becoming standard practice in many if not all areas of content creation. If there is no point being King Canute and trying to hold back the inevitable, what happens next? makers talks to producers who believe there’s an exciting future for new forms of content cocreated by machine.
Imagine a world where within a year or two anyone in their bedroom can generate Pixar quality animated movies, a new Friends, or a feature film that Neon will be desperate to snap up, just using AI alone. We can argue for the next five years about whether that’s likely or even possible but for now, let’s focus on the idea that if comes true, what then?
Technology lowers barriers to entry, but does it create talent? From the revolutionary Kodak Box Brownie to the iPhone’s portrait mode, anyone with a phone in their pocket can now take impressive portraits. But if so, why is it that Vogue is still hiring Annie Leibovitz to shoot their covers, rather than some #photographylover from Instagram?
Open AI’s Sora is now available around the world, with various competitors alongside it, and the resulting clips turning screen industry vets pale are getting more and more impressive. Meanwhile the television industry looks on as YouTube and other social platforms eat away at the pie chart of global viewers. What do these two trends mean when we consider them together?
The first thing AI means for the creative industry is an almost incomprehensible increase in volume, and competition for eyeballs. But it’s slightly quaint to think that the audience is human beings: the most influential audience for online creators is the algorithm that decides who or what gets visibility. AI can work out and cater to algorithmic whims faster than any human producer, hence the current abundance of AI slop, but surely that will only hold our attention for so long?
Eline Van Der Velden, a former YouTuber who now runs AI production company Particle6, is bullish that AI production will be standard practice very soon. While it will level the playing field, the whole playing field will be much higher: “It will raise the standards, because if everyone can make beautiful things it’s not about just creating something beautiful or cool, you have to be even better. Everyone will keep outdoing each other.”
WE NEED TO BE SMARTER, SHARPER AND MORE COMMITTED TO LOOKING AT WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE, OTHERWISE IT WILL BE INVENTED FOR US BY SOMEONE ELSE.
Even if AI makes production simpler, the pace of output required from anyone serious about monetising the currently dominant social platforms is exhausting. Right now, that means successful creators want to move to more traditional longform at some point, Van Der Velden explains: “What I find hard about all these platforms is the volume of content you have to produce to be trending and doing well: three pieces a week [for YouTube] is too much, and for TikTok it’s three per day. I'd rather work on a feature for a year.”
She estimates that using AI in production decreases costs by up to 90%, but given the competition and the higher standards it will bring, it will always require a team. “It's still a lot of work, and it definitely reduces cost, but it's not like you press a button and it's done. I think that's the difference that people don't quite understand.”
Particle6 is also working on AI generated performers, which she says are only as competitive with human actors as Disney characters. “As long as we can fall in love with them, it doesn't matter whether they're real or not, in my opinion – I fell in love with [Frozen’s] Elsa.” Perhaps synthespians will be seen as a safer bet for financiers too, given they can’t get cancelled while their movie is in post as those high-stakes humans sometimes do. But is there really an audience for them?
Well, yes. VTubers, or Virtual YouTubers, and AI influencers have bubbled up on YouTube and Instagram since the debut of Japan’s Kizuna AI in 2016. Lil Miquela followed on Instagram labelled one of TIME Magazine’s most influential people on the internet in 2018, despite not being an actual person. While most of them are currently in the gaming or fashion space, it’s not hard to imagine them taking roles in scripted content in the near future. AI will also make it possible for online personalities to radically expand their global audience, through seamless dubbing.
The CEO of Charismatic.ai, Guy Gadney, sees a bigger picture. Referring to Marshall McLuhan’s warning that we mustn't make the mistake of looking at the future through the rearview mirror, he says: “We assume that the future is going to be bigger, faster and in some ways more overwhelming, but we need to think smarter than that, because it will be different. In this country, we need to be smarter, sharper and more committed to looking at what that looks like, otherwise it will be invented for us by someone else, and we will have no say in the picture. And that will be the death of the creative industries in the UK.”
Gadney means to be existential about it, he says, pointing to the challenges the rise in social viewing has triggered for broadcast television and its advertising model, an issue for the creative industries even before AI came along.
Conceived as a response to generative AI from within the UK creative industries, Charismatic has brought together Channel 4, Aardman Animation, Falmouth University and the University of the Arts London, among other partners, with funding from Innovate UK.
“We recognised that generative AI was going to be the most enormous, impactful new technology on the media industries in its broadest sense,” he explains. “For a number of reasons, there was a real likelihood that tech companies would be building technologies that did not have the UK Creative Industries at heart. We felt something needed to be done about it.”
The UK has the talent and the capability, he says, but a lack of ambition has let other countries dominate the scene. “We have to be building the foundations of what the future will look like, otherwise they will be built for us. If we let other people, other countries, build them, they own the platforms, and they own the financial chain.”
“THREE PIECES OF CONTENT A WEEK FOR YOUTUBE AND FOR TIKTOK IT’S THREE PER DAY. I'D RATHER WORK ON A FEATURE FOR A YEAR.” CREATORS
Particle6 is leading the way in using AI for scripted content.
Eline Van Der Velden as Miss Holland – exploring cultural quirks with a comedic twist for YouTube and BBC Three.
WE'RE ALL PART OF THAT SAME ORIGINAL STORY AND WE'VE ALL CONTRIBUTED TO IT. THAT IS A NEW WAY TO HAVE SHARED EXPERIENCES.
The next generation of internet creativity is not just going to be film or television watched online, he says. “With scripted, you're getting new formats like vertical dramas where the format of each episode is two to three minutes, but the series is 100 episodes. It's inverse of what you see on television, which is longer episodes and shorter run series. From a storytelling perspective, that’s fascinating because it fits into our view that we want to do things that were not possible before AI, not to replace but to explore: what can we do now that we couldn't do before?”
The intention behind Charismatic is to help anyone, anywhere, tell a story, particularly those who haven’t had the privilege of film school. The idea starts with someone describing their idea in one line, and then working it into a script, and ultimately, a video. Gadney points to the missing piece in the existing puzzle: story. “At the moment, what you do is you put in a prompt, and it generates a piece of video, and that largely is a five or 10 second piece of video, which is fine in filmmaking terms. But it’s not a story.”
The key difference, he says, is Charismatic’s edit feature. “It's not a closed box like ChatGPT, which just generates output. We expose the process, which allows someone to edit and improve their story. It allows them to learn about the process, and in so doing, teaches them at the same time.”
Like those behind all the best-known AI platforms, Gadney states that Charismatic is not trying to replace or compete with the film industry, “Our view is that we are looking to attract the much bigger creator audience which sits on YouTube or on TikTok, and our aim is to increase the quality of the storytelling on those platforms, as distinct from doing high art film or television series.”
But the internet is famous for its filter bubbles, and if we’re able to exist in an even more deeply personalised online niche, what will bring us together? Gadney reassures that the internet is “a communications medium in its DNA form”, and if we build stories for that medium, we’ll build community.
“We believe that there is a way in which I create a story, and you experience my story, but there's a point halfway through where you want to do something different. So you edit it and publish your version, and then someone edits your edit, and so forth. We're all part of that same original story and we've all contributed to it. That is a new way to have shared experiences.”
Over the next two years, he envisions a world in which content is much more dynamic. “It is not a 35mm film that has been printed, processed and locked. It is a television series that might adapt to your profile: it might be scarier because you like scarier television or films, it might be less scary because you don't like them. Both of those mean it's fluid, and that’s nothing different from the way that humans have always told stories throughout millennia, we adapt for our audience.”
“AI WILL RAISE STANDARDS, BECAUSE IF EVERYONE CAN MAKE BEAUTIFUL THINGS IT’S NOT ABOUT JUST CREATING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL OR COOL, YOU HAVE TO BE EVEN BETTER.”
Gadney also imagines Charismatic enabling a new payment model that helps creatives monetise their work much more directly than has ever been possible before, with each iteration of a story carrying credits in its metadata, automatically remunerating those involved through blockchain. With existing financial models proving to be such a challenge for independent creators, and so much debate about copyright, this could appeal.
Van Der Velden shares the optimism: “It's the most exciting time in television history, in my opinion. The early 1920s was when Warner Bros., Disney, and Universal launched, because there was a big shift in tech then, and you were able to make movies. I think that same shift is happening now, again. It's all about who's going to be the studio of the future.”
BLOCKCHAIN FORMAT
STORYTELLING
A Particle6 AI generated ad for Dunkin Donuts.
Eline Van Der Velden as Miss Holland for her collaboration with the BBC.
interview withder spici Johanna Coelho
Johanna Coelho has been passionate about creating and playing with meaningful images from a very young age. Born and raised in France, she moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to study cinematography at the prestigious American Film Institute. Her early determination and drive led her to become one of the youngest cinematographers to ever shoot network television. Her work includes The Rookie S2 and S4 on ABC, Killer Siblings on Oxygen Network and the feature And Then There Was Eve
Recently Coelho was the sole cinematographer on HBO Max medical drama The Pitt which told its story of a single shift in a Pittsburgh ER over 15 x ’60 episodes, the largest number of episodes for a single streaming season ever. Coelho managed the amount of work and planning often divided by multiple DPs, alone.
MAKERS MAG
When did you first realise there was such a thing as a cinematographer?
JOHANNA COELHO
As a teenager I made movies with friends and always ended up behind the camera. I preferred telling the story through the lens and not coordinating it or being in front of it. I studied science at high school and took a cinema class where we went deeper into the nuts and bolts. I realised
how technical the whole process is in terms of electrics or the physics of light through a lens. I thought it was such an amazing combination of creativity and technique.
What were your next steps?
I was accepted into film school in France to major in editing or cinematography so I had to make a choice. I realised what I loved about editing was editing the images I had created. The story made more sense to me when I had that control.
Growing up, I had a passion for exploring. I couldn't decide what job I wanted to do. Sometimes I wanted to be a doctor, other days I’d go into fashion. But when I started to photograph I felt as if I could discover every single job or personality through the lens. That's how I feel today. Being a cinematographer gifts you incredible access to learning about different lives, different jobs and walks of life.
Is there a difference in sensibility between French and American filmmakers?
I've been thinking a lot about that and I've always been hoping to answer. Maybe it’s what makes me different from American cinematographers. My personal opinion is that the way we tell stories in France is a little different to the way they are told here but that's also why I wanted to come to LA. In France, it feels
like stories are more real and approachable but I like how American cinematographers go one step further visually. I want to inhabit this dual between cultures and elevate each story I work on.
You’ve called yourself a ‘visual psychologist’. Can you elaborate on that?
If I hadn't chosen to become a cinematographer, I probably would have gone into psychology. When you approach a story as a filmmaker, your goal is to show the audience who the characters are and what they feel. To do that you really have to dig in and understand a character’s motivation. Cinematographers have to find a way to visually transmit the feeling of being inside the head of that person.
What research did you do in preparation for The Pitt?
The sets were based on a real hospital but coincidentally I had to go to a real surgery just before we started shooting and I had this experience that everything felt so intense and bright. When you go from the waiting room to a bed inside the main hospital it feels very aggressive and stressful.
With the production designer we tested over 100 shades of white for the walls of the set to ensure perfect balance with skin tones. We decided to shoot mostly handheld in a documentary-style because it’s very important to place the camera in the middle of
the drama so audiences can follow what the doctors see and feel what they are feeling.
When you were interviewing did you know it was to shoot all 15 episodes?
That was a surprise to me but it didn't scare me because I understood the reasons why. The producers wanted to tell a continuous story from 7am to 10pm and to ‘sell’ that they wanted consistency throughout the piece. Even though there are different directors they wanted a pillar to ensure the style and creative choices stayed the same – and that's the director of photography.
Do you think AI will impact your craft?
It's definitely a worry but from what I've seen AI doesn't feel realistic or detailed enough to be a threat. That might change but GenAI is reliant on images that have already been made so how do we keep bringing new ideas to storytelling? It’s not just the DP but every single crew member has creative input to the visuals. Think about the focus pulling on The Pitt by our first AC. There's no right or wrong way to do it but focus pulling is pivotal to the way we tell the story, and it’s all down to human ways of seeing. I don't think AI could make the right decision for this show. While AI is something we can’t ignore and we can learn to use to our advantage, it can’t replace us.
EXPERIENCE AI
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Image courtesy of Ethan M Sigmon.
Screen Agender
While female directors like Lynne Ramsay, Coralie Fargeat and Greta Gerwig are having success, latest figures suggest they’re still very much in the minority. So what’s being done to change this?
The Substance and Babygirl were two of the biggest and buzziest titles of 2024, and both were directed by women, Coralie Fargeat and Halina Reijn respectively. But instead of this being part of a sea change in the gender disparity, they were still very much in the minority.
According to a report from Celluloid Ceiling, of the 250 top grossing films, only 16% were helmed by women. And women in directorial, writing, producing, editing and cinematography roles accounted for just 23% of those films, down from 25% in 2021.
“The stunning successes enjoyed by high-profile women in the last few years – including Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion and Chloé Zhao – have not translated into opportunities for greater numbers of women” says Martha Lauzen, author of the Celluloid Ceiling report. “Visibility for a few has not generated employment for many.”
Despite gender parity slowly inching in the right direction for on screen representation, it’s not the same behind the scenes with directors at the helm of top performing projects falling from 18% to 16%, and just over one fifth leading in other behind camera roles.
For filmmakers such as Riffy Ahmed, writer and director of BFI Network short film The Call, figures such as these are “heartbreaking” as a lot of her female peers are “feeling pushed out of the industry because it’s not sustainable,” especially over the past two years with the impact of the US strikes.
GENDER BIAS
One of the key drivers of disparity is the industry’s entrenched gender bias. Women frequently encounter obstacles to being hired, promoted, or granted creative control. A recent study by the USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Inclusion in the Director’s Chair revealed that female directors are often denied the same opportunities for big-budget productions as their male counterparts. When they do land directing roles, they are frequently assigned to low-budget, independent, or genre-limited projects, making it difficult to gain mainstream visibility.
“While the industry mantra may be ‘survive until 25’,’that simply isn’t viable for women and people of colour working as directors,” comments Dr Stacy L Smith, the report’s author. “Even with the progress made, there are too few opportunities and too few repeat chances for skilled, talented, and qualified directors to work on some of the most globally recognisable entertainment content today. If we are to say that real change has occurred, we must see continued increases across the board on these metrics.”
Additionally, women in technical roles such as cinematography or editing are often perceived as less competent – a perception that reinforces exclusion. Cinematography, in particular, remains one of the most male-dominated fields in the industry, with women representing less than 10% of the workforce in 2023.
Whilst the reality of the report’s figures can be deflating on their own, the study also highlighted the impact of how these roles are represented in the media, as they play into demeaning stereotypes of women behind the camera.
“Signs of how we envision women who direct were on full display this summer when a number of films portrayed women in this role, including The Fall Guy, A Family Affair and MaXXXine, all of which were directed by men,” notes Lauzen.
“In these narratives, fictional female helmers needed to be saved, required help translating their direction for a male actor who literally spoke a different language, or were rendered so brittle by thoughts of future opportunities that they were perceived as being difficult to work with,” Lauzen adds. “Every one of these portrayals provided a Rorschach test of how we view women in these leadership positions.”
“THE IMPACT OF HAVING A WOMAN IN HOD ROLES SATISFIES MUCH MORE THAN A DIVERSITY QUOTA, BUT ADDITIONALLY IMPACTS THE TYPES OF MEDIA & MESSAGING CREATED, AS WELL AS SHAPING A NEW WAVE OF CULTURE.”
Although entry level opportunities are available, thanks to support from ScreenSkills and Women in Film and TV and their initiatives to empower women in the UK’s screen industries, the pipeline to head of department roles remains unfilled by women. There are calls within the industry for a networking ladder that helps other women climb up to these roles. The impact of seeing women in heads of department positions can be hugely beneficial and influential, reinforced by positive media messages.
THE INDIE FILM SECTOR HAS BECOME A VITAL PLATFORM FOR FEMALE FILMMAKERS, OFFERING MORE OPPORTUNITIES THAN MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD.
Ahmed’s The Call is female-led behind and in front of the camera. It deals with the relationship between a mother and daughter, facilitated authentically by a female dominant crew, from writer to visual effects. But this is still quite rare. The lack of female dominated and intersectional teams has been an issue that Ahmed and many others still notice in the industry to this day, but from her time at NFTS and throughout her career, she believes “it’s not a chore,” to create those environments.
BREAKTHROUGHS
Another good example of a female dominated project is Caroline Hajny’s Diary of a Ghost, starring Genevieve Chennour (Bridgerton) and Mia Rodger (The Sex Lives of College Girls), which has women in several key production and technical roles, and is noticeably diverse in its crewbase. The film’s production team even ensured equal payment across all roles.
“It’s great to see people going out of their way to include women in higher-up roles and have more diverse crews, but it’s is still amazing to see that it is presented as such a difficult task,” says Hajny. “There are so many ways of finding female talent, even just through scrolling on social media and spending time looking through Illuminatrix or Cinesisters, familiarising yourself with their work and thinking of them for an upcoming project.”
Whilst the slow changes to the representation and recognition of women behind the camera can be disheartening, the shared experiences online have shone a light on the importance of community to break through the inequalities.
“What has really helped is establishing a group of women that I can lean on who are not only the decision-makers, but also in the similar stage of their career to me,” Hajny adds. “It helps to be able to share the same issues we experience and the ways
DECISION MAKERS CREW
RECOGNITION
we work around that, as well as having the opportunity to support each other’s projects without feeling like there is competition. Even though I did not received funding, I'm aware of a lot more funds just through how I see other peers get their projects made.”
So, although male directors and crew still dominate the box office hits, women are slowly finding ways to break through the glass ceiling, supported by organisations like ScreenSkills and Women Make Movies (which helps with fundraising through its Production Assistance Programme). Admittedly, still mostly in the independent sector, which has become a vital platform for female filmmakers, offering more opportunities than mainstream Hollywood.
“SLOW CHANGES TO THE REPRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION OF WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA HAVE SHONE A LIGHT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY TO BREAK THROUGH THE INEQUALITIES.”
In the 2022-23 period, women directed 42% of independent films, compared with 30% a decade before, according to a report from San Diego State University. This is a significant increase compared to their representation in top-grossing Hollywood films. Additionally, women comprised 44% of producers and 40% of writers in independent films during this period.
This trend highlights the indie sector's role in fostering gender diversity behind the camera, providing women with greater creative control and leadership opportunities. Let’s see if the blockbusters follow suit.
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Fluent Devices Come Home to Roost
While some brands have long practiced the art of the fluent device and stuck with it through changing fashions, many others like Kellogg’s have become only recent converts to sweating their distinctive brand assets. makers asks what is behind the rennaissance and repetition of old favourites.
There is little that planners in the advertising industry like more than creating neologisms for things that already exist: so welcome to the world of the ‘fluent device’ – a catch-all phrase for established and repetitive brand characters, jingles and other mnemonics. These have been an established feature of advertising since the discipline began and have ebbed and flowed with the tide – but are now firmly back in fashion.
Orlando Wood first coined the phrase ‘fluent devices’ in his seminal 2019 advertising book Lemon. It’s now become a firm part of the vernacular at ad industry talking shops since studies from the advertising research company System1V
showed that ads that included them are more effective and drive greater business effects than ads without them. It’s why Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot character has become such an established part of Christmas advertising, or why M&M’s lean heavily on their Spokescandies during Super Bowl ad breaks.
But according to Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1, fluent devices aren’t just for Christmas (or other special events and seasonal retail occasions) – they resonate throughout the year.
“Fluent devices are a way to build events into a lasting, ongoing campaign that builds in effectiveness, rather than being at the mercy of the event calendar,” he wrote. “They take investment
ADVERTISING IS STUCK BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE. FLUENT DEVICES CAN PLAY A KEY ROLE IN HELPING NAVIGATE THESE CHOPPY WATERS.
and time to build, which is partly why they declined. But give repeating characters and ideas that time and they’ll reward you with effective beyond the limits of any individual event.”
Many brands have lent into this thinking. Recently Leo Burnett put Cornelius the Cockerel (formerly just a brand character on a pack of Cornflakes) front and centre of its first master campaign for Kellogg’s called See You in the Morning
Mark Elwood, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, says that the decision to use Cornelius (rather than one of the other Kellogg’s brand characters like Tony the Tiger or the Coco-Pops monkeys) was because he was the original one and Cornflakes was the original Kellogg’s breakfast cereal.
“Kellogg’s, from a business standpoint, had been operating more as a collection of individual brands – advertising Rice Krispies, Crunchy Nut, Coco-Pops – rather than as a unified master brand,” he says. “That approach made Kellogg’s feel somewhat fragmented. Meanwhile, the market shifted – own-brand cereals became significantly cheaper alternatives. We were briefed on bringing back a master brand strategy: how do we make Kellogg’s iconic again? It’s a globally recognised brand, but it had lost some of that status. Think of Apple, Nike, or the BBC – Kellogg’s should be up there with them. But it needed to start behaving that way again, rather than continuing with a portfolio approach.
“When we looked at the brand’s history, Kellogg’s has always had strong distinctive brand assets –fluent devices. They’ve always been brilliant at creating characters that define the brand. So, the decision was to bring back the most iconic one that represented the flagship product – Cornelius.”
He adds that the benefit of Cornelius was that it could be used across multiple platforms and not just television. “Refocusing on Kellogg’s as a brand was
the objective,” Elwood continues. “The insight was simple: real family life is messy. People don’t always eat breakfast at the table. They eat it out of a Tupperware on the way to work, out of a mug, or straight from the box. So, in the ad, we embraced that reality. You don’t see the perfect spoonful shot. Instead, you see someone eating cereal on a train, someone grabbing it from the box in a rush. That messiness made the campaign feel authentic. And bringing back Cornelius as a fluent device tied it all together – reminding people how iconic Kellogg’s really is.”
Jon Howard, planning director and Partner at Quiet Storm, points out that fluent devices have other benefits –particularly at a time when marketers’ budgets are under pressure. He says: “Advertising is stuck between a rock and a hard place: media fragmentation on the one hand, shrinking budgets on the other. Fluent devices can play a key role in helping navigate these choppy waters. With investment spread so wide and thin, they can turbo charge effectiveness when done well. A good device can be golden thread that links disparate activity which might otherwise be invisible. They can boost attention and reinforce brand memories, helping people see connections and find meaning which a single piece of copy might lack.”
Quiet Storm is responsible for the long running Kids’ Voices campaign for Haribo, which features adults in normal serious situations, but with the voices provided by children. He describes it as “best practice example of executional structure as fluent device”. The campaign has run for over ten years, across more than 20 countries, with over 50 executions, and each looks very different.
“CHURCHILL’S NODDING DOG CHARACTER COULD OFFER PERSONALISED INSURANCE QUOTES VIA AI-GENERATED VIDEO, OR AN INTERACTIVE PG TIPS MONKEY RESPOND TO CUSTOMER QUERIES IN A CHATBOT.” FLUENT DEVICES CAMPAIGNS BRANDS
THE QUESTION IS NO LONGER IF AI WILL RESHAPE FLUENT DEVICES BUT HOW FUNDAMENTALLY IT WILL REDEFINE THEIR CREATIVE EXECUTION, SCALABILITY, AND STRATEGIC ROLE IN BRAND ECOSYSTEMS.
“The introduction of Haribo liberates the child inside as people show their love for the brand via very real kids’ voices. This ensures each ad is recognisably Haribo, landing consistent brand meaning and bringing proven effectiveness every time,” he says.
While Quiet Storm and Haribo have long practiced the art of the fluent device and stuck with it through changing fashions, many other brands like Kellogg’s have become only recent converts to sweating their distinctive brand assets – or even resurrecting or creating new ones of their own. Morrisons brought back its More Reasons to Shop at Morrisons jingle in 2023 after 17 years, while McDonald’s has made greater use of its Golden Arches in its ads in recent years, most notably with its Eyebrows spot.
“There’s a real power in emotion when you use fluent devices correctly,” says Elwood. “It’s not just about recognition – it’s about how people feel about a brand. The Golden Arches carry decades of memories. When we revived More Reasons to Shop at Morrisons, for example, it wasn’t just nostalgia – it was tapping into something people still associated with the brand. That’s the power of fluent devices: they create a shortcut to emotion.”
Nick Bird and Lee Smith, creative directors at Lucky Generals, are responsible for the Yorkshire Tea advertising, which has established its own schtick. They created the Where Everything’s Done Proper positioning for the brand with each execution sharing common themes, which they say has helped move Yorkshire Tea from third biggest brand by sales to the number one position. They have also identified a resurgence in the use of fluent devices after a decade or so of abeyance. “Fluent devices definitely decreased in the early 2000s to 2010s,” they say. “It seems they got parked with the jingle – the fluent devices flagship that usually got sunk before it even left Port Creative department.”
This period of rest could have acted to their benefit. “There does seem to be a bit of a renaissance at the moment,’ they say. “Perhaps because with so many screens and platforms for brands, you need a little something extra to land the message and stick with people. And as for the jingle; ‘Did somebody say Just Eat’ and ‘I’m lovin’ it’ seem to have raised the Titanic.”
With AI making the creative process easier (if not necessarily better), some observers suggest that fluent devices, and particularly brand characters, will become more widespread as they are easier to create and be replicated in places that were previously impossible, making hyper-personalisation more of a reality. For example, tools like Runway ML can enable rapid, high-quality video generation, ensuring that a fluent device retains its distinct voice, look,
and mannerisms across multiple formats. Add in Gen AI, the theory goes, and you can allow fluent device-led narratives in real-time, adapting them for different markets, platforms or even individual consumers. For example, you could see Comparethemarket creating tailored TikTok skits featuring brand character Aleksandr, or the meerkat engaging in real-time banter on X or appearing in immersive AR experiences. Similarly, Churchill’s nodding dog character could offer personalised insurance quotes via AI-generated video, or an interactive PG Tips Monkey respond to customer queries in a chatbot.
Al Berry, a brand strategist and former global head of content marketing at Pokerstars, is one advocate. He says, “The creative application on Gen AI could bring these brand favourites to life. AI-powered tools like Google’s VEO 2, Runway ML, and other Gen AI platforms revolutionise content creation, so fluent devices are on the brink of transformation. The question is no longer if AI will reshape them but, I believe, how fundamentally it will redefine their creative execution, scalability, and strategic role in brand ecosystems.”
Moreover, he thinks that AI will give brand owners the opportunity to behave like any other entertainment property. He says: “Hollywood loves a sequel, even more so a franchise. A tried and tested character which last time we checked the box office loved, and people flocked to. Brands have this – they just don't know it yet, or don't see past the edge of the packaging. There is gold in those mascots, just waiting to be panned, literally not critically.
“The world in which the brand could inhabit has a multitude of storytelling to unpack. Combine with a writing team to the calibre of Seth MacFarlane quality and you are off to the races. How many times have you seen a Family Guy meme pop up in your feed or been shared as a gif? It’s the perfect content to be atomised across socials. If we could start to get brands occupying these worlds, then Generative AI might just be the key to unlock them.”
This is a world that doesn’t exist – yet, but it’s not inconceivable once AI inputs and outputs improve. But not everyone is convinced the technology is sophisticated enough yet.
Leo Burnett’s Elwood used Framestore to create Cornelius, rather than AI, and the visual effects company used 27,000 feathers and nearly 3,000 bones to create the CG cockerel and mapped out the streets of Madrid – where the ad was shot – to consider how sunlight would hit its feathers. “That’s the kind of craft you don’t get from pressing an AI walking chicken button,” he concludes.
John Wick Chapter 4 and Marvel’s Moon Knight series are just two of the major film and television productions to shoot in Jordan in recent years.
The country’s desert landscapes are a huge drawcard. “We filmed in Wadi Rum for Dune (Part 1 and 2) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and it was perfect,” says Duncan Broadfoot, supervising location manager. “The Royal Film Commission of Jordan (RFC) were hugely supportive and we managed to get deep into the desert there to parts that had not been filmed in before.”
Of course, this comes with logistical challenges. “We had to build extensive, colour-coded, road networks (like ski routes) to get from one unit to another, and the local cell phone company had to put up masts so we could have phone signals. It was a huge undertaking, but we managed it.”
“ADDITIONALLY, THE COUNTRY HAS ESTABLISHED OLIVEWOOD STUDIOS, A FACILITY BUILT TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, FEATURING 50,000 SQ FT OF SPACE.”
During filming in Wadi Rum, the crew stayed in Aqaba on the Red Sea, which is just 45 minutes from the desert. They also filmed on the east coast of Jordan with its black desert landscape, which is harder to get to. “We shot aerials and the cast and director flew in on a Black Hawk helicopter, filmed and flew
back again. There’s always a way to make things happen in Jordan,” adds Broadfoot.
Other striking locations include the surprising green landscapes in the north where there are a lot of rivers and lakes, which the locals call ‘the Switzerland of the Arab world’. Then there’s metropolitan Amman with its combination of old traditional buildings and modern skyscrapers.
Add in iconic historic sites, like Petra and Jordan makes a perfect double for locations in Iraq, Syria, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Libya.
“I always tell producers that they can get from the desert to the city to lush forest within a few hours,” says Mann Ghanem, location manager for The Imaginarium Films, who shot the Swiss film, Fly Little Bird, and Cherien Dabis’ drama All That’s Left of You, both set in Palestine, in Jordan.
Getting permits typically takes 10-14 days. “The RFC co-ordinates with government authorities to ensure smooth approvals, even for sensitive locations like military zones and historical sites,” assures Mohannad Al-Bakri, MD of the RFC.
Another obvious draw is the 25% cash rebate (and 56% savings on customs and sales tax) with payments issued in a maximum of 150 working days “after all requirements have been submitted,” adds Al-Bakri.
The crew base to support productions has also been expanding with Al-Bakri insisting the industry can handle multiple productions at once.
“We get new talent to shadow the director and crew on our projects, so they can learn and get experienced,” says Aseel Abu Ayyash, executive producer at The Imaginarium Films.
Additionally, the country has established Olivewood Studios, a facility built to international standards, featuring 50,000 sq ft of space.
“We are actively working to establish Jordan as a premier destination for international productions,” concludes Al-Bakri.
While not necessarily a new concept, the introduction of cloud technologies is ushering in the next era of near-live production. The result is greater efficiency and expanded applications, allowing more types of productions to take advantage.
With the demand for cost-efficient, timely and engaging content higher than ever, broadcasters are increasingly turning to near-live production techniques to enhance the speed with which content is captured and delivered, says Andy Hooper, SVP Live Products, Ateliere. This approach streamlines the production process and minimises the time between content capture and distribution. As a result, it enhances the speed and agility of content delivery, paving the way for increased flexibility and greater cost efficiency.
WHAT IS NEARLIVE PRODUCTION?
Long-running live productions, especially in remote locations, usually require lots of infrastructure with proprietary equipment, complex video-specific standards and interfaces, and the cost and hassle of travel and shipping. Not to mention, significant network connectivity and bandwidth is required to bring content back to central production facilities if it is to be post-produced or remotely mixed, for example for nightly summary shows.
Producers of such formats are increasingly seeking ways to reduce the amount of on-premise equipment and personnel, moving the live vision and audio mixing as well as the fast turnaround post production editing back to core production facilities whilst keeping content in the remote locations if at all possible. It’s no wonder that near-live production, where remote mixing and recording of live signals is combined with a more traditional postproduction editing flow, is being implemented increasingly widely.
INSTANT IMPACT
Near-live production is ideal for multiple use cases, including game shows, reality TV, sports highlights, news, live event coverage, pre-recorded segments for live broadcasts (e.g., interviews or behind-the-scenes clips), and social media content that aligns with live events and viewing habits on social media.
Images courtesy of Ateliere Creative Technologies.
SHORTLY AFTER SEGMENTS AIR, HIGHLIGHTS CAN BE CLIPPED, EDITED, AND DISTRIBUTED ON PLATFORMS LIKE YOUTUBE, INSTAGRAM, AND X. THIS BOOSTS AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT BEYOND THE LIVE TELEVISION BROADCAST.
A great example of a television show that has transitioned to near-live production is NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL). While the show has always been associated with live, the approach to certain segments has increasingly integrated near-live elements such as pre-taped sketches like ‘Digital Shorts’ or parody commercials, often filmed and edited just hours before the live broadcast. Near-live workflows ensure these segments are polished, while maintaining the immediacy and relevance of the week’s events.
To stay topical, SNL often reacts to breaking news or pop culture moments by creating sketches or updating scripts at the last minute. Near-live production techniques, including real-time editing and cloud-based workflows, help the team refine and integrate these updates seamlessly into the live broadcast.
Shortly after segments air, highlights can be clipped, edited, and distributed on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and X. This boosts audience engagement beyond the live television broadcast.
INTRODUCING NEARLIVE PRODUCTION 2.0
For all the benefits and efficiencies of near-live production, there are even more to be unlocked thanks to internet and software-defined workflows enabling what we call near-live 2.0.
This advanced approach transforms near-live production from simply being efficient to becoming a foundational tool for innovation in the media industry. By fully integrating cloud-based systems and internet workflows, near-live 2.0 enables teams to collaborate remotely, drastically reducing costs while accelerating production timelines. This eliminates the need for large on-site crews, as editorial teams can efficiently work from centralised hubs, accessing content in real-time.
The key is to elevate technical capabilities through features like multi-versioning and AI-assisted productions. AI automates complex post-production tasks, quickly generating multiple content variations optimised for different platforms, languages, or demographics. Meanwhile, AI tools streamline editing processes by selecting
optimal takes and assembling footage, allowing producers to focus on creative decisions while maintaining rapid turnaround times.
Even more groundbreaking is the potential for personalisation and user interaction within television and content formats. By leveraging advanced analytics and real-time audience feedback, productions can dynamically adapt storylines, integrate viewer influence, or even offer multiple perspectives within a single show. For example, interactive elements could allow fans to shape a competition's outcome or select storylines they wish to follow, unlocking deeper viewer engagement. These capabilities position near-live 2.0 to reinvent traditional television formats, offering a blend of immediate responsiveness and immersive viewer experiences.
“EVEN MORE GROUNDBREAKING IS THE POTENTIAL FOR PERSONALISATION AND USER INTERACTION WITHIN TELEVISION AND CONTENT FORMATS.”
The rise of these new tools and workflows allows broadcasters to capitalise on the demand for quick, fresh, and relevant content. Whether it’s producing episodic realities like Love Island, reinventing game show formats, or crafting hybrid interactive storylines, this approach offers tremendous flexibility while preserving high creative standards. At its heart, near-live 2.0 is about creating smarter, faster, and more connected media, redefining the boundaries of what television production can achieve in an increasingly competitive and digital-first world.
Andy Hooper has significant leadership experience in product and professional services companies that deliver complex systems solutions to media and streaming companies. Silicon Valley systems developer Ateliere Creative Technologies aims to create the world's first semi-autonomous media supply chain platform leveraging Generative AI.
First Class Filming
From Home Alone in Chicago to F1 in Abu Dhabi, productions have been filming at airports around the world for years. But what can they shoot in the terminals and on the runways, and how?
There’s no such thing as can’t be done,” says Susann Walther, head of filming enquiries at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. Just what a production wants to hear! And Walther and her team come from a place of great experience having assisted more than 150 films at the airport over the last 25 years, including Captain America: Civil War, Unknown, Conspiracy and Flightplan.
They have helped manage everything from fight scenes in the check-in area to action sequences in the hangar. “Cars drove all over our runway, we’ve had drone flights and helicopter missions over the airport, stunts on the wings of an A310 passenger aircraft (especially available for productions), and
even complete terminal closures are possible,” Walther enthuses. And it doesn’t stop there… “We were also able to implement requests for the use of pyrotechnics in our buildings, the installation of cranes, changes to passenger routing, the repositioning of aircraft, the temporary closure of shops, and even the installation of a film studio in the hall areas.”
Their terminals have sufficient capacity to carry out filming even during normal operations. For Captain America, for example, they had to close part of the check-in in the middle of peak season because a major stunt scene was being filmed. “The passengers
NO MATTER HOW UNUSUAL THE REQUESTS HAVE BEEN, WE HAVE NEVER HAD A PASSENGER MISS THEIR PLANE OR A PLANE MISS THEIR SLOT BECAUSE OF THEM.
were directed differently, the check-in process was adjusted, a large crane was set up in the middle and the passengers were warned of a planned explosion over loudspeakers. But no matter how unusual the requests have been, we have never had a passenger miss their plane or a plane miss their slot because of them,” adds Walther.
CANDO ATTITUDE
Zayed International (Abu Dhabi) is another popular and accommodating location for filming. Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One even managed to shoot stunts on its roof just before a new terminal was opened. “The security was high to make sure there was no delay to the opening, and they had to sort out signage and personnel to make it look like a fully functioning airport, but it worked well,” says Sameer Al Jaberi, head of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission.
Inevitably there are sensitive areas that cannot be filmed at any airport, such as scan monitors for security checks or the air traffic control tower. Although, Walther insists at Leipzig/Halle there are always solutions, such as recreating these scenes/locations elsewhere.
For Apple TV+ Slow Horses, the production filmed the important opening scene of episode one at London Stansted airport during Covid-19, so had good access. “We managed to film in the luggage area, on the tarmac and in waiting lounges (and used extras as staff in shops),” says Marios Hamboulides, an AD on the series. “Then completed some interiors at Wembley Stadium, which looks extraordinarily like the interior of an airport with its high glass windows and escalators.”
Stansted has a dedicated film unit and has hosted ITV thriller Red Eye, The Dark Knight Rises, and James Nunn’s 2024 action sequel One More Shot, starring Scott Adkins, for a 20 day shoot.
“Normally it can be hard to film at an airport, especially action, doing 40 shots a day, with everything being start, stop, controlling passengers, planes etc, unless the airport has been closed down or mothballed [although then you have to bring in thousands of extras, recondition and restock stores, and there are no planes],” says Nunn. “But Stansted were so accommodating to have an entire movie shoot at the airport.
“It helped we were shooting in seemingly one take (with hidden cuts), so after a load of rehearsing (including GoPro’ing the route with stand-ins), we were able to close sections off for set periods each day.”
“THE SECURITY WAS HIGH TO MAKE SURE THERE WAS NO DELAY TO THE OPENING, AND THEY HAD TO SORT OUT SIGNAGE AND PERSONNEL TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A FULLY FUNCTIONING AIRPORT, BUT IT WORKED WELL.”
He was doubling Stansted for Baltimore/ Washington airport where Navy SEAL Jake Harris has brought a terrorist suspect Amin Mansur (Waleed Elgadi) for interrogation. “It was the perfect location because of the scale of the airport and they allowed us to do some big action shots all over the terminal and even on the runway.
“It was quite funny, we’d walk around and say I’m going to blow that up, do gunshots there, and someone’s going to roll down the escalator, and the Stansted film team were looking at me like ‘that’s great’,” laughs Nunn. The key is being honest upfront about what you’re shooting. “There’s no point telling them we’re shooting a Driving Miss Daisy movie. We need to know if they’re ok with everything.”
With permission granted, Nunn (and co-writer Jamie Russell) wrote the script around the geography of the airport. Normally, productions shooting
IT WAS QUITE FUNNY, WE’D WALK AROUND AND SAY I’M GOING TO BLOW THAT UP, DO GUNSHOTS THERE, AND SOMEONE’S GOING TO ROLL DOWN THE ESCALATOR.
sequences at airports tend to cherry pick the rooms and space they need, such as the arrivals and departures zone, and have a tight window to get the shots.
PREP AND RESTRICTIONS
“One of the biggest restrictions is that planes are taking off until midnight with passengers everywhere, and restart again at 4am, so that four hour window was our sweet spot. We just had to move on the stragglers who’d missed their flights, and dress the airport with US flags and signage, then quickly take it down before passengers returned,” says Nunn.
Filming outside the airport building is usually easier than inside, although still requires a lot of planning and approvals. Sky Studios’ The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne, filmed two levels of Zagreb airport, doubling one for France and the other for Spain.
“It required complex preparation for simple execution,” says Erika Milutin, md of Embassy Films, who supported the series. “We were shooting exteriors at arrival and departures, so the approach to the airport had to be changed for filming, and we needed space for 200 crew plus trailers. Getting permission takes slightly longer than most locations, but it worked well and the airport was co-operative.”
The location scout will often approach the airport team or representative directly with an initial idea and the script. “We work closely with the production team to develop the motifs, schedules, security concept and logistical processes,” explains Walther. “We point out critical time slots or illogical scenarios at an early stage and co-develop a functioning concept. We also provide support with applications to the authorities, arrange for employees of our company to act as extras and hire airport equipment for filming.”
One of the hardest places to film and get crew and equipment through is the security area. “A certain lead time is required for filming, which then has to be discussed individually,” says Walther.
“On One More Shot we had to get all our crew through security each day, like any other passenger, which took time,” Nunn explains. “They had to be there early and staggered through. Because we’re an action film there were guns and explosion devices that needed to be thoroughly checked. We had to use BB guns (relying on CGI to show them firing), and likewise we couldn’t bring fuel [so the explosion scenes also had to rely on smoke and lighting fx]. It could take up to four hours to go through, so we stored some equipment on the air side in a crate but real estate in the airport is premium, so it can be costly, and we needed round the clock security to keep an eye on it.”
“WE PROVIDE SUPPORT WITH APPLICATIONS TO THE AUTHORITIES, ARRANGE FOR EMPLOYEES OF OUR COMPANY TO ACT AS EXTRAS AND HIRE AIRPORT EQUIPMENT FOR FILMING.”
They also needed a chaperone from the airport for every three crew members. “You can’t go to the toilet without one or just go for a wander. We’d always be under supervision because airports are heavily secured buildings,” adds Nunn.
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
Sometimes, it’s just not possible to film in the main part of an airport and alternatives need to be found. For example, 20th Century Studios’ sci-fi The Creator, filmed at the Thai Airways hanger on the site of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand.
“We managed to film inside one of their jets during Covid-19, doubling it for a lunar shuttle,” says Pam Plodripu, a line producer on The Creator. “We had to put props and people in there, and filmed with a small Sony FX 3 camera for flexibility.”
THE PRODUCTION HAD ACCESS TO THE ENTIRE SPACE, INCLUDING AREAS OF THE AIRPORT PASSENGERS DON’T NORMALLY SEE, AND WERE ABLE TO AVOID DISRUPTING AIRPORT OPERATIONS.
The challenge was getting the crew and kit to the hanger as they weren’t allowed to enter it from the tarmac, so had to come through the airport via a maintenance back office. “They had to x-ray all our equipment, which took a while, but we were able to leave some of the bigger things, like lights, there overnight,” adds Plodripu.
Another option is to film at a main airport when it’s under refurbishment. This is what BBC/Amazon series The Mallorca Files did for its first season. “Palma de Mallorca airport was half closed at the time, and we were filming between October and April, so off peak. Plus, we only shot on the land, not air side, so less sensitivity around the filming,” says Ben Donald, head of producer Cosmopolitan Pictures. “It would have been a completely different proposition in summer. But we were still shooting a big scene involving a chase, gunshots and police officers (some real, others not), and effectively shut down the arrivals area (although allowing passengers still to enter) for a couple of days. So required a lot of clearance and extras, but was fortunately quite a smooth process.”
There are also alternative options to the main international airports. “In Thailand you can shoot at the old Don Mueang airport, a hub for low cost airlines, which has been modernised with fewer restrictions to shoot, cheaper [than the main airport] and there’s more availability,” says Nicholas Simon, head of Indochina Productions.
Plodripu points to Chiangmai International Airport as another good option where you can “potentially shoot in the baggage collection area, passenger waiting zone and immigration counter,” she says.
“On the film Extraction, we managed to rent a private airport for aviation training, where we got to film on the runway, have our own plane take off and land, and do some action on the tarmac,” adds Simon.
Some airports can even double for others. For example, the Netflix thriller Carry-On redesigned a decommissioned terminal at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International airport to look like Los Angeles International airport (LAX). The production had access to the entire space, including areas of the airport passengers don’t normally see, and were able to avoid disrupting airport operations. Interestingly, LAX (ideally located near the
Hollywood studios) has also been used to double for other airports, such as on Christopher Nolan’s 2020 thriller Tenet, which used it as a stand-in for the Oslo airport Gardermoen.
LASTMINUTE HITCHES
Inevitably, there will be last minute issues for productions and the airports to handle, but these can usually be dealt with or compromises found. “On the TV series Ze Network, starring David Hasselhoff, the film crew had booked a private jet, but then it broke down. Fortunately, we were able to find a replacement at short notice with the help of a local partner,” says Walther.
The production of One More Shot had planned to remove some glass from a window to perform a high fall, but because it was toughened glass, the bill was going to be around GBP55,000 for the stunt. “If you’re an Avengers movie then maybe it’s fine, but not for a lower budget movie like ours,” Nunn says.
The take-away is pick your airport carefully, get the timings right, give yourself time to get all the permissions and be realistic about what and where you can shoot. Filming a huge, effects heavy scene on the runway at a busy airport like London Gatwick in the middle of summer is not going to happen!
Speak to the experts at the airport (walk them through your plans), and be optimistic about what you can shoot, as airports can be surprisingly accommodating of tricky sequences in challenging parts of the terminal.
RECENT MAJOR FILMS AND TELEVISION SERIES SHOT AT AIRPORTS WORLDWIDE
London Stansted airport, UK
One More Shot (2024) Slow Horses (2022)
Leipzig/Halle airport, Germany
Inventing Anna (2022) Blood Red Sky (2021) Ze Network (2022)
Zagreb Airport, Croatia The Day of the Jackal (2024)
Zayed International Airport
(Abu Dhabi International airport), UAE
Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) F1 (2025)
Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand
The Creator (2023)
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, US
REQUIRED TO SHOOT A UNIQUE SPLIT-SCREEN MUSIC VIDEO
The video for LA-based band OK Go’s track, A Stone Only Rolls Downhill, had a simple concept: turn a grid of iPhones into a mesmerising motion mosaic. Co-directed by band frontman Damian Kulash and Chris Buongiorno through Park Pictures, the prep and shoot took a mammoth 577 hours.
“The song is about how we’re living in a split screen,” explained Kulash. “Whether you’re focused on the climate or the rise of authoritarianism, the worse things get, the more stark the split screen becomes. Playing with this in a visual way meant making the most physical, human, DIY split screen we could.”
Instead of digitally connecting multiple shots, they wanted to see what would happen if each screen played a single unedited shot. Therefore all of the interplay of the content had to be planned and performed, rather than edited.
The shoot itself was fairly straightforward – simple lighting in a simple space. They shot everything sequentially but every take had to be meticulously planned, each with its own subtle changes from one to the next.
“It’s a bit of a house of cards because each one connects to the ones next to it,” said Buongiorno.
“It quickly becomes a delicate math problem. I call it ‘playful freedom with surgical accuracy’.”
Keeping track of each one of those subtle changes was hard enough for the band, but making it look fun and effortless required patience and stamina. The band had specific audio cues for each of the sections (e.g ‘phone up in 3, 2, 1’; ‘Tim eyes in 3, 2, 1’) and were required to do that over and over again.
They shot in 4K using the iPhone’s 1x mode (roughly 24mm equivalent) then cropped down to the equivalent of 2x (48mm) for wriggle room in post to line the shots up. Editor Justin Clare was the project’s “one-man file management czar.”
Images courtesy of T Hunter McCann & OK Go.
Recall for Simone
WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPROVE THE CASTING EXPERIENCE OR WILL IT BE THE END OF THE ROAD FOR THE AGENT?
AI is being used to enhance the casting process and acting performances, but what are the ethics behind its use and is it widening the chasm between the audience, creatives and their software based sidekicks?
From enhanced Hungarian accents in The Brutalist to refined musical performances with vocal blending in Emilia Pérez, this year’s Academy Awards shone a light on AI’s increasing influence on actors.
Cyril Holtz, the re-recording mixer of Emilia Pérez, openly talked in an interview about the use of AI voice cloning technology to extend Karla Sofía Gascón's vocal range for the film's musical scenes, blending her voice with that of French pop star Camille.
While for The Brutalist, editor Dávid Jancsó said AI was used to tweak certain parts of the Hungarian dialect spoken by stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones for the sake of accuracy.
Both cases coincidentally used Ukrainian software company Respeecher and raised questions about the extent of AI’s use or at least acknowledgement of its aid to crafting the story.
WHILE AI CAN BE A TOOL TO ENHANCE AND ENRICH THE CASTING PROCESS AND ACTING PERFORMANCE, THERE ARE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SELECTION OF TALENT AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES.
Proponents of AI defend its use claiming the tech can enhance and enrich the end product but do little to assuage ethical implications of its use in the creative casting process nor how it affects opportunities for upcoming actors.
A DOUBLEEDGED SWORD
For production studios, AI casting can offer considerable advantages such as accelerating the decision-making process, reducing potential biases rooted in personal preferences, and identifying underrepresented talents.
“We have found that certain AI integrations have helped us find talent faster,” explains Shayne Hartigan, co-founder of Alessi Hartigan Casting. “When we put out a general casting call in the US, we might get 5,000 responses over the course of a week from actors interested in the role. What we've been able to do is utilise certain AI components to help make the process more efficient, but in a way that does not impede on the actual creative process.”
However, one of the most pressing concerns surrounding AI-driven casting processes is the impact on representation. If an algorithm is trained on historical data that reflects existing inequalities, it has the potential to reinforce them. If an AI system is trained on decades of Hollywood films that have favoured a certain demographic, it may continue to prioritise those groups in its recommendations. Additionally, facial recognition software has been criticised for its inaccuracy in identifying people of colour, which could lead to further misrepresentation or exclusion.
After the strike action of 2023, SAG-AFTRA revealed the terms of their resolution, setting the protocols for a world in which AI and actors can coexist. Using jargon such as digital alterations and employment-based replicas, the organisation
ensured the protection and payment of talent in the face of rising concerns about the technology.
But AI-driven casting could risk reducing actors to mere data points, stripping away the human nuance that comes with artistic interpretation. Some casting decisions require an understanding of cultural and lived experiences that AI, no matter how advanced, may not fully grasp. This raises concerns about whether AI can truly facilitate authentic storytelling, particularly when represent-ing marginalised groups.
COST CUTTING
In the screen industry, efficiency and cost-cutting continue to be prioritised and there are concerns that this imperative will drive increased use of the technology at the expense of talent.
“AS A RESULT OF AI’S COST CUTTING ABILITIES, FEARS ARISE OVER FAVOUR BEING SHOWN TOWARDS THE TECHNOLOGY INSTEAD OF THE TALENT.”
“Because corporations look for cost cutting wherever they can, I fear we're going to be fighting against that constantly, especially in the creative world, because there's so many ways to cut corners,” says Tony Waldron, co-founder of Waldron Casting. “But, when you cut corners, you're taking creativity out of things. And that's where I think the challenge is going to lie in the future for casting directors, or for anyone in the creative world.”
He adds: “We work with background actors and traditionally those types of roles get paid a lot less. They’re already fighting for whoever is going to pay them more, but a layer on top now is people are saying they will use your likeness in the next five years but not tell you about it.”
Borneo, Malaysia is a unique and world-class filming destination that offers incredible opportunities across a variety of genres, including wildlife, nature, culture, history, travel, adventure, and reality-based productions. From ancient rainforests and limestone caves to coastal mangroves and highland communities, Borneo offers a rich visual landscape and deep cultural stories that are hard to find elsewhere. Its rare wildlife, diverse traditions, and untold histories provide powerful material for meaningful storytelling. With skilled local crews, strong logistical support, and a well-established filming permit process, Borneo is well-equipped to support professional productions while offering an unforgettable experience for filmmakers from around the world.
Whilst SAG-AFTRA’s guard rails following the 2023 strikes outline proper compensation for AI generated performances and the requirement of explicit agreement for the use of such during employment, in reality this is unlikely to leave choice always in the hands of all actors.
significantly impact job opportunities and wages in the industry. There is a growing push for stronger regulations to ensure that actors are fairly compensated and retain control over their digital likenesses.
“With our company focusing on background performances, which is already not regarded as much as primary roles, people don’t really think about it much,” add Waldron. “But a lot of people rely on these roles to supplement their income. Even some primary actors do background on the side. There are so many talented actors who are already struggling to be seen and heard, but now that AI has come knocking on the door, it feels like it’s made it even harder for them.”
SAG AFTRA HAS ALREADY BEGUN ADDRESSING CONCERNS RELATED TO AIGENERATED PERFORMANCES, BUT LOOPHOLES HAVE LEFT MANY CALLING FOR STRONGER REGULATIONS.
LEGAL CHALLENGES AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS
The integration of AI into casting raises significant legal and ethical questions. One major concern is the unauthorised use of an actor’s likeness through deepfake technology. Actor Joseph Gordon Levitt has been vocal in the debate, calling (in a Wall Street Journal op-ed) for residuals to be paid for performance work that is used to train generative AI tools.
AI-generated performances could allow studios to create digital versions of actors without their explicit consent, raising issues of intellectual property and personal rights. This is particularly con-cerning for deceased actors, whose images could be revived without consideration for their legacy or their families’ wishes. This further reduces the gap for emerging performers, whether primary or background, from breaking into the industry and contributing to the generational turnover of talent.
“We worked on a movie last summer that used AI scanning and, while the unions took the stance that actors are allowed to be scanned but just have to be given advance notice, it made our jobs harder,” says Waldron. “A lot of our actors did not want to have their likeness used in perpetuity by this particular production company which never explicitly stated if they could use it elsewhere. So, it became a touchy subject for a lot of actors.”
Contracts and labour rights are evolving in response to AI. SAG-AFTRA has begun addressing concerns related to AI-generated performances. If studios start relying on AI-generated extras or digital doubles instead of hiring real actors, it could
If the extreme happens, and actors are replaced with unregulated AI and directors, producers, or studios are given free rein to shape the appearance of avatars, there will be considerable damage to diversity and authentic representation, warned actress Joanna Ke recently.
HUMAN TOUCH
Despite AI’s advance, the art of casting remains a deeply human process. Many casting agencies are persisting with face-to-face experiences with talent to deliver the highest quality choices. Directors and casting agents believe intuitively that AI cannot replicate an understanding of the chemistry between actors, their emotional depth, or an actor’s unique interpretation of script.
“DESPITE THE ADVANCE IN AI MANY CASTING AGENCIES RELY ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND HUMAN EXPERTISE.”
“We can use AI to help guide what we're working with but we cannot let it replace what we're doing. If we do, we risk losing authenticity,” says Hartigan. “That's what audiences want when they go see a movie or a television show. They want real.”
There is an understanding that the future of casting should not be left solely to algorithms, and there is little encouragement for that to be the case. However, AI is expected to serve as a tool that enhances the human decision-making behind the casting process, ensuring that storytelling remains authentic, inclusive, and artistically driven, but driving greater efficiency.
KURDISTAN Uncut Gem
Kurdistan is one of the emerging territories on international producers’ radars thanks to its affordability, multiple climates, genre possibilities, and less familiar filming locations
Producer/director Patrick Evans and the production team of BBC Asia series Tangled Worlds set out to find a fresh story among forests less familiar to viewers… this brought them to Kurdistan, where conservation biologist Hana Raza had discovered Persian Leopards inhabiting oak and pistachio woodlands high up in the mountains.
“WE RECEIVED TIPS AND HEARTY KURDISH
HOSPITALITY
But in search of the evasive wild cats, Evans and the team were led to a sensitive border zone, covered with unexploded mines from fighting during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980’s. To navigate this, local brothers Bahez and Nabaz Faruq were enlisted to aid the filming process, establishing their own camera trapping and photography to find safe spots to film the leopards.
FROM A FORMER DEPUTY MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR.”
“We received tips and hearty Kurdish hospitality from a former deputy minister of the Interior, Mamosta Jalal, who was passionate about the last remaining pockets of wilderness on his doorstep,” Evans recently wrote for the BBC.
Ultimately, their journey proved successful, not only in finding the leopards, but also capturing the surrounding scenery, particularly the Qara Dagh mountain valleys and oak trees.
Oak trees also dominate the expanse of the Zagros Mountains, whose rugged peaks provided the backdrop for French language documentary Nomades d'Iran – L'instituteur des monts Zagros. With snow-capped summits in winter and vibrant greenery in spring, the mountains offer year-round visual diversity.
Across Kurdistan (a semi-autonomous federal region of the Republic of Iraq) there are a range of potential locations, including the man-made Lake Dukan, surrounded by mountains; the town of Warte with its green vistas, freshwater and walnut trees; and striking religious locations like Lalish with its unique architecture marked by conical temple roofs.
The Sulaymaniyah Governerate region is also very popular, where the historic Slemani old town is situated, and the gorge of Tuni Baba, which offers landscapes similar to those found in Morocco or Jordan, but at a more affordable price.
“Our commission provides access to these locations, meaning you would not need to pay to film at them,” says Bavi Yassin, head of the Kurdistan Film Commission Slemani. “Slemani airport serves international travellers, and our commission has access to the military and its tanks.”
“Although we currently do not offer tax incentives, our crew services, accommodation, and other production-related expenses are significantly more affordable compared to other countries.”
International streamers are also backing projects shooting in the country, such as Netflix series Secrets of the Neanderthals, which filmed in the Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where a neanderthal skeleton was discovered by British archaeologists. Hasan Oswald’s documentary Mediha, about a Yazidi girl who survives ISIS and searches for her missing siblings, which was executive produced by Emma Thompson, also filmed in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurdish films often grapple with themes of resilience, displacement, and identity, reflecting the region's tumultuous history and its people's enduring spirit. Directors like Bahman Ghobadi, whose films include A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly, have brought Kurdish stories to international audiences, earning critical acclaim. Zagos, a 2017 drama exploring the changing role of women from Kurdish filmmaker Sahim Omar Kalifa, premiered at Ghent International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix.
There’s growing support for the culture sector in Kurdistan in recent years, with events such as the Duhok International Film Festival providing a platform for local and international filmmakers to showcase their work.
The signs are positive for Kurdistan with more projects heading there and a new generation of local filmmakers and crew emerging to boost its standing.
Cinema Showcase Designed to Challenge
The Official Selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival offers a diverse line-up showcasing female filmmakers and titles with a political edge.
Cannes will open this year with Leave One Day, a bittersweet comedy from first-time French filmmaker Amélie Bonin, as part of a concerted response by the festival to showcase female filmmakers. That response got more pressing in light of a French government report which found that sexual violence and sexual harassment are “endemic” in France’s entertainment industry. French film star Gérard Depardieu is on trial for sexual assault and director Paul Schrader is accused of sexual assault while attending Cannes last year.
Inquiry chairwoman Sandrine Rousseau called on Cannes to set an example in stamping out sexual abuse, as well as physical and psychological violence.
“The Cannes Film Festival must be the place where this shift in mindset happens; the place where we say loud and clear... amid the glitter and the red carpets... that finally, we all want things to change: every one of us, at every level of the industry.”
Six of the 19 titles selected for competition are helmed by female directors. They include new works from French filmmakers Hafsia Herzi (La Petite Dernière) and former Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau (Alpha). German director Mascha Schilinski brings Sound of Falling; Spain’s Carla Simón premieres Romeria; American cult director Kelly Reichardt showcases The Mastermind starring Josh O’Connor and Japanese director Chie Hayakawa brings her latest film Renoir after winning the Caméra d’Or Special Mention in 2022 for her debut feature Plan 75
Eleanor the Great, the debut directorial effort of actor Scarlett Johansson has landed in Un Certain Regard along with Karavan from Czech filmmaker Zuzana Kirchnerová and Promised Sky, from French-Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri. Rebecca Zlotowski is out of competition with her Jodie Foster-starrer Vie Privée
Familiar names in competition include Wes Anderson, who brings The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater will launch his Paris-shot Nouvelle Vague starring Zoey Deutch; and Ari Aster’s dark comedy western Eddington for A24 starring Pedro Pascal. Joachim Trier debuts Norwegian set Sentimental Value starring Stellan Skarsgård and Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi is back at Cannes with A Simple Accident. Also playing in competition is Oliver Hermanus’s war drama The History of Sound also starring Josh O’Connor with Paul Mescal and for which Focus Features and UPI have international rights.
Two-time Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne brothers return with a competition slot for The Young Mother’s Home, set within a shelter for young mothers. Another Cannes regular is Ukrainian director Sergey Loznitsa whose film Two Prosecutors is set during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937. Also, from Spain, Oliver Laxe’s Sirat starring Sergi López and Bruno Núñez as a father and son searching for their missing daughter and sister at a Morocco rave.
THAT RESPONSE GOT MORE PRESSING IN LIGHT OF A FRENCH GOVERNMENT REPORT WHICH FOUND THAT SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT ARE “ENDEMIC” IN FRANCE’S ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.
Robert De Niro will receive the festival’s honorary Palme d’Or at the opening night ceremony. French actress Juliette Binoche will serve as the President of the Jury. Veteran counterculture filmmaker Todd Haynes, whose hits include Velvet Goldmine, Carol and Dark Waters, will receive the Carrosse d'Or prize during the opening ceremony of the Directors' Fortnight.
French cinema production broke records in 2024, helped by SVOD streamers which financed 45 French-originated movies, compared with 39 in 2023 and 17 in 2022. Their investment rose by 59% to a total of EUR76 million, representing an average contribution up by 37.9% to EUR1.7 million with Netflix the most active platform, bringing 81% of the total contribution across 27 films including Family Pack versus ten for Disney+, six for Prime Video and two for Max.
Yet titles considered for competition in Cannes must have a cinema release before streaming which locks out Netflix and other platforms.
“Our relations with the platforms, and recently Apple and Amazon, are excellent and I am sure that the day Netflix has films to offer at the Festival, they will return to Cannes,” said Festival chief Thierry Frémaux in interview with Variety. “Streaming platforms are brilliant inventions. I have a subscription to all of them and I have them all on my smartphone. But they are no substitute for the big
screen. And that is something we need to teach children. We shouldn't deprive them of the emotions that we have experienced in theaters.”
As the festival’s country of honour, Brazil hosts the Opening Night party. In addition to Walter Salles’ Oscar nominated I’m Still Here, Brazil triumphed at the Berlin Film Festival where Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail won the Silver Bear. Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho competes for the Palme d’Or with The Secret Agent set, like Salles’ feature, during the military dictatorship in the 1970s.
Cannes Film Market’s executive director Guillaume Esmiol observed that Cannes had seen a 26% increase in Brazilian attendees in 2024 adding that the Brazil-France partnership is a “symbol of the global strength of the Brazilian film industry and its strong relation with Cannes.”
NEWSPEAK WARNING
There’s an out of competition premiere for documentarian Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5, a commentary on the life and legacy of the 1984 author made with the cooperation of the Orwell estate and produced by Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions. Orwell’s words: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,” have never been more prescient when the ‘newspeak’ of authoritarian rule is alive and well, from the rise of AI chatbots to Russian propaganda to the political banning of books in the US.
CANNES FILM IN NUMBERS
100,000 VISITORS TO CANNES DURING THE FILM FESTIVAL 1946 FESTIVAL FOUNDED
70,000 NORMAL POPULATION OF CANNES 3
24 RED CARPET STEPS TO THE PALAIS DES FESTIVALS DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL, FROM 13-24 MAY EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL IN 2025 78TH
4 FEMALE DIRECTOR WINNERS OF THE PALME D’OR FILMS HAVE WON PALME D’OR & BEST PICTURE OSCAR
Scouting for the Volume
How does the role of the location manager change when working on virtual productions? Fundamentally the same but with significant new considerations.
While many may assume a location manager’s (LM) job is simply about finding, opening, and closing physical locations, the reality is that their contributions are far broader. LMs provide essential logistical, financial, legal, and risk management guidance to the crew and production. This expertise is just as useful and necessary for productions shot on a virtual stage as it is for those shot on location.
“ONCE I IDENTIFY A POTENTIAL LOCATION USING GOOGLE MAPS, I VISIT THE SITE AND FLY MY DRONE TO CREATE AN UPTODATE ORTHOMOSAIC MAP AND 3D MODEL.”
In fact, LMs often play a critical role in advising when virtual production (VP) should or shouldn't be used, depending on the needs and budget of the show. “Having worked on several productions that utilise volume technology, I’ve refined my scouting techniques to better support the director and production designer,” says Zachary Quemore, Location Manager (The Revenant, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew). “Using drones for real-time location awareness, creating 3D models and VR assets for previz and VFX, capturing 360 HDRI with a 360 camera or DSLR for light mapping and world-building within the volume. I produce 2.5D images specifically for use as direct backgrounds on the volume screens.”
In fact, the use of a virtual stage opens new possibilities for scouting since the limitations of practical accessibility are removed. Where locations once needed to accommodate crews of 150 to 200 people, volume technology enables exploration of more remote or challenging environments like lava tubes, dense forests, or high-rise buildings. Even locations with strict time or access limitations can be shot briefly and then recreated on the volume, allowing production to bypass those restrictions while maintaining the integrity of the location.
“The volume is an incredible tool, expanding the options we can present to directors and production designers, and it allows scouts to push the boundaries of what's possible in film production,” says Quemore.
For VFX heavy shows that take place primarily on stage, the role of the Location Manager is often quite different.
“VFX Plate Units tend to be very small film crews with limited equipment, sometimes only a camera,” explains Leann Emmert, Location Scout and Manager (Dune: Part One). “That gives the location team the freedom to look at locations that might be more difficult to access, such as places that can only be accessed by helicopter, by hiking or other places that large equipment trucks cannot go.”
CAN HINDER THE PROCESS, SO THE IDEAL TIME IS USUALLY DURING OVERCAST DAYS OR EARLY MORNINGS WHEN SHADOWS ARE SOFT AND MINIMAL.
For Godzilla Vs Kong, Emmert worked with a helicopter plate unit of five people, filming icebergs and glaciers in Greenland for the remote Monarch Arctic Headquarters and for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, they filmed remote mountain cliffs and lava fields in Hawaii.
“Plate units are not constrained by noise issues,” she says. “For instance, on Pacific Rim Uprising, we filmed in a new water treatment plant in Orange County. The pipes and infrastructure were stunning, and the noise of the machinery which would be a problem for filming dialogue, was not an issue. Plate units are also less disruptive, so obtaining permissions in sensitive locations, such as National Parks is much easier than full film units.”
For these cases, a VFX Unit might only need one location pro to manage the shoot. In other cases, plate units for driving scenes can require just as much effort and location help as a full film shoot.
“For instance, The Fabelmans filmed a driving scene with our cast in the car on the Volume stage ‘driving through a tornado on a downtown street’,” explains Emmert. “We had to find a location, conduct many scouts, do location agreements and obtain permits to close several city blocks to place period cars and extras in costume for stunt driving through town. We even had an exploding transformer to mimic a lightning strike.”
Google Maps/Earth is an essential scouting tool. It saves a tremendous amount of time by allowing virtual exploration but beware since it can quickly become outdated.
“That's why I’ve integrated drone mapping into my workflow,” Quemore says. “Once I identify a potential location using Google Maps, I visit the site and fly my drone to create an up-to-date orthomosaic map and 3D model. This gives the production a current, detailed location view. I often upload these maps to Google Earth so that various departments can use them to plan logistics and take accurate measurements.”
Digital libraries are great for quickly prototyping and testing concepts, but often lack the creative depth needed for directors to fully realise their vision, he says. Directors prefer to either shoot their own footage or use assets from digital libraries as a foundation to bring their ideas to life on screen.
You’ll need permits to scan and create a digital twin of the site. Many property owners are hesitant to allow this, as physical location filming is a
VIRTUAL SCOUTING
Scouting in VR can be immensely useful regardless of if your location is entirely virtual or not. Framestore’s Virtual Production Supervisor, Connor Ling, explains, “Let’s say your budget is lower but you want your HODs to be able to scout an environment, it is a complex environment that will need time spent there to work out exactly which portions will be set pieces and which need to be virtual set extensions. You could send a lidar/photogrammetry team, capture the environment and have this converted into a 3D level, that your heads of departments are able to pop on a VR headset either in a group or individually and have those conversations in context, without the need to be shipping all of your heads of departments out there.
“Alternatively, if your environment is entirely CG, you may not be able to scout it as you traditionally would to be able to get a sense of scale, allow your DOP to think through shoot logistics, etc. Enabling VR scouting for this scenario is immensely useful as you are then able to take the information you have learnt from scouting this environment into the practical shoot (which may be against blue/green) and be mindful of how you should shoot it with that in mind.”
Framestore says more and more directors, showrunners and HODs engaging with aspects of its virtual production toolkit, Farsight. This is a suite of interconnected tools/technologies that extends far beyond LED work to encompass virtual camera, virtual scouting, virtual art department and Framestore’s mobile visualisation system, Farsight Go. These techniques have been used on shows like Barbie, Loki season 2, The Last Of Us, and Paddington In Peru.
significant source of revenue. Once a 3D copy of the location is made, studios could potentially reuse it indefinitely, which threatens the location's revenue stream.
“When locations do allow it, there are typically strict agreements in place limiting the use of the digital model to the current project, with additional compensation required for future use,” Quemore advises. “Additionally, if the film alters the model –such as ‘destroying’ it on-screen or making changes to key features – the location owner, architect, or stakeholders must approve those modifications.”
“Location Managers are as important as ever on virtual productions,” says Mark Moran, executive producer upcoming Amazon Studios sci-fi feature Mercy starring Rebecca Ferguson directed by Timur Bekmambetov.
“For Mercy, many of our shoot days were on Amazon’s volume at Culver City Studios, but for every day we filmed on the volume, there were multiple days beforehand where we shot plates in the real world.
ASSETBASED SCOUTING INVOLVES SCOUTING SPECIFIC FEATURES LIKE UNIQUE GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS, ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS, OR LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE USED AS BUILDING BLOCKS IN CREATING A VIRTUAL WORLD.
“Filming these plates required elaborate planning. The permits and logistics for that kind of shoot are complex, and need to be handled early and efficiently in order to give adequate time for the volume team to ingest, stitch, and colour-correct the many hours of high-res footage. It was well worth-it because this is what allowed us to quickly teleport our stars between dozens of rich environments and angles.
“Our location team also coordinated the usual logistics of shooting on stage, including parking, catering, specialty permits, etc. And of course, there were the non-virtual days too, overseeing the work of shooting our cast in the real world.”
IMAGINED ENVIRONMENTS
If the environment is largely imagined – perhaps a futuristic cityscape or a fantasy world – the scout's role shifts from finding a complete, existing location to finding elements that can be combined and built into the final environment. It is what Quemore considers Asset-based Scouting.
“This could involve scouting specific features like unique geological formations, architectural details, or landscape elements that can be used as building blocks in creating a virtual world. The scout may also look for natural environments that can be enhanced or altered in post-production to fit the director’s vision.”
COSTS AND PROCESSING
While VP opens up more possibilities for location use, the actual process of capturing and preparing those locations for the LED wall is both timeconsuming and costly. This is where the expertise of a location manager becomes crucial in advising production on which locations are better suited for virtual filming.
After securing permission (usually for a fee) a team is sent to capture the site, which incurs additional costs. Once the data is collected, another team processes it for use on the volume, a process that can take days, even weeks.
Quemore notes that optimal lighting conditions are critical, as assets must undergo a process called ‘de-lighting.’ This involves stripping the captured model of all existing lighting data, including shadows and highlights, so it can be relit according to the production’s needs. “Capturing in poor lighting conditions can hinder this process, so the ideal time is usually during overcast days or early mornings when shadows are soft and minimal. This limits when and how you can capture a location, adding another layer of complexity.”
“THE EXPERTISE OF A LOCATION MANAGERS IS CRUCIAL IN ADVISING PRODUCTIONS ON WHICH LOCATIONS ARE BETTER SUITED FOR VIRTUAL FILMING.”
Given the high cost and effort involved, productions need to carefully weigh what offers more value and control: filming on a real location or opting for virtual production.
COMPREHENSIVE DATA COLLECTION
Returning to a location is expensive so ensuring you capture a high quality and quantity of data just the once means taking account angles, weather and light.
CineArray utilise all available tools from aerial and ground-based LIDAR, Photogrammetry, single camera tiling and multi-camera array systems to ensure that the entire environment is captured not only for the planned action, but also for any potential creative changes which might take place whilst a shoot is in progress.
“Creating digital environments, changing to a new unplanned angle on the volume stage are all potentially possible during the creative process and so ensuring there is a good catalogue of imagery to hand is essential,” says Dani Rose, Director, CineArray.
Another tool which is being used with great success by CineArray for remote scouting and data capture is their LiveStitch system. The system is capable of taking any camera feed from a multi-array platform either on the ground or in the air and stitching the images together in near real time transmitting that stitched image live either to a team on the ground or anywhere globally to the Director, DP or VFX supervisor or anyone in production.
“This unique technology allows Directors, DPs and VFX Supervisors to view and give feedback in real time to not only review the suitability of a location but to see how the final footage will look, removing any uncertainty, saving both time and money,” says Rose.
Lincoln Wallen says the creative industries should acknowledge the art of math to craft new interactive AI-driven social experiences.
Wallen joined Framestore and Company 3 Group from Improbable, a tech developer for multiplayer games and battlefield simulations. He previously spent four years at Electronic Arts in its mobile games business. In 2008, he entered the film industry as Head of R&D at DreamWorks under CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, later becoming CTO.
Wallen has a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and taught at Oxford University’s Computing Lab. He is also a non-executive board member of FTSE100 education company Pearson and of Finnish VR/MR headset maker Varjo, and a member of strategic consultancy Smith Institute.
MAKERS MAG
What does the future of media and entertainment look like?
LINCOLN WALLEN
Imagine experiences in which consumers can interact but are nevertheless driven by narrative visual storytelling. It's a mixture of active lean forward and passive lean back. That is a media type I expect to explode over this next period. It's going to be a slow burn but the technological basis of it has already been built.
Is another name for that ‘Immersive’?
Those working in linear media will call it ‘immersive’ as a way of trying to signal that this is something you've seen in VR experiences or in location-based entertainment. What we haven't yet seen is that experience realised in a fully digital environment. It's neither gaming nor linear but something in between. The potential of this middle ground is enormous.
Has Hollywood caught on to this potential?
Hollywood studios may be too entrenched in their own structures to pivot fast enough but companies that are operating across market sectors will be able to synthesise these capabilities and exploit them. Framestore is one. [Its work ranges from the VFX on Gladiator II to designing an interactive exhibit for the Science Museum]. That isn't to say Framestore is suddenly going to become a content company. It means identifying those brands and IPs that are going to pioneer this new media and serve their existing customers in a different way.
Specifically, how will television and film production change?
The linearised model of film production is going to collapse into a much more iterative holistic model. Right now, the previz phase and the production phase feel separate. I think AI is going to bring the back end right up to the front entrance and make certain complex processes real
time. Making movies is a balance between algorithmic processes and artistic choice. That’s a very natural combination that AI is forcing to be recognised. The key to the future of interactive media is the ability to create digital representations that talk, behave, respond and ‘think’ like a human.
Do you mean AI-powered virtual humans?
I mean avatars that could be our own online personas or the embodiment of a corporation. AI is already supercharging such developments in video games where Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are being introduced to interact in a more lifelike manner with players. Soon you are going to see NPCs having existential dialogue with players. This is one of the most exciting things to me. Natural language will become a much more effective interface to digital systems and this will make them more accessible, which will be an enormous economic benefit.
Won’t the increasing sophistication of language models need to be matched by advances in visual characterisation?
There’s nothing to correlate spoken language and non-verbal gestures to make your NPC seem alive. Animators understand what human gestures mean, but the way [CG characters] are created today is painstaking, frame by frame. It's only the high-end media industries that actually know how to produce digital performances, that make people feel that NPCs are alive. Whether it's your digital proxy, virtual
playmates, a retail concierge, or part of the crowd in a virtual stadium. There are so many applications of LLMs that are going to explode when coupled with character.
In an age of AI will humans retain creative agency?
Humans communicate and collaborate to organise their efforts to produce fantastic outputs, whether that's a video game or a film. Without human dialogue, without the imagination that's framing outcomes, you don't get the products. On the other hand, we can use advanced AI techniques to try to realise that imagination.
The problem is that the current generation of AI tools actually hinder artistic collaboration. We need to develop a language of intent that helps the artist communicate and express their vision via AI tools. If we had these languages we would be able to build technologies that turbocharged people's creative capabilities. That, I think, is what the result of this AI wave will be but only if the creative industries start looking at their systemisation techniques and their content [Wallen uses the term folklore) and turning it into activatable language.
How long might this take?
I'd hesitate to say that this is a century of development but it’s also not easy. I'm trying to stimulate academics and creatives to think about the problem. Even small areas of advance in this area can lead to enormous benefits to the creative process.
Image courtesy of Framestore.
PROFILE
Untold Studios
Founded in 2018 with a staff of just ten, London based global creative studio Untold Studios has become a VES Awardwinning, BAFTA, Grammy and EMMYnominated powerhouse in just a few years. Cofounder Rochelle Palmer tells makers how the creative studio has kept its vision rooted in the same motivations from the start.
The Untold Studios London office is filled with a palpable buzz when I arrive to meet co-founder Rochelle Palmer as the company comes off another successful Super Bowl. The creative studio was the postproduction partner of choice for five of the spots which premiered during the American Football final including Mountain Dew, Pringles, Coors, NerdWallet, and Booking.com which featured Muppets on holiday.
KEY STAFF
MICHAEL WOLFSON
CO-FOUNDER & COO
DARREN O’KELLY
COFOUNDER & CEO
ROCHELLE PALMER
COFOUNDER & MD
NEIL DAVIS
COFOUNDER & CCO
SPECIALTIES
PRODUCTION, VFX, ORIGINALS, MUSIC VIDEOS, ADVERTISING, MOTION DESIGN
RECENT AWARDS
GOLD IN ANIMATION AT CICLOPE
SILVER SHARK AWARD FOR BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION (VIRGIN MEDIA)
BRONZE SHARK AWARD BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION (DIRECTV)
Perhaps the most eye catching is Mountain Dew’s Taika Waititi directed spot Kiss From a Lime. It plays on Seal’s (the singer) hit song Kiss From a Rose in a comical commercial which also stars Becky G. Transported from the comfort of her kitchen to a tropical waterscape, the pop singer is met by a chorus led by the Seal faced creature.
It wasn’t the first time Untold had created a photorealistic sea creature. The studio designed and animated the walrus for last year’s Virgin Media O2’s To Better and Beyond campaign which played out to the suave vocals of Billy Ocean singing Suddenly. It followed on from Highland Rider and Goat Glider, for which Untold created VFX for creative agency VCCP.
“We’ve always found the best creature work is based on reality and we try not to stray too far away from it,” says Sebastian Caldwell, Untold’s CG supervisor. “We looked at thousands of images and videos of real world walrus references and picked out a selection that were used as key elements to steer the look and feel of the walrus. On top of that we made sure to have as much in camera reference as possible. We shot with a real boat (even when we intended to replace it with a CG boat) and framed it using a giant 3D printed walrus head, which also served as our lighting reference.”
Water is easier than it was 10 to 15 years ago, but it is still really tricky to render realistically in VFX. “On this project, we built what we call Wet Maps, which allowed us to create multiple fur grooms of the walrus to make it look wet and dry and then blend between these elements progressively through the film.”
To say the company has gone from strength to strength would be an understatement. It has opened studios in Los Angeles, Mumbai and Bangalore and expanded from predominantly doing commercials into long-form work on films including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and working with A list directors like Taika Waititi and into episodic The Sandman (Netflix); The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Sky); Ted Lasso (AppleTV+); Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix); The Boys S4 (Amazon Prime); Rings of Power (Amazon Prime); Knuckles (Paramount+) and The Crown S3, S4, S5 (Netflix).
In one week last year Untold projects included the announcement for the Oasis reunion, the trailer for Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie and the Walrus Whizzer ad were released. “To have all these different projects come out within one week proved that our vision works,” says Palmer. “We wanted to be in these spaces that people are talking about, entertainment, advertising and music, and to do the very best. We did just that.”
Unlike many of its peers, when Covid-19 hit, Untold Studios was primed to pivot to remote work since it was founded on full-scale cloud infrastructure and a belief in the primacy of virtualised workflows.
The studio is incorporating AI into work guided by artist talent Palmer explains. “Being at the forefront of technology runs in our blood, but it takes incredibly creative people to use the tools and so we are always excited always about any leaps in technology, the latest of which is everything that’s happening in Gen AI. With AI, the creative process becomes more efficient and more innovative, but really, what we care about is that the final piece of content connects with the people.”
IT MAY SOON BECOME HARD TO DISTINGUISH TRADITIONAL SPORT FROM A VIDEO GAME. THE UK IS AT THE CENTRE OF THIS FAST GROWING TECH LED INDUSTRY.
The British Esports Student Champs, a series of competitive video gaming competitions for students aged 12+.
Esports is on a roll. The global esports market passed the USD2 billion mark last year and is expected to be worth nearly USD11 billion by 2032. Tournament prize money is rising and the audiences viewing on channels like Twitch are expected to top 640 million worldwide this year. To cap it all the IOC has agreed to deliver an official Olympics Esports Games.
The UK has its own trajectory as an international esports hub. Last year, a record number of major esports events took place in the country including the League of Legends Worlds finals in London, ESL One in Birmingham and Rainbow Six Major in Manchester.
There are over 200 professional esports teams active in the country including Fnatic and Excel Esports which compete at the highest levels in international tournaments.
The UK government even recognised the potential of esports as a major economic driver, implementing supportive policies and regulations. In 2023, it invested GBP10 million in esports development programs. The ministry of defence has embraced esports to build a workforce “that can think, adapt, and operate across both virtual and physical domains.”
The British Esports Association is at the centre of much of this. A not-for-profit organisation designed to support and promote esports, with a focus on the grassroots level, it was established with authority from the UK government in January 2016.
IF THE CAREER PINNACLE FOR MOST FOOTBALLERS IS TO PLAY AT A FIFA WORLD CUP, THAT'S NOT YET THE CASE IN ESPORTS.
In 2020 it developed and launched the world’s first BTEC qualification in esports. It is behind the British Esports Student Champs, a series of competitive video gaming competitions for students aged 12+ played by 250 schools and colleges across the UK, and staged the inaugural British Esports Cup in March 2025.
Billed as a “first of its kind independent community tournament” and organised with esports entertainment company BLAST, the British Esports Cup is open to amateurs and casual fans competing in Rocket League, an arcade-style game that blends football with rocket-powered cars. The winners land the chance to compete in the RLCS 2025 Major Birmingham later this year.
The Association runs a state-of-the-art esports training campus in Sunderland which includes a new 250-seat Arena with 17-metre video screen.
“Whether you're competing at a Student Champs Finals watched 125000 people online or a global event in front of millions of viewers or on the world stage at an Olympic Games being prepared for the lights, the heat and the cameras is important,” says Dave Martin, SVP of British Esports.
“Even pro-esports players can be nervous when they compete in finals staged live in front of thousands of spectators, especially if they have played most of their games in their bedroom. Part of the reason for the new Arena is as a training facility for people to experience what it means to ply their craft on stage.”
The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022 hosted the first medal event for esports. Although, it won’t reappear when the Games convene in Glasgow 2026 (a casualty of Australian state Victoria’s decision not to host the multi-sport
OLYMPICS ESPORTS
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
competition), Martin says it was a success on several fronts. “It helped bring esports into mainstream consciousness, for example, by being featured on The One Show,” he says. “We were able to showcase the back stories of talent and it was wonderful that gamers from all different backgrounds were able to come together and share their experiences.”
“The Games also demonstrated a pride in representing your country,” he says. “Cynics wondered if athletes would care but some [athletes] were in tears, because they won their medal or wore the flag representing their country. Some of those were seasoned pros with successful careers.”
That said, international representation in esports is new. “If the career pinnacle for most footballers is to play at a FIFA World Cup, that's not yet the case in esports. There are huge tournaments with big prize money and representation of your country is still a new idea.”
“A PRO CYCLIST MIGHT WIN ZWIFTING BECAUSE THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE THE ATHLETIC ABILITY WHEREAS A PRO GAMER IS LIKELY TO WIN E-FOOTBALL.”
One of the reasons the IOC has delayed its inaugural Esports Olympics is because of continued discussion and confusion about format and qualification. Esports’ structure is not unlike Formula One in combining individual talent with teams of engineering (software) designers (games publishers) in competition on and off the track. That commercial rivalry seems to be one of many issues the IOC’s Esports Committee needs to iron out.
Dave Martin, SVP, British Esports Association.
Facilities at the national esports campus, Sunderland.
VIRTUAL, SIM AND TRADITIONAL
EVEN PROS CAN BE NERVOUS WHEN THEY COMPETE IN FINALS STAGED LIVE IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF SPECTATORS, ESPECIALLY IF THEY’VE PLAYED MOST OF THEIR GAMES IN THEIR BEDROOM.
There was indecision too about the actual games that would be played. If first person shooter titles like Counter Strike were deemed too far removed from Olympic ideals, other games featuring shooting like Fortnite, have featured at previous Olympic Esports series events.
The games may in fact be split into three types: Virtual, Sim and Traditional.
Virtual sports mirror existing Olympic events and include Virtual Taekwondo (VTKD), a game endorsed by World Taekwondo in which competitors wear VR displays and motion tracking technology to engage in realistic sparring; and online cycling game Zwift, which requires competitors pedal like they were in the gym. There are virtual games for sailing (Virtual Regatta) and tennis (Tennis Clash).
Sim games could be anything from a simulated racing game (like Gran Turismo) to soccer (like EA Sports FC) or basketball (NBA 2K). In theory, professional athletes could go head-to-head with pro esports players. “A pro cyclist might win Zwift because they're going have the athletic ability whereas a pro gamer is likely to win e-football (there are no pro footballers in the top eschalon’s of e-soccer),” suggests Martin. “When it comes to Sim racing, there are some F1 drivers like Max Verstappen or Lando Norris who are very good at sim racing and might fancy a go at it.”
It is traditional esports games like League of Legends or DOTA 2 which will be most attractive to the IOC in bringing in a whole new and younger audience.
“If you've got someone like Faker (aka Lee Sang-hyeok, the South Korean pro who has drawn comparisons
with basketball great Michael Jordan) playing League of Legends in the final that is going to bring in millions of people who may never have watched the Olympics,” says Martin.
For audiences unfamiliar with the mechanics of game-play, the broadcast presentation is going to be essential. One template the IOC’s production might lean on the graphical guides produced using augmented reality and realtime data with which WarnerBrosDiscovery presents the Tour de France. “I don't think the objective of the IOC is to get the average Olympic viewer to know more about League of Legends. It's to get the League of Legends viewer to watch some more of the Summer games,” says Martin.
SAUDI ARABIA’S ESPORTS PUSH
As with many other creative and sporting sectors the Saudi’s have targeted investment in esports to drive new business to the country. Investment has been rapid and includes a dedicated gaming and e-sports district at Qiddiya City, outside Riyadh. Last year the Kingdom hosted the first Esports World Cup, an event set up by the Saudi Esports Federation, and won by Team Falcons, a Saudi team that is among the world elite (and which spent time training at British Esports Sunderland facility).
The deal signed with the IOC will see the Kingdom host the Olympic Esports every other year for 12 years.
The state’s overall sports and gaming strategy is to create 40,000 new jobs, add USD13 billion to the economy and develop Saudi Arabia into the “global epicenter” of games development and esports events and activations.
The British Esports Student Champs grand finals.
No Time to Die
The evergreen choice by certain filmmakers to craft motion pictures on film keeps the media punching far above its weight in a sea of digital, says Adrian Bull, CEO, Cinelab Film & Digital.
More than two decades into the digital cine revolution and you can reliably predict that over half of the nominees for Best Cinematography at any Oscars will have been shot on film, even if in volume terms less than 5% of all releases are now shot on celluloid.
A high-water mark was Christopher Nolan’s 2024 Best Picture winner Oppenheimer which was shot on b/w 65mm and Imax landing Hoyte van Hoytema an Oscar.
This year, the Best Cinematography Oscar and Best Picture winner went to films shot on 35mm (The Brutalist and Anora), beating Maria and Nosferatu which both shot on film. Digitally photographed Conclave and A Complete Unknown had film grain layered on in post.
This doesn’t suggest that because it’s shot on film it is a better film. What it absolutely does indicate is that film attracts creativity and, on average, better quality filmmakers. If a production has committed budgets to shooting on film, it's likely to have just gone through a bit more scrutiny than a digital production.
After Covid-19 and the actors’ and writers’ strikes severely impacted production, last year we processed over five million feet of film marking a return to 2019 numbers. 2019 was the year we processed No Time To Die which on its own shot over a million feet of film. We’ve seen a steady increase in interest in shooting on film since then, not just indie productions but higher profile, higher budget studio projects too.
Last year alone Cinelab processed All of Us Strangers (DP Jamie Ramsay); The End We Start From (photographed by Suzie Lavelle) and did all scanning and deliverables for Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things (after processing in Hungary).
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn also passed through the lab. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren later brought Noah Baumbach’s upcoming Netflix comedy drama Jay Kelly to us. Emerald Fennell plans for Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie to be a film shoot. Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme lensed by Bruno Delbonnel and Lynne Ramsay’s comedy horror Die, My Love shot by Seamus McGarvey also went through us.
Misconceptions about cost remain but many pictures we handle will have a sub-USD10 million budget and the spend with us less than USD120,000. The cost of the stock exceeds our processing costs.
The Brutalist was notably made for USD10 million including all film processing in Hungary. It proves that you don't have to have really high studio budgets to be able to shoot on film.
Brady Corbet’s epic was also the first in a wave of features shot on VistaVision. Others, which we have handled, include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest project starring Tom Cruise due in 2026 photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki and Lanthimos’ forthcoming Bugonia starring Emma Stone, lensed by Robbie Ryan.
Filmmakers are choosing VistaVision for its bigger area and very shallow depth of field although it does use twice as much stock (8-perf versus 4-perf) and therefore costs twice as much in processing as conventional 35mm.
As more and more content is subject to AI, the creative caché and even commercial value of shooting on an analogue format could actually increase. Film is the antidote to AI because it’s arguably the only format you can shoot that has the provenance of a true representation of what actually happened in front of the lens.
Anything shot on digital can be modified and the evidence of it being modified can easily be suppressed. By contrast, shooting something on film is a form of proof. It can't be adjusted. It is a permanent record of that performance that was captured on camera. It could become a marketing credential to state that a story wasn’t created by AI.
It is unfair to suggest that AI shouldn't be used in the creative process. It absolutely should. But there will also be dramas where there's no reason to use AI because you can direct, light and stage the performance for real.
Every image shot on film exists in real life. There's no synthesis. And every frame is different. The beauty of film is that even a static image contains movement because the grain of the film changes frame by frame.
Adrian Bull founded Cinelab in 2013.
Located in Slough, it remains the only full service film laboratory and digital dailies facility in the UK. Its work ranges from blockbusters like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, to auteur features like Phantom Thread and TV drama like HBO’s Succession. Bull previously held positions at Ascent Media, Technicolor and Deluxe and is a trustee of Phoenix Cinema.
NEOM has supported over 40 productions from Hollywood, Bollywood, the Arab world, and Saudi. This includes Hobal (pictured), directed by Saudi filmmaker Abdulaziz Alshlahei, which shot in the Bajdah Desert. Hobal won the Saudi film audience award at this year’s RSIFF.
Saudi Arabia is the Next Big Thing
SAUDI ARABIA'S CINEMA MARKET IS EXPERIENCING A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE, DRIVEN BY INCREASING LOCAL PRODUCTIONS AND A GROWING APPETITE FOR DIVERSE STORYTELLING. MAKERS REPORTS FROM THE RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
Isay this with so much humbleness. I promise you, Saudi is the next big thing,” declared Zeinab Abul Al Samh, GM of Saudi broadcaster MBC Studios.
Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah, she continued, “Everything that we do becomes the first thing that we've ever done. Comedy films have broken the box office here. Then drama breaks the box office. We're so hungry for different genres. There isn't a genre that we shy away from or a genre that we can’t do because it didn't work in the past.”
“We don't have [a past]. We have a young population with so much ambition and so much appetite. This population has global taste and demands very high standards. Even if Saudi isn't the next big thing in the world, it's definitely the next big thing in our region.”
In the last two years, Saudi’s investment in local content has considerably grown. Comscore recorded 19 local titles in 2024, which accounted for 8% of Saudi total box office. That’s up on 2023, which had 13 Saudi produced local titles on release and 2022, where the figure was just 1%.
TRAINING INITIATIVES
MBC produced a limited amount of English language content but has begun venturing into other territories. Al Samh points to a growing appetite in the Far East for Arabic drama and Islamic historic drama. “That's a genre which audiences are very curious about and we're exploring how we can deliver a continuous flow of that kind of drama into those countries.”
She acknowledged that demand is outstripping the supply of local talent to produce it. MBC runs an academy to upskill regional talent in the media and production space, including ‘Fikraty,’ an initiative aimed at discovering and fostering Arab writing talent.
“It’s especially important below the line because whenever we locate a film here or a foreign film comes to Saudi all the below the line flies in and that's a lot of expenses a production has that other countries do not because they hire crew from the same place they shoot in. Training people would save a lot of cost that we have to incur because sometimes the specialty or expertise does not exist here.”
That said, she pointed to the vast change in such a short time even just in the “awareness and education” among young Saudis that a career in film is possible. “The more you make films here the easier and the more accessible it becomes.”
It will take creative production and finance models as well as imaginative marketing and open minds to successfully tap pan-Arab and Asian stories for wider markets.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE BEYOND BORDERS
“There's more space in worldwide distribution for regional films to be able to be a lightning in a bottle or strike that bit of zeitgeist,” encouraged Katie Irwin, agent and the co-head of International at WME Independent. “Provided you can get [your project] in front of more people who believe in this kind of interesting storytelling.”
Dubai-based global management and production company 75East works with filmmakers from an Arab background who might live in the USA or UK, helping produce English or local language content.
“THERE'S MORE SPACE IN WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION FOR REGIONAL FILMS TO BE ABLE TO STRIKE THAT BIT OF ZEITGEIST.”
“The challenge is how to elevate both those voices,” explained principal and talent manager Antone Saliba, “How do you break a Saudi filmmaker who lives in LA into the international horror market? How do you break an Egyptian filmmaker who's making a local indie into the global market?
His view is that current South West Asia and North Africa filmmaking exists at extremes. “On one side, you have strong well-made indie films that go to a big festival but then fail to find that global audience. On the other hand, there are local commercial films which manage to find a big audience but are made with a quality that hasn’t yet reached international standards. The challenge is working with filmmakers to establish projects that blend the worlds of local authenticity and commercial audience facing. It means creating a parallel market that exists outside of indie versus very commercial.”
Egypt's submission to the 2023 Oscars Voy! Voy! Voy! was made with an Egyptian star (Mohamed Farrag) who gave it intrinsic local value. It did extremely well commercially in Egypt and Saudi and premiered internationally at Rotterdam putting it onto a 30-country festival run.
Another example is the 2023 Saudi film Mandoob, directed by Ali Kalthami which premiered at TIFF, was critically well received and broke box office records on domestic release.
“If you're going to make a film that's fully financed by international co-production partners then you're also at the mercy of a certain set of stereotypes as to what a Middle Eastern film looks like,” said Saliba.
“We know audiences local and global want to see something that’s a better representation of the stories they want to tell. It's up to us to try to put this puzzle together in ways that haven’t been done before. But
this is the right time. We're starting to see global audiences reacting to well-made local films which is opening the door for filmmakers to really flex their muscles.”
Since lifting its 35-year ban on cinema in 2018 the Kingdom has set about positioning itself as a potent international film production centre. The oil rich state has invested heavily in film and television sound stages at Neom and AlUla, a generous 40% cash rebate on inward productions, and a film festival which aims to unite Hollywood with regional talent.
“The goal is a thriving economy,” explained Zaid Shaker, acting executive director at regional film body Film AlUla. “It’s diversification. This is a national target and the cinema sector is an industry by itself. By inviting international productions, the growth and training of local talent and local players is a natural byproduct. The more mature that is, the more international productions you can bring in.”
well in terms of seeing the productions number of films that are getting made.”
Saudi’s large domestic market can support local content and in a language that a major diaspora speak around the world. With the backing of state investment in content and infrastructure there is every foundation for success but this is dependent on the kingdom’s ability to cultivate local talent and to scale up the industry.
“There’s a focus on assisting Saudi storytellers to create content which sells internationally,” Shaker says. “This is pivotal because if we are to build a sustainable ecosystem and for the industry to grow, the productions have to make revenue. Distribution on international platforms is a key part of that. We are trying to increase the export of local stories, of Saudi stories. It's a cultural exchange at the end of the day.”
IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A FILM THAT'S FULLY FINANCED BY INTERNATIONAL COPRODUCTION PARTNERS THEN YOU'RE ALSO AT THE MERCY OF A CERTAIN SET OF STEREOTYPES AS TO WHAT A MIDDLE EASTERN FILM LOOKS LIKE.
It's not as if Saudi creative talent was hiding under a rock. Over 60% of the country’s 33 million population are under 30 years old and in recent years they’ve turned to content creating for YouTube. Shaker calls them the “catalysts” and points to the government led training initiatives that are aiming to build capacity.
“Every single young person is an ambassador and we see potential at each and every one of them,” he says. “That is why this industry is also built on cinema culture.”
The pent-up demand for watching films in cinemas can be tallied by the meteoric rise of the local box office. The kingdom has quickly become the market leader in the MENA region with revenue projected to reach USD572 million in 2024 and growing at 5.17% a year to 2029.
“Prior to the country opening up there were a lot of creators but they were using the internet as a platform,” Shivani Pandya Malhotra, MD of the Red Sea Film Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which organises the RSIFF. “We have a lot of YouTubers and a creative community working for different social media formats. What [the government] has done is now is to put the focus on the film and entertainment industry to really encourage this creative community to build and to produce longer form content.”
In 2023, the feature film Norah was the first Saudi film ever selected for Cannes, a landmark event for the country. The movie, which explored artistic repression in 1990s Saudi Arabia, was backed by the Red Sea Fund, filmed entirely in AlUla with an all-Saudi cast and a crew that was 40% local.
HUGE AMBITION
Meanwhile its co-petitor studio NEOM has supported over 40 productions from Hollywood, Bollywood, the Arab world, and Saudi. This includes Hobal, directed by Saudi filmmaker Abdulaziz Alshlahei, which shot in the Bajdah Desert. Through its talent learning initiatives, NEOM has trained over 1,200 Saudi nationals in various creative industries, with more than 350 individuals transitioning to full-time employment.
“This is all at nascent stages, but there is a huge ambition,” Malhotra says. “We've done incredibly
He continues, “This is about communication and behaviour change because if you are from my generation, if you're not an engineer or a doctor, you were always frowned upon. Now, we’re talking about introducing lots of new careers – being a cameraman, a Grip, being a data wrangler. It’s important that we show to the youth that this is something sustainable, that they can build on.
“WE DON'T HAVE A PAST. WE HAVE A YOUNG POPULATION WITH SO MUCH AMBITION AND SO MUCH APPETITE WITH GLOBAL TASTE AND VERY HIGH STANDARDS.”
“It's a long process,” he adds. “The most important thing is that the youth are very receptive. At Film AlUla, this is baked into every activity we do.”
He adds, “We have access to finance, we have the best locations in the world, we have world class facilities. But even if you have the best strategy, if you don't have a good base of local crew, you will still be losing.”
RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL
Half of the 121 films shown at RSIFF were either world or international premieres. 34 were Saudi produced, six of which are in the competition section.
Tunisian director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path won the Yusr Award for best competition film and the best director honour. The Silver Yusr Feature Film Award went to Mahdi Fleifel’s Palestinian drama To A Land Unknown, with Hobal from director Abdulaziz Alshlahei getting the Saudi film audience award.
“Our ambition was always to be championing Arab, African, and Asian content and talent,” says Malhotra. “That was our mandate and we’ve gone from strength to strength.”
“It's very organic but we're already seeing results,” she says. “We're seeing the infrastructure ramp up quite significantly to support the local and regional filmmakers.”
Eight years ago there we no cinema seats because there were no cinema. “Today, it's the same. There are no seats at the cinemas because cinemas are all full,” jokes Shaker. “There's a thirst for culture, and for storytelling with lots of energy.”
Indian film Superboys of Malegaon, directed by Reema Kagti, screened in competition at this year’s RSIFF.
Johnny Depp directed Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness was supported by the Red Sea Film Foundation.
Scriptwriters Stay in the Game
The studio model is being upended by seismic business pressures and the disruptive potency of AI. For the seasoned scriptwriters and producers at Talk Boys Studio, the answer was to create a short film that could be the bellwether for a new wave of narrative Generative AI content.
Ian McLees and Daniel Bonventre have written or produced a range of scripted comedy and unscripted shows for network television in the US over the last decade. As a partnership since 2016 they had a number of scripts and pilots either sold or pitched into studios with good prospects for development – or so they thought. Then Covid-19 happened followed by the Strikes and the existential threat of AI.
“We were at the top of our game, ready to go, but suddenly no-one was commissioning. There was no money anywhere for anything,” says McLees (who wrote sitcoms Drama Club and Commanders and feature mockumentary Like, Earth). “There was sheer frustration with the studio system which is collapsing in front of our eyes.”
Their story has been replicated hundreds of times among below the line talent but rather than waiting for the industry to pick up they decided to DIY their existing scripts using AI.
“Let's take these projects that we loved and nobody can afford and just see if we can make them,” says Bonventre (who helped produce Alec Baldwin hosted panel show Match Game and Funny You Should Ask and Apple+ reality series Kendra Sells Hollywood).
“More and more of our peers are turning to AI as an outlet as a way to break down the barriers of the traditional Hollywood model.”
With no prior knowledge, they researched and learned AI themselves. “We went to school,” says Bonventre. “We read everything we could to stay on
MORE AND MORE OF OUR PEERS ARE TURNING TO AI AS AN OUTLET AS A WAY TO BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS OF THE TRADITIONAL HOLLYWOOD MODEL.
top of how to actually use this. It feels like we got a master's degree in AI. Make no mistake these programmes are very difficult. You have to sit in front of a screen for 20 hours a week and treat it like a job just to learn the editing software, learn the animation software and the prompting language.”
They applied their new skills to a script they had written about a canine police officer interrogating a rodent suspected of arson and created short film Roadkill.
“It was an idea we wanted to do as a feature animation in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We were obsessed with making this movie. And we couldn't get any traction with it so when we found these AI tools we truncated the story and took it from there.”
The result might betray its AI origins but is remarkable for having been made at all. Creating watchable two-minute videos in AI is impressive but at 12 minutes McLees and Bonventre (as Talk Boys Studio) have made a narrative with professional rhythm and pace, comedy and pathos.
“Nothing that we do is AI assisted from a writing standpoint,” McLees insists. “The only thing we're using AI for is the image creation to help bring those ideas to life in a way that we couldn’t without raising a ton of money to shoot.”
Bonventre explains they treated production like it was a real film. “We made a shot list from the script. We went through our timeline and if we needed an insert shot of a cup of coffee or a wide shot of a desk then we plugged that shot into Midjourney, created from image references in the style we wanted, and dropped that back into the timeline.
“It was a lesson in how to direct and in cinematography because you have to be so specific about what you want to see. When framing a shot your intent doesn't always communicate to the programme. Nor is the technology sufficiently advanced for creature animation. We use programmes that animated animal faces and then had to edit the mouth movement in fine detail to match lip sync. It required a lot of its trial and error because sometimes it spits out garbage. It is extremely tedious and can easily look janky.”
McLees adds, “Some people ask us ‘What prompt did you put in ChatGPT?’ but there is so much more that has to go into putting these films together.
Sure, you can type in ‘Show me a bird flying over a volcano’ and it'll spit out the image. But if there's no story, you’re going nowhere.”
They used a variety of AI tools including Midjourney, Runway, Hedra, Sunomusic, Based Labs, Hailuo, Nim and even provided the voice acting using AI programme ElevenLabs.
“What would normally have cost us tens of thousands of dollars just to make a concept trailer, or a short film to help sell the idea to the studio or even just to get a meeting, we can do now for a fraction of the cost using AI,” says McLees.
“THE ONLY THING WE'RE USING AI FOR IS THE IMAGE CREATION TO HELP BRING THOSE IDEAS TO LIFE IN A WAY THAT WE COULDN’T WITHOUT RAISING A TON OF MONEY TO SHOOT.”
“The storytellers who can figure out how to use the tech are the ones that are going to cut through right now. None of our friends are willing to go to school the way have. The workflow with AI is really the wild west right now. AI is a difficult barrier of entry but eventually it's going to get so much easier.”
Studios and writers have an uneasy alliance before the current agreements on limited use of AI expire in 2026. “AI can't write – full stop,” says McLees. “ChatGPT and others just recycle language. There's no human emotion. It’s purely formulaic but in eighteen months, who knows? I'm sure Disney, Apple and Netflix are having their AI incubators spit out romantic comedy or action thriller on ChatGPT believing that that can become a future script, but I don't think we're there yet.”
Roadkill has been well received online and played at the AI International Film Festival. Talk Boys is pitching its skills at short form comedic content and Gen-AI production of video advertising.
“It took us a month to do 12 minutes so would it take six to nine months to make a feature?” poses Bonventre. “AI is still so new. No-one's really got it figured out. Aside from a few top tier filmmakers everybody else is throwing stuff against the wall hoping something will stick. That's exciting for us. Can we be on the forefront of making a series? Can we do the first sitcom that's fully AI? We're testing the boundaries of what we can accomplish because if nobody wants to give us money to make the full thing conventionally we still want to see our projects be realised.”
All images are stills from Roadkill courtesy of Talk Boys Studio.
The Game is Changing
ARE SOCIAL MEDIA CELEBRITIES
CHANGING THE WAY WE VIEW TRADITIONAL SPORTS?
From music artists Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav taking over the Olympic villages last year, to influencer-led football games like The Sidemen Charity Match, social media personalities are reshaping sports fandoms, making athletes more relatable and events more accessible.
In recent years, the landscape of sports consumption has undergone a seismic shift, driven largely by the proliferation of social media platforms and the rise of short-form content. For the next generation of sports enthusiasts, traditional scheduled broadcasts are no longer the sole avenue for engagement. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube have revolutionised how fans connect with sports, offering unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes moments, athlete personalities, and immersive storytelling often in realtime.
TIKTOK AND THE OLYMPICS
The 2024 Paris Olympics marked a turning point in consumption for the world’s most watched sports event, particularly among younger audiences. TikTok emerged as a central hub for Olympic content, with athletes and official broadcasters using the platform to share real-time experiences, training routines, and personal stories.
The impact of athletes’ involvement on social media was quantifiable, with #Olympics accumulating over 1.7 million posts and 2.67 billion likes, a whopping 1,923% increase on the Tokyo 2021 edition.
TIKTOK EMERGED AS A HUB FOR OLYMPIC CONTENT, WITH ATHLETES AND OFFICIAL BROADCASTERS LEVERAGING THE PLATFORM TO SHARE REALTIME EXPERIENCES, TRAINING ROUTINES, AND PERSONAL STORIES.
Over 100 Australian athletes, for instance, used TikTok to document their Olympic journeys, amassing a combined following of over 6 million. Led by hurdler Liz Clay and water polo player Tilly Kearns, TikTok played a barrier breaking role, allowing fans and new coming audiences to get to know the athletes, their routines, and discover what truly goes into their respective sports.
THE SUPER (SPORTS) STAR EFFECT
Athletes have long been champion influencers, from David Beckham’s headline worthy hairstyles to Michael Jordan’s era transcending footwear. But with the influx of standalone social media creators collaborating with sporting talent, athletes are expanding far beyond their sports roles, taking cues from the influencers and drawing in audiences on their own.
“The shift has been to ensure that our players are shown as being multifaceted,” explains Bob Carney, NBA Senior Vice President of Social & Digital Content. “They are some of the most culturally relevant celebrities in the world in a lot of ways, and so we try to leverage creators that don't just focus on basketball and on the court, but use creators to tap into all aspects of our players lives, whether it’s music, fashion or anything else.”
Through leveraging social media to build personal brands, share behind-the-scenes content, and engage with fans beyond traditional media channels, direct interaction has made sports figures more relatable and accessible. The crossover was epitomised by the boxing bout between one-time champ Mike Tyson and YouTuber Jake Paul last November, watched by over 60 million households on Netflix.
The relatability also comes from the creators themselves and how they interact with their various platforms. The NBA’s creator programme focuses on identifying those creators’ native to individual platforms as opposed to spreading across them all.
“Our goal is to have our brand reach audiences through their channels, and the creators’ goal is typically to grow, but also help create more content,” explains Carney. “When we have our big events, we include the creators as well. For one of our major events in Las Vegas, the NBA Cup, we went as far to create creator only press conferences where they got to interview and interact with a lot of our players. We very much view them as an extension of our team.”
In women’s pro basketball league (WNBA) star guard Caitlin Clark has captivated fans globally not only with her skills on the court but her exceptional online outreach. Her college championship game between Iowa and South Carolina in 2024 drew nearly 19 million viewers, the second most-watched non-Olympic women's sporting event ever on U.S. television behind the 2015 Women's World Cup Final, according to ESPN
Clark's rise has significantly boosted viewership and attendance for the WNBA, illustrating the profound impact an individual athlete's online engagement can have on a sport's popularity. Known as the ‘Caitlin Clark effect,’ her presence contributed to a USD136 million sponsor media value during the 2024 regular season. This surge is evident in increased ticket and jersey sales, heightened social media engagement, and higher TV viewership.
“BY LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA TO BUILD PERSONAL BRANDS AND SHARE BEHIND-THE-SCENES CONTENT DIRECT INTERACTION HAS MADE SPORTS FIGURES MORE RELATABLE.”
Furthermore, the WNBA's audience grew by 67% midway through the 2023 season, averaging 556,184 viewers per game. The league's social media presence also flourished, amassing over 24 million views across various platforms. This digital momentum led to a projected revenue of around USD200 million in 2023 almost double the USD102 million in 2019.
FEMALE ATHLETES HAVE ADEPTLY USED SOCIAL MEDIA TO SHARE PERSONAL STORIES, ADVOCATE FOR FAIRER REPRESENTATION, AND BUILD STRONG PERSONAL BRANDS.
Female athletes have adeptly used social media to share personal stories, advocate for fairer representation and build strong personal brands. During the Paris Olympics, British sprinter Lina Nielsen's viral TikToks exemplified this trend, with female athletes generating 69% of Team GB's TikTok content.
One of the biggest female sports stars is American rugby player and Olympic Bronze medal winning Ilona Maher, whose social media reaches 8.4 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. Like many other female athletes at the Olympics, social media was integral to her ability to supplement her income.
“I am not even going to make six figures playing rugby, that’s the sad truth,” Maher said in an interview with the BBC on her three month move to the Bristol Bears last year. “Some people may think: ‘She’s not serious with what she’s doing, she’s posting on TikTok, she doesn’t care about the sport, she’s not going to be as good.’ No. I have to post on TikTok. That’s where I make most of my money.”
TikTok has been a prominent platform for women in sports, whether it be the athletes themselves or the content creators bringing in a more female fan base. F1, once considered a niche sport with a predominantly older male audience, has experienced a renaissance, attracting a younger, more diverse fan base. The percentage of female fans has increased to roughly 41% from 37 % reported by the organisation in 2018.
The motorsport's fan base now comprises 42% under the age of 35 and a 41% female audience. This demographic shift has attracted a plethora of consumer brand sponsors, including Nestlé's Kit Kat, LVMH, McDonald's, Lego, and Mattel's Hot Wheels, eager to tap into this burgeoning market.
With the influx of standalone social media creators collaborating with the faces of the sport, athletes are expanding far beyond their sports roles, taking cues from the influencers and drawing in audiences on their own.
In the dynamic world of sports, the rise of social media influencers and prominent athletes has profoundly transformed fan engagement and expanded global audiences across various disciplines. These personalities leverage their substantial online followings to promote events, share personal insights, and foster deeper connections with fans, thereby driving significant growth in sports viewership and participation.
PRO COVERAGE MERGED WITH CREATOR PRESENTATION
The Sidemen vs YouTube All-Stars charity soccer match last March was a mash-up of conventional live broadcast and creator innovation. Held at a packed Wembley Stadium, featuring Mr. Beast, Speed, Logan Paul and KSI, 2.5 million watched live on YouTube plus 17 million on-demand.
Production company After Party Studios covered the game with all the cameras you’d expect of a Sky Sports Premier League Match including wirecam and Steadicams with cinematic lens, alongside innovations that connected creator/players to fans. These included live Picture in Picture interviews with creators and GoPros on selfie sticks used by players to film reactions during the penalty shoot-out. A YouTube shop feature was overlaid on the live stream offering merchandise of, helping the event amass over GBP5 million for charity.
“The collaboration with creators was immense,” says Joshua Barnett MD at APS. “If we came up with ideas for cameras they were buying into it, or they were suggesting toys and we’d find a way to make it happen. The biggest thing for me was the reaction from A-list YouTubers themselves who told us that we’d nailed it because they felt that we’d represented them in the best way and covered off all the angles.”
TNT and Sky will have taken note. “We married the workflows of live music and entertainment shows with a live football match,” he adds. “Everything they aim to do is to get closer to the action and closer to the characters. Ultimately, it's the characters that make sport entertaining.”
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Is the remote, subtropical mid-Atlantic island of St Helena your next 昀lm location?
The English-speaking British Overseas Territory of St Helena presents an extraordinary opportunity for 昀lmmakers looking for fresh, unexplored locations. Whilst remote, the island is connected globally via 昀bre optic cable and o昀ers weekly 昀ights to South Africa.
Home to 4,000 of the friendliest people on the planet, St Helena is very safe, politically stable, uses the British Pound and operates on GMT all year round with long daylight hours.
Boasting a wealth of diverse landscapes and biomes all contained in just 47 square miles, St Helena is a world within itself, just waiting to be discovered…
Volcanic formations
Desert regions
Lush tropical forest
Rolling pastureland
Dramatic coastline with towering cli昀s
Pristine marine environment
Astounding biodiversity
Untouched Georgian architecture
Centuries old military forti昀cations
No extreme weather events
Uninterrupted views
Minimal travel time between locations
Filmed in St Helena: Come 昀nd me Special Award winner in Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival 2025
Cast Away
From Kalsoy in the Faroes to Reunion in the Indian Ocean, makers highlights some of the lesser-known, remote island filming hotspots around the globe and speaks to experts about the logistics of shooting there.
ST HELENA
This British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean is only 38 square miles, but incredibly diverse. There’s the Georgian-style buildings of Jamestown, old world fortifications, lush inland forests, desert landscapes, caves, and dramatic coastal cliffs.
“We are proudly one of the most remote inhabited islands on the planet, including tropical rainforests like Hawaii, rolling hills that could double for Wales, natural volcanic formations and some of the last remaining cloud forest,” says Matthew Joshua, St Helena’s head of tourism.
“Then there’s the arid windward side of the island, which has a whole different feel, and Sandy Bay, a black sand beach surrounded by ominous fortified stone walls, which screams Game of Thrones,” enthuses Darren Peens, producer of the island’s tourism video Come Find Me
Getting to St Helena is a five-hour flight from Cape Town or Johannesburg, serviced by Airlink, which carries about 100 passengers and cargo. For bigger productions with heavy equipment loads, there are freight ships that service the island.
Because the island is so remote, planning is key. “Productions need to factor in that flights can occasionally be delayed by weather. It’s important to have the right fixer, like Martin George,” adds Peens.
“I help with filming across the island, arranging transport, shutting down shops, and ensuring no interference from locals,” says George. “A-listers and celebrities enjoy the seclusion and there are no venomous insects!”
Accommodation ranges from bungalow rentals to 4-star hotels. Caterers are available, and the roads are good, with the possibility of hiring 4x4s to get to the less accessible parts of the island.
A Subaru commercial about the remotest electric charging point filmed on St Helena recently. Nature docs and pop videos have shot there too but it has yet to host large scale productions.
“WE’RE DOING AWARENESS BUILDING BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVEN’T HEARD OF ST HELENA, BUT THERE’S GROWING INTEREST AMONG PRODUCERS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UK.”
“We’re doing awareness building because a lot of people haven’t heard of St Helena, but there’s growing interest among producers in South Africa and the UK,” concludes Joshua.
AND ENSURING NO INTERFERENCE FROM LOCALS. A-LISTERS AND CELEBRITIES ENJOY THE SECLUSION AND THERE ARE NO VENOMOUS INSECTS!
KALSOY ISLAND
There are few more dramatic islands in the world than Kalsoy in the Faroe Islands of Denmark, which is why it was the perfect setting for the end of Daniel Craig’s Bond in No Time to Die
“The production team had looked at Iceland and other places in the Faroes for their bowl-shaped villain’s lair, but kept returning to Kalsoy because it served all our needs,” says Truenorth’s Jonbi Gudmundsson, the film’s executive producer, who’s also worked on Universal’s live-action film How to Train Your Dragon, shot in the Faroes.
Located in the northern part of the Islands, Kalsoy has an impressive black basalt wall to the west and the eastern side has verdant slopes. Although it only stretches over 11 miles, it boasts 13 mountain peaks.
The challenge is getting there. A ferry service runs between Klaksvík on Borðoy Island and Syðradalur in the south of Kalsoy. The Bond team rented this outside of scheduled times. They also used Atlantic Airways helicopters and their own boats to get to the island. Worth knowing that there’s a tunnel network to get across the island.
Only about 80 people live on the island so accommodation options are limited. No Time to Die’s crew stayed in Klaksvik. Local resident Johannus Kallsgard (who owns a lot of the land), is a fixer. “He helped get farmers onboard to carry equipment, sort the lunches, the craft, whatever we needed,” says Gudmundsson. “He even called the Prime Minister of the Faroes to resolve one conflict we had. I got him a credit on the film. Now he’s a local celebrity.”
He is convinced “the Faroe Islands are the future of filming locations”, especially with a 25% reimbursement scheme for films, series and documentaries.
DUGI OTOK
Translated as ‘long island’, Dugi Otok, located in the Zadar archipelago, is 45km long by 5km wide, but packs a lot of scenery within its shores, including sandy beaches, dense pine forests, a salt lake, and one of the prettiest and safest natural harbours in the Adriatic.
Recent productions include HBO series
Dune: Prophecy and Dutch comedy film
Expeditie Cupido. The island has also hosted several commercials, which take advantage of its winding, coastal roads and pristine beaches.
“Dugi Otok was an incredible place to film, not just because of its stunning landscapes but also because of the warmth of the people,” enthuses Paradise
“THE LOCALS MADE US FEEL SO WELCOME, AND THEIR GENEROSITY ADDED SOMETHING TRULY SPECIAL TO THE PRODUCTION.”
Media’s Joeri Jansen, producer of Expeditie Cupido. “The locals made us feel so welcome, and their generosity added something truly special to the production.”
There’s no airport on the island. A reliable ferry and catamaran service connect to the mainland.
“Private speed boats and yacht transfers are also great options for transporting cast, crew and essential equipment to filming locations,” says Andela Prnjak, CEO of Croatian Creative Films.
“While there are not large-scale production facilities on the island, the infrastructure is good, with wellmaintained roads, and logistics can easily be arranged,” adds Prnjak. “There are fewer tourists and more privacy making it an undiscovered gem compared to more famous Croatian islands like Hvar or Brac.”
Head to Socotra, off the coast of Yemen, and you’ll find rolling sand dunes and clear blue waters (pictured above), cave networks and dragon blood trees.
“Productions could shoot everything from dramas to sci-fis there, or ad campaigns and model shoots,” says Justin Martell, head of Pioneer Media, who takes people, including productions and influencers, to hard-to-reach destinations.
Being so close to Yemen might put productions off but the island is administered by the UAE and, according to Martell, “perfectly safe.”
There’s even an airport in the capital city, Hadibu, with connecting flights to Cairo. Tourists visit the island so there are good hotels for crew.
“Tour companies have 4x4s that can be used to get to the harder to reach places, although crew would have to be prepared to rough it a little,” says Martell. “It would certainly be worth it for the scenery!”
ORKNEY ISLANDS
“A mystical place where you’re literally stepping over fossils while staring out to sea,” says Brodie Pringle, unit production manager of The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, which shot on the main island in Kirkwall and Stromness and on the tiny island of Papa Westray.
An archipelago off the north coast of Scotland, Orkney boasts some spectacular pre-historic sites and a harbour with remnants of both World Wars. But getting to the islands from the mainland can be tricky.
“Papa is remote with about 60 inhabitants and the ferry with its erratic timetable needs to be prioritised for the locals, cattle, and food for the supermarkets. Our 4×4 trucks carrying crew and equipment were less of a priority,” says The Outrun’s supervising location manager, Richard Brough.
“Nothing goes on without everyone else finding out but the locals couldn’t have been more helpful,” adds Brough. “They have a very can-do attitude, which is ideal for filming. Some even insisted that the crew stay in their accommodation.”
Having a scaled back crew certainly helps to move around. “We weren’t using massive generators and trucks, just small vans and 4x4s. We even had to lug a plastic toilet in the back of a pickup and take it over rough terrain,” Brough recalls. “We were very sustainable. Lots of things are wind powered there.”
The team used mostly Scottish crew, including many Orkney islanders, in front and behind the camera. “The whole experience in Orkney was a lesson in if you pare it down and get locals onboard, it can be done,” concludes Pringle.
REUNION ISLAND
Located 420 miles east of Madagascar, Reunion Island, offers beaches, forests, savannahs and mountains, financial support for productions, and quality local technicians.
“It’s possible to reproduce on our island a huge variety of settings, such as a Hawaii beach, Amazon forest, the savannahs of Rwanda and colonial Indonesia,” enthuses Christophe Feing, head of Reunion Island Film Agency.
As a French department, the island also benefits from the financial support of France’s government and the Reunion Regional Council, with a portfolio of EUR4 million to support the writing, pre-production and production phases of projects that shoot on the island.
One of the most recent to take advantage of the financial incentive is costume drama Sweet Dreams, set in colonial Indonesia.
“Reunion offered the colonial houses, lush environment and sugar factories we were after, and we managed to get funding from the island and France,” says the film’s producer Erik Glijnis.
“Filming in sugar cane fields was easy, with support from the government. The local farmers allowed us to film in their houses. It didn’t feel bureaucratic, more loose in its arrangements, and super friendly.”
The local crew base are keen to support productions. “Our gaffers, production assistants and our line producer were born on the island. But we were one of the first international productions to shoot there, so had to bring in top line equipment and crews from Indonesia and Europe,” adds Glijnis.
There are regular flights into the island’s Roland Garros Airport, and plenty of hotels available, as well as car hire, lighting kit and film editing companies.
FRØYA ISLAND
Frøya is a windswept island on the coast of Trøndelag county, Norway, which juxtaposes traditional fishing huts with Malibu-style villas with big windows.
These perfectly suited Netflix series Billionaire Island, produced by Rubicon, which shot on Frøya over five weeks, chronicling the rivalries and revenge of families caught up in the prosperous salmon fishing industry.
“Its unique scenery perfectly suited the story,” says Rubicon’s Gudny Hummelvoll. “The local community were really friendly and helpful, especially Elisabeth Strømskag [film coordinator at Frøya municipality] who opened a lot of doors for us, even filming at the main fishing factory.”
The island is very flat. “The highest point is just 76 metres above sea level,” says Solveig Sigmond Ræstad, Head of the film commission in Trondheim. “You can see all the sky and the light is incredible for filmmakers.”
Getting there requires taking a ferry from Trondheim to neighbouring island of Hitra and then a short journey across. More conveniently there’s an underground tunnel network, so productions can drive across too.
And there are a variety of accommodation options. “We stayed in a hotel and a restored old nursing home with small apartments, and had catered food brought to us,” says Hummelvoll. “You just need to factor in the weather but it can be a dramatic extra character.”
Since 2020, the island has hosted three feature films with another from Nordisk Film coming soon.
With a background in senior roles at the BBC and Amazon and now CEO of the Creative Diversity Network (CDN)
Miranda Wayland is one of the industry’s most experienced leaders in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). She peels back the layers of the ongoing conversation and gives her view on how to truly take action.
MAKERS MAG
How would you assess the state of DEI in the UK?
MIRANDA WAYLAND
The industry has undeniably taken steps forward in embedding DEI, but the challenge we now face is sustaining and accelerating that progress. However, representation alone is not enough. We need to see a structural and cultural shift where inclusion is embedded at every level.
While we are bringing in diverse talent, we are not doing enough to retain them or provide pathways for leadership. Across disabled representation, we continue to see a significant lack of representation from those who are deaf, disabled and or neurodiverse across the industry. In addition, there’s still a gap in how diverse stories are told and who gets to tell them. As a sector, there is more to be done and we need to be intentional in our efforts.
What are the biggest barriers that underrepresented creatives face trying to break into the industry?
A lack of access and networks, stereotyping, precarious job stability and gatekeeping. The
first step to addressing this is rethinking the hiring practice, moving beyond ‘who you know’ to structured, fair, and transparent recruitment. The second is investing in mentorship and sponsorship. There needs to be intentionality in highlighting the absent voices in talent pipelines and the action needed to address it. Thirdly, freelancers need to be supported and paid fairly. In this challenging economic climate, we must create better financial structures for freelancers to ensure diverse creatives can sustain their career, are paid equitably, and reduce the pay disparity gap.
What are some of the most impactful initiatives you have worked on that have successfully improved representation?
In addition to Diamond (CDN’s online system that collects and reports diversity data) and its pan-industry interventions, we are working directly with broadcasters and production companies to implement inclusive hiring practices, which has created tangible change. Targeted interventions, have included aligning commissioning spend with diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, mandating diverse hiring at mid to senior leadership levels. As well as commissioned industry reports vital in transforming the DEI landscape within UK broadcasting, championing equity targets over quotas, and pan-industry collaborations such as our Doubling Disability initiative (which aims to double the percentage of disabled workers in off-screen roles), writers and producers initiatives
(such as the ISA diversity initiative, Shondaland, Netflix’s programmes and the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program), and the industry’s first accessibility review.
How can organisations translate diversity strategies into real action rather than just being performative?
A strategy without action and accountability is just a statement. The key to moving beyond performative gestures is embedding diversity into core business objectives and ensuring accountability at the top. This isn’t anything new. To turn strategy into action, the four key steps are making a commitment to being intentional with expectations and creating a culture that holds everyone responsible for change, tying diversity outcomes to leadership KPI’s, holding executives accountable for their DEI progress, ensure data transparency so progress is measurable and public, and audit culture, not just numbers, but implementing regular culture checks and employee feedback to inform policy changes.
How do you ensure that diversity initiatives consider intersectionality – ensuring inclusion for people who face multiple barriers, such as women of colour, disabled creatives, and LGBTQ+?
There is a misconception that intersectionality means the number of diverse characteristics that one individual embodies. That’s just one aspect. The
real focus is acknowledging and understanding the compounding barriers that each diverse characteristic can present for the individual.
At CDN, we use granular data through Diamond, tracking multiple characteristics and identifying gaps that affect marginalised groups in different ways. We also hold targeted interventions, working with industry partners to develop specific support for intersectional groups. By also ensuring that leadership teams, decisionmakers and commissioners reflect a range of lived experience, we prioritise amplifying diverse voices.
What will be the next big shift in the way the industry approaches DEI?
It’s important that we don’t lose focus and reaffirm our commitment to DEI. The rise of AI in our sector has been a gamechanger, both in terms of audience reach and the content offering. But AI carries inherent biases, and if not addressed, it could exacerbate exclusion rather than correct it. The industry must lead in ethical AI usage, and DEI plays a vital role in these conversations to ensure equity remains a priority. By ensuring inclusive AI development and deployment, implementing equitable access to AI-driven opportunities, ethical AI in audience engagement and content distribution, and industry wide AI and DEI collaboration, this can be achieved.
Image courtesy of the Creative Diversity Network.
Local Heroes
Edgar Wright’s The Running Man and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein are among a number of major films and TV series choosing to head to Scotland, filming everywhere from Glasgow to the Orkney Islands, drawn in by the incentives, variety of locations and quality crew.
In March 2024, Screen Scotland unveiled an ambitious six-year strategy with the objective of establishing Scotland as a global centre for film and television production by 2030. A year later and the signs are certainly positive, especially in attracting foreign productions.
LOCATION HIGHLIGHTS
In recent months, both Del Toro’s Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac and Christoph Waltz for Netflix, and Paramount Pictures’ reimagining of the Arnold Schwarzenegger 1987 action film The Running Man, starring Glen Powell and Katy O'Brian, have filmed all over the country. The former taking in the historic streets of Edinburgh, including Canongate on the Royal Mile, Glasgow cathedral and Dunecht stately home in Aberdeenshire. The latter shot all over the city streets of Glasgow.
“Whether you want to do your stunts, chase scenes, things like that in Glasgow city, we can confidently say it’s possible, helped in no small part by the council employees who have worked on previous productions and know what's required,” says Jennifer Reynolds, film commissioner at the Glasgow Film Office.
Central Glasgow has frequently doubled for London in projects, such as Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw and HBO’s Succession, as Gotham City in the opening of comic book adventure The Flash, as 1960s New York for a parade scene in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and even as Russia in Apple TV’s Tetris.
ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROJECTS IS THE CONSTRUCTION OF CALEDONIAN FILM STUDIOS, BETWEEN GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH.
The beauty of the highlands is a favourite for creative agencies. “We worked on a Glenmorangie shoot with Harrison Ford that filmed in the Highlands, and a Guinness ad in Eriskay, a remote island off the west coast,” says Karen André, sales and marketing manager at Edinburgh-based LS Productions.
She is determined for the local screen industry and businesses to benefit from this influx. “Supporting local businesses is a really big part of what we do. We want to make sure that the economic impact and benefit that LS gets from bringing some of these massive shows to Scotland trickles down to the local economy.
She adds, “For example, the economic impact of filming in Eriskay was felt across the island community, with crew staying at local bed and breakfasts and going to local restaurants and hotels. We work to build a great network of suppliers around us.”
It’s a similar story at the Orkney Islands for German director Nora Fingscheidt’s drama The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, which filmed for several weeks. “The islands are a character,” insists Brodie Pringle, unit production manager on the film. “It’s a mystical place where you’re literally stepping over fossils while staring out to sea.”
Moving about the islands was easy because everything was scaled back. “We weren’t using massive generators and trucks, just small vans and 4x4s,” says Richard Brough, supervising location manager.
Getting the locals onboard was key. The Orkney islands had never had a feature film there before, only documentaries. “So they were very curious, but very supportive, and some even hosted crew in their houses,” adds Brough.
“The whole shooting experience in Orkney was a lesson in if you pare it down and get locals onboard, it can be done,” adds Pringle.
STUDIO APPEAL
Scotland is looking to also match locations with studios for productions. One of the biggest projects is the construction of Caledonian Film Studios, between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The proposed development comprises 12 sound stages, workshops, pre and post-production offices, and even a 150 metre long linear streetscape has been created between the studios, allowing for additional external filming opportunities.
There had been a great call for a studio like this to compete with those in London and Ireland.
“When compared to the studio spaces elsewhere in the UK it was clear there is a pressing need for a purpose-built development in Scotland that reflects the robust and growing industry north of the border,” says Andy Buckley, supervising location manager on Tetris and Frankenstein.
Other facilities include Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall (Screw) and The Pyramids in Bathgate (Good Omens Series 2), First Stage Studios in Leith (The Rig, Anansi Boys) with nine acres of stages, offices and workshops, and Wardpark Film and Television Studios in Cumbernauld (Outlander) with 200,000 sq ft of studio space. These key production hubs provide excellent access to established crew bases and supporting infrastructure.
“THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF FILMING IN ERISKAY WAS FELT ACROSS THE ISLAND COMMUNITY, WITH CREW STAYING AT LOCAL BED AND BREAKFASTS AND GOING TO LOCAL RESTAURANTS AND HOTELS.” FOREIGN
AT THE END OF LAST YEAR, THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT BOOSTED THE LOCAL INDUSTRY FURTHER WITH CREATIVE SCOTLAND’S PROPOSED RAISE OF A GRANT FROM GBP51.4 MILLION TO GBP80 MILLION FOR 2025/26.
State agency Screen Scotland is backing the sector with a six year strategy to elevate the gross value added (GVA) to GBP1 billion within the Scottish economy by 2030/31. Achieving this goal entails a 55% increase in both economic contribution and full-time equivalent employment, targeting 17,000 industry jobs.
At the end of last year, the Scottish government boosted the local industry further with Creative Scotland’s proposed raise of a grant from GBP51.4 million to GBP80 million for 2025/26. This included an additional GBP20 million added to its Multi-Year Funding programme (designed to provide stable, long-term financial support to creative and cultural organisations in Scotland), and GBP2 million injected into Screen Scotland’s 2030 strategy.
In support of emerging talent, Screen Scotland also introduced four development initiatives, collectively allocating an annual budget of GBP1.2 milion. These programmes are designed to assist Scotland-based writers, directors and producers from the early stages of their careers through to those poised to create their first feature films.
There’s also been huge investment in skills development. In November 2023, a GBP3 million funding package was announced to be distributed over three years, targeting the enhancement of skills across film and television.
This initiative focuses on emerging technologies such as virtual production, VFX, and animation, ensuring that Scotland's workforce remains at the cutting edge of industry advancements. Notably, programmes like the Virtual Production Fellowship and the Stornoway Studio Training Programme have been launched to cultivate talent in these specialised areas.
In addition, the establishment of the CoSTAR Realtime Lab represents a significant leap forward in research and innovation. With a GBP9 million investment, this facility serves as a nexus for the convergence of screen, gaming, immersive, and performance industries. Located at Water’s Edge in Dundee, the lab offers virtual production studios, providing creative companies with the resources to experiment with the latest technologies. This initiative not only supports local enterprises but also attracts international projects, bolstering Scotland's reputation as a centre for technological innovation in the creative sector.
All in, Scotland is putting in the time, effort and money to attract and support local and international films shooting in the country, to cement its place on the global screen stage.
GLASGOW BUZZ
There’s a real buzz around Glasgow’s film scene with several productions shooting in the city recently, leaving aside The Running Man. They include Outlander spin off prequel Blood of my Blood which filmed on the steps at Park Circus; James McAvoy's directorial debut, California Schemin in the East End; Amazon Prime drama Fear starring Martin Compston; doubling for 1890s New York in AppleTV+ The Buccaneers; AMC’s gothic horror drama series Talamasca starring Elizabeth McGovern; Channel 4 drama Summerwater produced by Glasgow’s Freedom Scripted adapted from the novel by Sarah Moss; CBBC drama The Primrose Railway Children shot Glasgow scenes around Pollokshields, Andreston, Kinning Park and Bellahouston; and six part ITV thriller Cold Water written by David Ireland starring Andrew Lincoln and Ewen Bremner.
With updated categories and a diverse panel of experts, the 2025 edition running 16–20 June promises to set new standards in creative excellence
In its pre-show marketing the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity put diversity and equitable representation front and centre but with a campaign raging against such liberal values in the White House, a question facing international and US brands in particular is whether this carries any weight?
In its 10th anniversary year, The Glass, The Lion for Change Award broadens its scope beyond gender to celebrate equitable representation across communities. KR Liu, Global Head of Disability Innovation at Google, will spearhead this category.
Marian Brannelly, Global Director of Awards at Lions, said: “Gender representation remains essential, and following consultation and research, there is now a need to evolve the Lion to recognise the importance of intersectionality, from disability and race to sexuality and social inequity. Expanding the scope allows us to celebrate ideas that promote more equitable representation for a broader range of communities.”
A new sub-category dedicated to long-term brand platforms has also been introduced across several Lions. The addition aims to spotlight campaigns that demonstrate long-term effectiveness, foster brand loyalty, and deliver measurable business outcomes through ongoing creative efforts.
FUNDING INCREASE FOR ERA
The Festival will continue its Equity, Representation, and Accessibility (ERA) Pass for a second year, doubling its funding to EUR2 million. This increased support intends to improve access for underrepresented talent and underserved communities, extending complimentary passes to creatives who may not typically attend.
Frank Starling, Chief DEI Officer at Lions, stated, “With the Festival being the destination for everyone in the business of creativity, we recognise the importance of creating equitable access to it, and this is why we’re prioritising increased representation from the Global South.”
Among the 29 Jury Presidents are Ali Ali (Good People Films, Egypt) who serves as Film Craft Lions chief, marking Egypt’s debut representation in the category.
THE PAVILIONS WILL SERVE AS HUBS FOR LEARNING SESSIONS, CROSSCOUNTRY NETWORKING, AND PRESENTATIONS ON EACH COUNTRY’S CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS.
CANNES LIONS IN NUMBERS
121 MILLION EUROS OF REVENUE GENERATED BY THE FESTIVAL IN 2023
Josy Paul (BBDO India) leads the Sustainable Development Goals category. Seiya Matsumiya (Black Cat White Cat Music) presides over the Entertainment Lions for Music, recognising innovation in musical storytelling.
CREATOR ECONOMY
The global creative economy is approaching a trillion dollars and could represent 10 percent of global GDP before 2030, according to the think tank G20 Insights. At this pace and scale the Lions organisers believe that countries and governments have an opportunity to supercharge their creative economy by showcasing their capabilities.
Notable changes this year include a rebrand of the Social & Creator Lions. Formerly Social & Influencer Lions, this category reflects the rising influence of creators in the marketing landscape. Research Nester estimates that the creator economy will exceed USD600 billion by 2036, and the updated Lion will now include new categories specifically for creators producing content for brands. Beth Keamy, Chief Digital Officer at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, will lead with a focus on groundbreaking digital innovation.
COUNTRY PAVILIONS
A new Country Pavilions initiative is designed to increase global representation by providing nations a dedicated space to highlight their creative industries. The Pavilions will serve as hubs for learning sessions, cross-country networking, and presentations on each country’s creative contributions.
Thea Skelton, VP of Festivals at Lions, said: “We know that creativity is an overpowered economic growth lever. We believe that countries and governments have an opportunity to supercharge their creative economy by showcasing their capabilities at Cannes Lions.”
Apple is newly minted as the Creative Marketer of the Year. Given annually since 1992, this accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of Lion-winning work over a sustained period. Over the last four Festivals, Apple has won multiple Lions and last year was awarded for standout work that included the Shot on iPhone campaign, which took home five Lions, and Relax: Tractor, which won a Gold and Silver Lion. The company’s VP, Marketing Communications, Tor Myhren will deliver a keynote during the festival.
EUR2.4 MILLION DONATED TO CHARITIES SINCE 2015
15000 ATTENDEES TO CANNES LIONS IN 2024
71 PREVIOUS CANNES LIONS FESTIVALS
17% DROP IN CANNES LIONS ENTRIES BETWEEN 2018 AND 2024
USD600 BILLION
29 SIZE OF THE CREATOR ECONOMY BY 2036
USD985 BILLION THE SIZE OF GLOBAL CREATIVE ECONOMY IN 2025
10TH – ANNIVERSARY OF GLASS: THE LION FOR CHANGE DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL, FROM 16-20 JUNE THE NUMBER OF JURY PRESIDENTS
EUR2 MILLION WORTH OF FREE ERA PASSES
Back to Nature
From Jurassic World and Lord of the Rings to neo-western series Territory, projects of all sizes are shooting in national parks. makers uncovers why and what you need to know.
National parks and protected areas serve as natural soundstages that provide filmmakers with a diverse range of scenic elements – from snow-capped mountains and dense forests to desert expanses and dramatic coastlines. Unlike artificial sets, these landscapes offer an organic aesthetic that enhances visual storytelling and immersive audience experiences.
One of the recent stand-outs to choose these natural soundstages is Jurassic World Rebirth, which doubled several locations in Thailand for prehistoric landscapes, including Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Ko Kradan at Hat Chao Mai National Park, and Ao Phang Nga National Park. Filming specifics are being kept under wraps, but the trailer clearly showcases the parks’ dramatic backdrops, blending lush forests, limestone cliffs and tropical beaches in which the action takes place.
It's a similar story for New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, which shot extensively at national parks across New Zealand, and the follow up Amazon Prime TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which chose national parks, including Teide in Tenerife, Spain, and Windsor Great Park in the UK for season two.
Windsor’s vast woodlands full of 1,000 year-old oaks were used for scenes involving Galadriel and Elrond, such as Buttersteep Rise where 12 sets were built, including a castle and trebuchets, and around Virginia Water lake with its man-made cascade waterfall. The site was actually still open to the public during filming, but the production were given permission to section themselves off. They filmed for a day and then it was back to normal.
THESE LANDSCAPES OFFER AN ORGANIC AESTHETIC THAT ENHANCES VISUAL STORYTELLING AND IMMERSIVE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCES.
Windsor Park has hosted many other productions over the years, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, World War Z and Universal Pictures’ recent box-office hit Wicked: Part One “We filmed university scenes and woods at Windsor, which has such diversity in the types of trees and different forests that it offers, but also [the park team] is so unbelievably helpful. Nick Day, who runs the filming department for Windsor Great Park, is the most film-friendly person you'll ever meet,” says Joan Schneider, the film’s unit production manager.
Some productions choose to immerse themselves fully in the park landscapes. For example, the neowestern series Territory, released on Netflix in late 2024, utilised locations across South Australia and the Northern Territory, including Kakadu National Park. The series showcased vast cattle ranches and perilous rivers, reflecting the rugged lives of its characters. Filming in these remote areas posed logistical challenges, with crews often residing onsite to accommodate the isolated settings. But this commitment to authenticity only enriched the series' narrative depth and visual appeal.
LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES, HIGH REWARDS
National parks closer to civilisation, particularly cities, tend to prove easier for amenities, crew, equipment and accommodation. A good example is The Peak District, located handily near Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby and neighbouring studios in Manchester, as well as heritage properties such as Chatsworth and Haddon.
“On the doorstep of The Full Monty’s Sheffield home [including Disney+ recent television series based on the original British classic] the gritty moorlands and rugged vistas of the Peak District also helped to support the narrative of the BBC’s upcoming drama series Reunion with Eddie Marsen,” explains Tom Marshall, marcoms manager at the Peak District National Park Authority.
National parks can also prove logistically easier in terms of less human and car traffic to deal with than shooting in towns and cities, and at a fraction of the cost.
“For a campaign for car brand McLaren, crew were able to work within the traffic-free tunnel network of the Monsal Trail in the Peak District, allowing a race-licenced driver to undertake speed work on a cleansed and safe site,” explains Marshall. “This
allowed for drone, static shooting positions, tracking and additional audio in a matter of hours before visitors were once again making use of the route on two wheels or four hooves. The resulting kaleidoscopic sequence was just one of a series of shots all captured within the Peak District’s boundaries.”
PERMITTING
Productions obviously need to get permits to film at these national parks, which can take longer than filming at other sites, but one of the great benefits is that most don’t charge for permitting.
“It might take a bit longer to get permits from a national park to fly a drone or helicopter or something like that but when the permit is granted, we don't have to pay the National Park any money,” enthuses Joachim Lyng, managing partner at Film In Norway, a country which offers hundreds of national parks.
“IT MIGHT TAKE A BIT LONGER TO GET PERMITS FROM A NATIONAL PARK TO FLY A DRONE OR HELICOPTER BUT WHEN THE PERMIT IS GRANTED, WE DON'T HAVE TO PAY THE NATIONAL PARK ANY MONEY.”
There have also been some legislative changes to permitting in some parts of the world, particularly the US. In December 2024, the Senate passed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act, eliminating the need for photographers and videographers to secure permits for filming in national parks, as long as the filming occurs in areas open to the public, does not harm park resources or visitors, and involves fewer than six people. This move aims to encourage more small-scale film production, while ensuring the protection of park resources.
PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT
Although possibilities may seem endless when shooting in park areas, there are, of course, environmental concerns and logistical challenges in these protected spaces, with an influx of crews causing disruption.
Parks are understandably careful about where productions can shoot and ensure they don’t leave too much of a footprint, not damaging any of the landscape or leaving anything unwanted behind.
DURING PRESCOUTS WE ASSESS WHETHER OUR FOOTPRINT IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO BE INVISIBLE TO WHEREVER WE’RE SHOOTING. THAT TAKES A LOT OF MANAGEMENT.
“Quite often with the filming of especially bigger productions, even though they will be in areas that people come to walk in, we find that they want to drive as much as possible to get to the different areas,” explains Bronwyn Lally at Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in the Brecon Beacons. “Especially if it is wet, in those cases we have to advise them against that and make them think about little things to not churn up the ground or disrupt the land.”
Filming in mountainous national parks can potentially be particularly disruptive, damaging and logistically challenging. “You're taking multiple helicopter runs, dropping gear up to three days prior to the shoot, setting up tents and camps because if weather is inclement when you're already shooting on the mountain you can't fly off. Then you have to stay overnight. We have to have some permanent tent structures that are robust enough to be able to manage bad weather,” says Hans Dayal, an experienced production and location manager whose credits include Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, and Shooter with Mark Wahlberg. “During pre-scouts we assess whether our footprint is going to be able to be invisible to wherever we’re shooting. That takes a lot of management.”
Moreover, the presence of film crews can strain the resources of protected areas. Infrastructure may not be equipped to handle large-scale productions, leading to potential overuse and wear. The visual integrity of these sites can be compromised if not managed responsibly, detracting from their natural beauty and the experience of other visitors.
PLATE SHOOTS
Some productions just use national parks for plate shoots, including to capture scenery for virtual reality productions. These tend to be more eco-friendly methods of filming and logistically straightforward.
Several major productions have done LIDAR and 360 degree filming at Bannau Brycheiniog in the Brecon Beacons, for example, and then transferred the locations to studio spaces.
High-definition drone footage and 3D scanning allow filmmakers to digitally recreate landscapes for postproduction, reducing the need for physical
presence while still maintaining (some) visual authenticity. But not all in the industry are convinced this is the best way of working.
“You can control your day and you know exactly what your plate looks like, because you've been to the spot and done your 360-shot. It's very convenient,” says Dayal. “But for those who love of being in the mountains [and other park locations] is you get a lot more, you can move around a little bit more, and do things that make it feel just a little bit more authentic and give you better value.”
Overall, filming in national parks and protected areas offers filmmakers unparalleled settings and is cheaper than filming on city streets. But there are environmental and cultural sensitivities to consider. Having the support of the park authorities is key to making sure the filming process runs smoothly.
APES TO PRATT
Forthcoming action drama Way of the Warrior Kid directed by McG, starring Chris Pratt, produced by Skydance Media for AppleTV+ shot scenes at a dam in Malibu Creek State Park, CA.
“We needed to shoot a scene where a guy has to jump off a rock face into a river,” explains DP Shane Hurlburt who suggested the location based on viewing Google Earth. “The location manager worked with Parks and Rec to get us access with four-wheel drive vehicles.”
McG wanted to the stunt to be performed from an iconic Southern California 1920s bridge which they found at Tajunga in Southern CA. Since it had no water underneath the shot was a composite of the dam at Malibu, the Tajunga bridge and VFX.
Prior to being opened to the public in 1976, the park was owned by 20th Century Fox and used extensively as a backlot to film numerous shows, notably Planet of the Apes (1967) and M*A*S*H (the 1970 movie and opening sequence to the television series). The park is composed of Kaslow Nature Preserve, Liberty canyon Nature Preserve, Tapia Park, and Udell George Nature Preserve.
Hungary’s tax scheme was the initial incentive for Sky Studios, Carnival Films and Universal Television to base production of Sky Atlantic/Peacock spy series The Day of the Jackal in the country.
However, Budapest’s architecture proved a match for a multi-city narrative. Scenes set in Paris and Germany including Munich and Nuremberg were shot there. All interiors were built and staged in a local warehouse rented for the shoot with locations managed by Balint Regius.
The Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) is a master at switching identities and passing incognito across international borders. This includes his luxury home
in Cadiz, Spain, actually shot in Rabac on the Croatian coast. Flashbacks to war in the Iraqi desert were staged on Croatian island Pag. The production shot some scenes in Venice.
Female protagonist Bianca spends much of her time in the UK with locations managed by Simon Nixon. Scenes in Northern Ireland were shot in England where Nixon also sourced exteriors for her house and for the Bond-iconic MI6 (the entrance and interiors of which were reconstructed in Budapest).
A gunmaker’s factory where a shootout takes place was a disused sugar beet factory in rural Hungary that Regius had chanced upon while stopping to have an ice cream on the way back from scouting a nearby river. Designer Richard Bullock built the
gunmaker’s working area inside rooms made of metal cages built within the large factory space.
A theatre in Riga, scene of an assassination attempt, was created by filming at two Budapest theatres augmented by a stage of the theatre’s ceiling where Jackal hides.
“For every location we gathered as much footage as we could, particularly in London where we had limited time to shoot,” Nixon says. Stock footage of New York City was acquired for scenes set there.
The show’s visual style was established by director Brian Kirk and DoP Christopher Ross BSC in a considered cinematic look with little to no handheld.
Images courtesy of Universal Television.
TEXAS Everything’s Bigger
For years Hollywood has been the centre of the screen industry, but the Lone Star State is swooping in to try and take that mantle. With major new studio and location facilities like 204 Texas and Hill Country Studios being built and a spate of financial incentives to sweeten the deal, major projects and stars are heading south.
Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson revived their True Detective characters earlier this year for the advert True to Texas promoting the Lone Star state as a filming location. They stated “Hollywood is a flat circle” and called for more government funding support, with Harrelson saying “a small fraction of Texas budget surplus could turn this state into the new Hollywood.”
“A SMALL FRACTION OF TEXAS BUDGET SURPLUS COULD TURN THIS STATE INTO THE NEW HOLLYWOOD .”
Their calls (along with many others in the state, including writer-producer Taylor Sheridan) have been answered with the Texas Senate putting money behind the message, “to make Texas the movie capital of the world.” They have filed a budget of USD498 million to revamp the Texas Film Incentive, including USD48 million in grants for small films and television commercials, and up to USD450 million in new tax credits, including Texas residency requirements for workers.
INCENTIVES & INFRASTRUCTURE
The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Programme (TMIIIP) with its 22.5% rebate has been a key factor in attracting high profile productions in recent years, including Paramount shows Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown
The state’s legislative session approved a USD200 million grant a couple of years ago to cover productions from September 2023 through August 2025. This robust improvement was a huge step in supporting in-state production.
LOCATION HIGHLIGHT
The Fort Worth Stockyards is one of the most iconic Western-themed filming locations in the whole US, with its preserved 19th-century architecture, wooden storefronts, and historic cattle pens. The Stockyards played a significant role in the 2023 filming of 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone, which follows the Dutton family’s journey through the rugged American frontier.
The series utilised the Stockyards’ authentic Western atmosphere to recreate the late 19th century, bringing historical accuracy to scenes depicting bustling cattle drives and frontier life. The site’s cobblestone streets, rustic saloons, and classic rodeo arenas made it an ideal backdrop for the series’ gritty, immersive storytelling.
The Stockyards have featured in numerous other Western films and television series, cementing its reputation as a prime filming destination in Texas.
204 TEXAS, THE FIRST PURPOSEBUILT STUDIO LOT IN TEXAS, LOCATED ON A VAST 560ACRE EXPANSE IN BASTROP COUNTY.
“TMIIIP is a great asset, but it does not have a longterm funding mechanism at the moment, so we only know how much cash we have every two years at a time,” explains Chase Musslewhite, co-founder, Media For Texas, championing the lobbying for a better Texan film incentive programme.
“Once you really get your project off the ground, there's about a year left in the cycle, so if I wanted to shoot a film, uncertainty can arise around if there would be funding six months from start. That also poses a big problem for television shows and studios who want to know if they can shoot multiple seasons in one location and whether the construction build will be met with a demand to shoot there.”
STUDIO SUPPORT
Despite these concerns and setbacks, there is excitement about the prospective rise in incentive funding and the extensive studio plans for the state to accommodate incoming productions.
One of the biggest high-profile developments is southern California-based film and events company Line 204’s construction of 204 Texas, the first purpose-built studio lot in Texas, located on a vast 560-acre expanse in Bastrop County. It is set to offer an array of diverse filming locations, from dense forests and miles of sandy beach to open green pastures and a picturesque stretch of the Colorado River.
There’ll also be six 20,000 sq ft and two 10,000 sq ft sound stages, all equipped to facilitate a wide range of productions. As well as a 50,000 sq ft warehouse, operated by MBS Studio Equipment, stocked with grip and lighting kit.
The major project is expected to contribute approximately USD1.9 billion to the local economy over a decade, create numerous jobs and stimulate local businesses, further solidifying Texas's position as an emerging hub for film and television production.
The other big news was Talon Entertainment Finance’s acquisition of popular Dallas facility South Side Studios and its reopening in January 2025, following a multi-million dollar upgrade.
“When there's not film and television happening, commercials are shooting here almost 90% of the time,” enthuses former Dallas Film Commissioner and Talon Entertainment Finance’s head of physical production Tony Armer. “One of the things that we’ve provided are standing sets that are permanently built, hospitals, a school, things that in real life you can't just walk into and film immediately.”
Construction is also underway on Hill Country Studios, a 200-acre site about 30 minutes from downtown Austin. The development plans include over 800,000 sq ft of production facilities, featuring 12 purpose-built sound stages, four workshops, a backlot, and 200,000 sq ft of production office space.
PROJECTS STEEPED IN TEXAS PRIDE
Texas pride runs deep for many of the local filmmakers, notably Sheridan who has contributed to a number of state-set projects such as Yellowstone, 1923 and the upcoming Landman
The Yellowstone prequel series 1923 filmed season two across Texas, including Austin, San Antonio, Lockhart and the coastal resort island city of Galveston.
Filming also took place in Houston (just 45 miles from Galveston) to capture the cityscape. This proved to be “an economically big move,” according to Houston Film Commissioner Alfred Cervantes.
Netflix comedy series Mo, about a Palestinian refugee-descendent living in Texas, also shot in Houston capturing the cityscapes, but also doubling the dry landscape for Mexico and the Middle East. The production took advantage of local talent with about 40% Houston-based crew for season two, according to Houston Film Commission data.
Another popular filming spot is Fort Worth thanks to its historical sites, expansive Western landscapes, and experience hosting productions. One of the biggest to shoot there recently was Sheridan’s Landman
In a further boost to the local industry, Sheridan and 101 Studios, the production company behind Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown, has partnered with the Fort Worth Film Commission and Tarrant County College to create the Fort Worth Film Collaborative, a workforce development certification programme.
“The programme provides a fast track certificate where we can help with some training for areas like grip and gaffer, hair and makeup, and set construction,” says Taylor Hardy, film commissioner and director of video content at Visit Fort Worth.
“We've even had some of those graduates go on to work on things like Lioness season 2, which filmed here.”
All parties in the Texas screen industry are pulling together to try and compete with the likes of New Mexico and Georgia. The increased incentives, new studio facilities and growing crew base are certainly helping. Could Texas become the new Hollywood in years to come?
SOMETHING ELSE
In December 2024, Houston's NRG Stadium hosted the inaugural NFL Christmas Day Halftime Show, headlined by Beyoncé. Dubbed the ‘Beyoncé Bowl’ the performance featured tracks from her 2024 album Cowboy Carter and included guest appearances by Post Malone and Blue Ivy Carter.
The event attracted 27 million live viewers, setting a record for Christmas Day NFL game viewership since 2001. Shortly after, the performance was released as a standalone special on Netflix, amassing nearly 50 million views within ten days. This collaboration between Beyoncé, the NFL, and Netflix marked a significant moment in entertainment, blending live sports with high-profile musical performances, allwhile highlighting the Texan landmark.
From Slow Horses to The Are Murders, spy thriller series are dominating the market at the moment, especially in Western Europe, but can this trend continue? makers investigates.
Daniel Craig hung up his tux four years ago and while Amazon, now sole owners and curators of the 007 franchise, have fast-tracked the next Bond project, rival spies have moved in on his patch.
The list of recent and ongoing spy thriller series is extensive… Apple TV+ has commissioned another season of its hugely popular show Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman, and Netflix has done the same with Black Doves, starring Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw. Then there’s the Sky Atlantic series update of The Day of the Jackal, another Apple TV+ series in Prime Target, and in the US there’s season two of Netflix’s The Recruit, and The Agency, an adaptation of the French thriller Le Bureau des Légendes. The appetite for these gripping, spy thrillers appear only to be growing.
This is particularly the case in Western Europe, which hit a record volume of crime and thriller production orders from global streamers in 2024, reaching 94 titles, according to research from Ampere Analysis. That’s equivalent to a 43% share of all commissions by major streamers in the genre – up from 28% in 2020 – more than the North American and Asia Pacific regions combined.
APPETITE FOR SPIES
“Our consumer surveys indicate that there is a continued appetite for the genre, especially in Western Europe where it has ranked among the top two by genre preferences for several years,” says Ampere’s Cyrine Amor. “The genre consistently dominates viewership charts on platforms like Netflix, with research showing it is key to both subscriber growth and retention – critical as streaming markets mature. Global streamers are also increasingly eyeing revenue growth from advertising and, in this sense, commissions with broad audience appeal, like in the crime and thriller genre, will continue to be important.”
This comes as the streamers reappraise their original content investment and profitability drive, coupled with the impact of the Hollywood strikes and ongoing production cost inflation in the US, causing scripted commissions to take quite a hit in 2023. Resulting in a more cautious and targeted approach since then to their investments in new scripted productions. Hence focusing on the profit-making series, which at the moment includes the spy series genre.
THESE SHOWS COMBINE ALL THE POPULAR COMPONENTS OF ACTION, ROMANCE, DRAMA, BETRAYAL, WITH THE GLAMOUR OF THE SPY WORLD AND STUNNING OR SECRET LOCATIONS.
These series tend to travel well because they combine all the popular components of action, romance, drama, betrayal, with the glamour of the spy world and stunning or secret locations.
These locations are often the important backbone or backdrop for the series. So shooting on site is key. For Black Doves, for example, “London is a major part of the story,” insists Joanna Osborn, series production manager. “We really wanted to show the streets of London, especially in the opening sequence when Jason Davies (Andrew Koji’s character) walks through the city and you have the iconic landmarks behind.”
The challenge then is that Central London is expensive from a servicing point of view. “There aren’t many unit bases in the centre anymore, and the ones that are there are very expensive,” adds Osborn. “If you need ancillary space for crowd, getting them ready, or rigging cameras or cranes, it’s costly. “We’ve filmed at Somerset House, and the only place we could get the crowd ready was The Savoy hotel. So we had to find alternatives. Then there’s the transporting of crew in and out, which is difficult because of the traffic and expensive. But it was a key location. We made it work and it looked great.”
The other factor shooting a spy series on location is getting clearance. “That was massive for Black Doves because in Central London you’re constantly coming across brands when the characters are using tech – computers, phones etc. And there’s news footage and newspaper articles with fictional headlines. So you need to get clearance, especially with a spy show that has murder and violence, which companies and brands don’t necessarily want to be associated with,” says Osborn. “We had someone on that show whose main responsibility was getting clearance.”
These location costs and logistics are often dictated by the script. It was a similar story on Netflix miniseries Treason. “We did a lot of filming in private members clubs in London, which were integral to the story,” says Graeme Mackenzie,
a supervising location manager on the series. “It’s a nice side hustle for them. The members are sacrosanct to the club, so we have to work around that. But we had extensive use of The Traveller’s Club, which was used as a meeting place between Ciaran Hinds’ character (Sir Martin Angelis) and the young spy (played by Charlie Cox). It was a great place to shoot with good parking around the corner.” They also filmed in warehouses (where hostages are held) and did some studio filming (at Wimbledon Studios), including the interior of the MI6 headquarters.
He believes a lot of the spy shows want to showcase the opulent places that people don’t see, like the private members clubs and exotic foreign locations, but also the hidden away, atmospheric sites. [The cheap alternative is having a lot of scenes with just people chatting in rooms].
“WE HAVE THIS FASCINATION WITH SPIES AND ESPIONAGE THAT NEVER SEEMS TO GO AWAY.”
Some, though, go against the grain and still prove successful. “I think Slow Horses actually works well because it’s not playing to the cliches often found in spy series. It’s the sort of anti-glamour hero model,” says assistant director and 2nd unit director Marios Hamboulides.
COUNTING COSTS
The major factor is the budget of the backers. “There’s not the same level of money in domestic television that there is with the top streamers, like Apple, who have had vast amounts to splash on series with top names, and can often achieve what they want to achieve,” says Mackenzie.
“Sometimes, with a project, you’ll get to the crunch point where you’ve got the script, you’ve done the tech recces, got the costs of everything and how the director wants to shoot, and they go ‘it doesn’t fit with the budget’. So, either you need more money or make creative cuts,” says Osborn.
One of the popular solutions (especially for recurring series) is finding multi-purpose locations to match the story that can be used time and again and be cost effective. “So things like empty office spaces waiting for development or old college buildings,” says Mackenzie.
which was expanded into a franchise with spin-off series in different locations and languages. It’s quite an easy format to have in repeat mode for television.”
As long as they’re gripping and have great stories, they’ve got a chance, Alami believes. “The challenge is appealing to the younger generation with their potentially shorter attention spans. You need to grab them in the first 5/10 minutes.”
FUTURE PROOF
Those interviewed for this article believe the spy boom will continue, as long as projects keep themselves unique. “We have this fascination with spies and espionage that never seems to go away,” says Osborn.
Hamboulides adds: “People love them because they’re Agatha Christie-esque with politics thrown in.”
I THINK SLOW HORSES ACTUALLY WORKS WELL BECAUSE IT’S NOT PLAYING TO THE CLICHES OFTEN FOUND IN SPY SERIES.
During and post Covid-19 many of the spy series filming abroad try to shot several scenes in one location to save on costs and for convenience. “For BBC series The Night Manager we doubled the streets of Cairo, a ferry scene in Istanbul and action sequences in Kurdistan all in Morocco,” says Khadija Alami, a Morocco-based line producer on the series, who is also currently working on her own local-language spy show.
CROWDED MARKET
The spy competition is hot. All the streamers and broadcasters are competing to get their series out as quick as possible. “We turned Black Doves around very fast. The writer had come up with the show in December 2022, we were then in soft prep by May 2023, full prep from May until October, and started shooting from then to capture winter and particularly Christmas when the show is set [We wanted to film at the Christmas markets as they were happening because to recreate them is very expensive]. The show was then released a year later at Christmas 2024,” says Osborn.
This saturation of high-end (bigger budget) series raises the question of whether the smaller budget and foreign-language series can still find space in the market. Alami is convinced they can. “I’ve watched a load of Scandinavian, Polish and Korean thriller series that are doing well in their market, and many still travel abroad or get picked up for remakes. So I don’t think language is a barrier anymore.”
Hamboulides agrees: “Look at the success of Netflix’s Swedish series The Are Murders [it’s become a global hit with 11 million views in one week and reached the top 10 list in many countries]. I also worked on the Amazon US spy series Citadel,
And there’s plenty of scope still for many spy stories to come. “There are so many spy thriller books out there ripe for adaptation, and geopolitically, the fascinating historical events that we’ve lived through [especially the wars] have tons of spy stories that can be explored,” says Mackenzie. “Plus, if you look at how the landscape is being redefined again with the UN vote and what’s happening in the Middle East, it’s a world of unlimited possibilities.”
UK, FRANCE AND SPAIN LEAD THE WAY
Cyrine Amor, research manager at Ampere Analysis…
“Our findings (from the data on television and movie title orders by all the major streamers, broadcasters and other key commissioning market players in all the major territories internationally) highlighted the prominent role of the UK production market in the crime and thriller genre, as it matched the US, for the first time, by number of first-run television series (i.e. new series, excluding renewals) ordered for local production by the major streamers in 2024. Spain and France were also particularly prominent within their commissions of new crime & thriller content.
The UK and Spain are the two main production hubs for these major streamers within Western Europe across all genres, with commissions not only catering to their local British and Spanish subscribers, but also their wider global English- and Spanish-speaking subscriber bases, for example those in Central and Latin America when it comes to Spanishlanguage commissions.”
Over a quarter century, Nexus Studios has evolved from branded content animator into a global producer of multidimensional storydriven experiences. It numbers Google, Meta, Marvel, Niantic, Billie Eilish, HBO, and ABBA Voyage among clients, picking up multiBAFTA, Cannes Lions and Emmy wins alongside Oscar and Grammy nominations.
We didn't intend to set up a studio at the beginning,” Charlotte Bavasso, Co-Founder and Group CEO explains. “For us, talent is always key and a big part of what we still do is talent management and careers development. The directors we work with have very different styles and techniques. So, rather than setting up a studio and getting work to fit into a fixed environment we set up bespoke teams around them that can really empower their work.”
Bavasso and Christopher O'Reilly were colleagues at a commercials production company with a shared passion for animation. Taking cues from anime, they were keen to take the medium away from its preschool silo and launched Nexus Studios in 2000 initially targeting the creative advertising market.
“Because animation is digital by nature we could see early on that moving animation beyond the television screen was an exciting opportunity. We set up the experience design division alongside film and for quite a while they ran in parallel tracks. The vision was always that these would start converging at some point. That’s definitely happening now.”
One of Nexus Studios’ first projects was work on the visuals for U2’s PopMart tour “displayed on the biggest screen in Europe at the time.” One of its most recent was six short films created for the 16K screen at Sphere Las Vegas. This project, produced with Antigravity Academy for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, required development of a custom VR app, allowing the team and clients to review the films from the audience’s perspective within the sphere.
Then, as now, Nexus keeps the bulk of work inhouse with a team of artists and producers bolstered by technical engineers and experts in AI and interactive media all backed by facilities including performance capture and tools for 2D and 3D CG.
“We love the idea of looking holistically at an IP or brand and strategically at what audience they need to reach, and then devise the content strategy that way,” Bavasso says.
This creatively agile approach birthed stop-motion animated drama series The House, a stop-motion adult animated special comprising three stories created by Enda Walsh for Netflix on which lead animator Kecy Salangad won an Emmy.
“I think there will always be demand for crafts like stop-motion which is why we are keeping a cool head about Generative AI,” she says. “Stop-motion is the closest animation form to live action and in that sense, it can still reach a large audience.”
While Nexus Studios’ focus’ is on human originated stories it is using AI tools to speed animation processes, such as clean-up of rigs. Its AI-powered project Adoptable, created in collaboration with Pedigree and ColensoBBDO, used a bespoke AI model to transform a basic iPhone photo of a rescue dog into studio quality photography that was then placed in digital posters near the dog’s shelter.
“This proved that bleeding edge AI technology can be used to create hyper local marketing in the service of a good cause and in way that was not possible before. Pedigree saw record adoption of local rescue dogs as a result.” The campaign won the top prize for Outdoor Lions at Cannes 2024.
Nexus Studios also fused its skills in real-time animation and immersive tech to deliver two location-specific AR activations for virtual band Gorillaz. With director Jamie Hewlett and Fx Goby Nexus staged the immersive performances which won Gold Lion in 2023, Best Immersive at Tribeca X and Best Performance and People’s Voice Award at the Webbys. A follow-up live listening party on YouTube to promote the album Cracker Island, featured bassist Murdoc animated in realtime to response to fan responses.
Bavasso is just as proud of her company’s achievement in being named in the UK’s top 200 ‘Women-Powered’ high growth businesses by JP Morgan – for the second year running.
“The big difference when you run your own business is that, in theory, you are in control. To this day, I'm not sure what I’d be doing if I hadn't started my own business. I want to encourage women to believe that entrepreneurship has advantages for them and that they can shape the business in a way that works for them.
“The other essential criteria, and where I have been extremely fortunate, is making sure that you work with business partners who completely get it. That's the case with Chris and myself. We’ve always been extremely understanding of the key moments in our lives.”
Created at Nexus Studios, stop-motion anthology The House was made by Enda Walsh for Netflix.
Foundations for Exploring Future Media
CoStar’s Live Lab Launch Event at the University of
If the UK’s creative industries are to continue to add billions of pounds to the country’s economy then much will rely on the success of a new network of five tech labs exploring the future of live, screen-based and convergent media.
The CoSTAR Network is the evolution of the government funded Creative Industries Clusters Programme that ended in 2023 and spent GBP56 million to drive innovation across the UK’s creative industries. Four of those clusters (led by Universities in Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast and York) are participants in CoSTAR which has a GBP75.6 million grant over six years delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
“CoSTAR is the next obvious step for UK Creative Industry,” says James Bennett, director of CoSTAR National Lab. “The Creative Industries generate six percent of UK GVA (worth GBP124 billion in
2024), but only receive around one percent of R&D spend. Now we are making cutting edge infrastructure available within academia where industry can access it. We are putting world-class research at the service of creative industries to grow innovation in an ethical and sustainable framework.”
Each of the Labs is equipped with a private 5G network, compute power for AI and the latest equipment for virtual production and mixed reality though each has a different focus. Just as importantly, they are supported by a team of leading researchers with expertise in the use of immersive and virtual technologies.
“We're turning the traditional academic route of engaging with industry on its head,” says Bennett. “Historically industry comes to universities. At CoSTAR, we are embedding University researchers in the heart of the industry.”
COSTAR SCREEN LAB WILL ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF BREAKTHROUGH TECHNIQUES THAT WILL REDEFINE HOW CONTENT IS CREATED. VIRTUAL
The targets are SMEs and start-ups who can apply to either supercharge an existing project or use the labs as a sandbox for pilots and prototypes.
COSTAR SCREEN LAB
The CoSTAR Screen Lab is a virtual production facility embedded within Ulster University’s campus at Belfast Harbour Studios.
“Northern Ireland has long punched above its weight in screen production,” says Declan Keeney, Co-Founder & CEO of Studio Ulster and Director of the CoSTAR Screen Lab. “We're seeing the creative industries replacing the heavy industries here, clustered around the harbour. We have about 1200 AAA crew here and a nascent but fast-growing creative technology sector. These are well paid creative technology jobs. CoSTAR Screen Lab will accelerate the development of breakthrough techniques that will redefine how content is created.”
Its facilities include ICVFX, robotics and a 4D volumetric rig capable of ingesting multiple images a second from a 250-camera array. Over and above these state-of-the-art toys the Lab offers access to expertise particularly in AI. Last year a GBP16.3 million Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Centre opened at Ulster University with professors in AI, computer games and cognitive robotics among the academics on hand.
Also on campus is Professor Greg Maguire, former technical animation supervisor at Walt Disney, Lucasfilm and ILM where he worked on Avatar Maguire is founder and CEO at Belfast animator Humain building technology to create digital humans.
Says Keeney, “The investment point is very high for this technology but if you have access to a facility like the Lab and the world class expertise we have in the
building, all of a sudden you're empowered to take your idea to the next stage.”
COSTAR FORESIGHT LAB
Led by Goldsmiths University with advisors including the ILM, Dneg, BBC R&D, the RSC, the Foresight Lab is a thinktank with a focus on areas including decarbonisation, DEI and consultancy on the regulatory framework around AI and copyright.
COSTAR REALTIME LAB
With the main site located in Dundee and a second facility at Edinburgh College of Art, the Realtime Lab run out of Abertay University will specialise in virtual production, integrating CGI, motion capture and AR. While Scotland’s screen sector can look to benefit from the Lab, Abertay’s 2023 demonstration of live but geographically dispersed production over 5G has already caught the eye. There are plans to evolve this experiment over 5G and nascent 6G networks with Pinewood when that lab launches in 2026.
COSTAR LIVE LAB
“WE WILL LOOK AROUND THE CORNER TO WHAT IS COMING IN CONVERGED MEDIA LANDSCAPES WHETHER IT'S HYBRID PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL OR REAL TIME INTERACTIONS ACROSS DIFFERENT DEVICES.”
The Live Lab based at West Yorkshire’s Production Park will explore immersive, multisensory, and interactive technologies in the live environment. It already hosts large stages where artists like Pink, Metallica and Beyonce have come to set up their arena tours before taking the show on the road.
“The artists that come to Production Park are not here to rehearse, they ideate their entire tour here,” explains Live Lab co-director Helena Daffern. “Our research is not just for the live performance industry but around the concept of liveness itself. We will explore the human experience of how we interact with screen and gaming technologies.”
CoStar’s launch at Studio Ulster.
OUR RESEARCH IS NOT JUST FOR THE LIVE PERFORMANCE INDUSTRY BUT AROUND THE CONCEPT OF LIVENESS ITSELF.
This includes exploration of user experience gleaned from biometrics for heart rate and skin conductance. “By using visual tracking from a camera turned on an audience we might infer from their facial features exactly what they're feeling and emoting,” says co-director Gavin Kearney. “It's these sort of technologies that help drive the new generation of immersive experiences.”
Another avenue of exploration is connecting performers with audiences over the internet. “We’re looking at the technologies that will enable shared virtual environments to happen in a meaningful way,” says Kearney. “Under controlled conditions we can vary the codecs, bandwidth, latency conditions and so on to learn about each of the individual technologies in turn and then converge them to create something unique.”
COSTAR NATIONAL LAB
Opening next year, the CoSTAR National Lab at Pinewood will offer virtual production stages and labs featuring spatial audio, volumetric capture and multisensory devices.
“This is where convergent media experiences are going to live,” says Bennett. “We will look around the corner to what is coming in converged media landscapes whether it's hybrid physical and virtual or real time interactions across different devices. We’re also thinking about the built environment as a canvas on which creative experiences and creative IP can live.”
BT is providing the telco network at the site. Disguise is providing its real-time streaming technology.
The focus is not just entertainment. Bennett says they are doing work around “accessibility and wayfinding” for new forms of e-commerce.
“A lot of our future landscape gets imagined by Hollywood and features holographic images and AI generated audio visuals coming at us from all angles. One of the interesting pieces we're doing is how you actually create an environment where we may have huge amounts of sensory experiences bombarding
us yet be able to block things out and focus on particular areas. How do we create experiences that enable people to enjoy the next wave of the metaverse?”
The National Lab will also coordinate efforts to bring the network’s research and infrastructure to bare on projects. While the labs have specific funding programmes the National Lab is administrating a GBP7m fund for applicants and Bennett says the value to recipients is worth double.
“Because the infrastructure itself is being provided for free, including the staffing, when a company gets a cash in grant from us, that is then match funded with access to the Labs.”
“WE’RE LOOKING AT THE TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL ENABLE SHARED VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS TO HAPPEN IN A MEANINGFUL WAY.”
“It's been a really tough time for our creative sectors and a long wait between the end of the first days of Creative Industries Clusters,” he adds. “We know there’s a huge appetite in the creative sector to have opportunities to innovate and to be supported by world class research. In really uncertain times, what CoSTAR provides for them is a safe space to make serious attempts at innovation.
“The UK’s creative lifeblood is creative IP,” he adds. “We need to see creative applications in 5G and 6G that work together with AI neural networks to create a future of holographic imagery, innovative live performance and enhanced mixed reality experiences.”
If the network is successful, adds Daffern, “It will have succeeded in bringing together different strands of R&D, shared knowledge, resource and facility.”
It should also have succeeded in keeping the UK Creative Industries at the forefront of the next wave in storytelling.
TUNISIA Confidence Grows
The success of director Kaouther Ben Hania who landed two Oscar nominations in three years, and million dollar investment in local studios, are signs of a strengthening Tunisian film industry both homegrown and for foreign filmmakers.
From the ancient city of Carthage to the troglodyte dwellings in Matmata –famously featured in Star Wars –Tunisia provides unparalleled backdrops for a range of genres. Rapidly becoming a premiere destination for filmmakers, the country’s cost effectiveness with regard to crew hire, location scouting and overall filming spend give it a significant competitive edge in comparison to neighbours such as Morocco or even France.
Turning the cameras onto the survivors of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Netflix’s Surviving Black Hawk Down documentary series recreates the tense and explosive scenes of the devastating destruction. Tunisian locations doubled for Somalia with filming serviced by Sindbad Productions based in the capital Tunis.
“LOCAL CREWS ARE WELL EQUIPPED TO HELP VISITING FILMMAKERS NAVIGATE THE CLIMATE AND OVERALL EXPERIENCE.”
“We organised scouts, hired crew, acquired various permits, sourced locations and actors, did a construction build, and supervised the shoot from arrival in Tunisia to departure,” lays out Sinbad co-founder Philippa Day. It has serviced a number of projects including for HBO, BBC, FX and National Geographic
Shot in the southern region of Tunisia, the production team were guided through stark desert landscapes, home to some of the most exotic sights such as hilltop Berber villages. While the arid climates were one element to complete with, local crews are well equipped to help visiting filmmakers navigate the climate and overall experience.
LOCATION HIGHLIGHT
Contrary to what some tour guides may tell you, Ridley Scott did not shoot any part of either Gladiator film at El Jem Amphitheatre. Cineastes will be delighted to know though that the People’s Front of Judia held court here in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Nike also shot a gladiatorial-style soccer game here in 1996 featuring Eric Cantona, Ronaldo and Luís Figo.
The amphitheater, also known as Qasr al-Jamm or Thysdrus, after the original Roman settlement in this location, is unmissably located in the middle of El Djem city, and is about an hour’s drive from either Sousse and Sfax. The UNESCO heritage site was established around 238 AD, at 162 metres long by 118m wide is the third largest amphitheatre in the world and able to accommodate up to 35,000 spectators. It’s unique in Africa and one of Tunisia’s leading attractions.
You’ll need a permit to film here, processed by the Tunisian ministry of culture.
“In Tunisia you can do everything from Middle East war films to sci-fi,” Alexandre Naas, CEO of Tunisian International Studios comments. The latter refers to the studio’s own work with an undisclosed Italian project set on Mars.
“Filming mainly took place near Chebika in the region of Tozeur for the natural landscapes and the building of a shuttle,” adds Naas. “The location was perfect because it has red rocks, mountains and no vegetation or buildings surrounding the area. Also, the location was 45 minutes’ drive from the hotel, making it convenient for cast and crew.”
Tunisia has long been a magnet for filmmakers seeking captivating landscapes, historic architecture, and cost-effective production options, even sometimes standing in for other destinations. The Amphitheatre of El Jem has doubled for the infamous yet overly busy Colosseum in Italy, and the desert landscapes of the country have mimicked Cairo as featured in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
PERMITS AND PRODUCERS
Filming in Tunisia is a straightforward and hassle-free process with several facilities able to support large-scale productions. The Tunisian Film Industry is backed by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, which promotes cinema and provides financial incentives for foreign filmmakers.
Additionally, there a number of experienced local production companies which collaborate with international filmmakers. One of them, Cinétéléfilms, has been involved in several high-profile projects such as 2023 Oscar nominated feature doc Four Daughters directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (who also made 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin). Another important entity is the Tunisian Film Centre, which supports the development of local film projects and has also served as a liaison for foreign productions.
Filming permits are obtainable within a week from the Ministry of Culture and there are no work visa requirements for US and EU citizens. There is no rebate in place, but foreign productions are eligible for a VAT exemption.
“Our proximity to Europe is also a feature that attracts filmmakers to come here as we provide something so different but close by,” adds Day. “If people are looking to recreate ancient Rome, religious stories, our locations are very useful to create that.”
In addition to the draw of the landscapes and multi-genre filming potential, Tunisian cinema continues to gain international acclaim. At the 2025 Berlinale, Tunisian-Belgian-Danish filmmaker Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama received a special mention for her debut feature Têtes Brûlées, underscoring the country's vibrant film scene.
First time feature director Amel Guellaty also turns the spotlight on her country in Where the Winds Come From. Produced by Atlas Vision Productions and Haut les Mains Productions the film premiered at Sundance this year and was shot in Tunis. Amel’s portrayal of youth in Tunisia avoids a focus on poverty, which is often depicted in films from the region.
“I had no desire to write a social drama that was both dark and hard to grasp,” she confirms in her Director’s Statement. “I’ve been following Arab cinema and wanted to avoid showing a completely devastated country or people. This is the challenge of the film: to find lightness in times of disarray.”
Tunisia’s film infrastructure has been developing steadily in recent years, with several production companies dedicated to supporting international film projects. The country has a strong tradition of film festivals, such as the Carthage Film Festival, which showcases both regional and international talent and helps foster a network of filmmakers.
Located in the Tunisian seaside town of Hammamet, Mediwood Studios recently signed a USD 3 million expansion deal aimed at strengthening the studio’s position as a key contributor to the growth of the Tunisian film industry.
Facilitated by a skilled crew, filming in Tunisia is a worthwhile experience with its combination of varied and malleable locations for a wide of requirements, plus financial support on offer.
I’VE BEEN FOLLOWING ARAB CINEMA AND WANTED TO AVOID SHOWING A COMPLETELY DEVASTATED COUNTRY OR PEOPLE. THIS IS THE CHALLENGE OF THE FILM: TO FIND LIGHTNESS IN TIMES OF DISARRAY.
SOMETHING ELSE
The Dar Essid Museum, located in a quiet part of Sousse's medina, is a hidden gem that offers visitors a fascinating glimpse into the region’s rich cultural heritage. This charming museum is situated within a beautifully restored 17th-century house and , furnished in the style of a well-to-do 19th-century Sousse official and his family, showcasing traditional architecture and lifestyle including intricate pottery and traditional costumes. It's a must for production designers intent on replicating scenes set in time and place. There’s an extravagance reflected in the Andalusian tiled facades and in the objets d'art and European antique furniture in the downstairs rooms.
Check out the Roman lamp with the graphic depiction of a copulating couple; and the 700-year-old marriage contract that's decorated using 18-carat gold.
The Advanced Media Production network is the UK’s first interconnected 5G-enabled facility.
STREAMING VOLUMETRIC VIDEO IS BEING PITCHED AS A NEW ERA IN MUSIC AND XR ENTERTAINMENT AND INVESTMENT IS POURING IN. FANS DON’T JUST PASSIVELY WATCH. THEY ARE PART OF THE SCENE, CREATING AN UNPARALLELED CONNECTION TO THE ARTIST, BRAND OR STORY.
Channel 4’s app for the Apple Vision Pro is the latest indication that broadcasters see a future in streaming augmented and virtual reality experiences. However, like many such apps the one for Taskmaster barely scratches the surface of spatial computing’s potential. The viewer may be in a virtual world but the show itself is the same passive two-dimensional broadcast experience.
Head-worn displays such as Vision Pro and Meta’s pending Orion AR glasses are dialling up the fidelity of three dimensional virtual experiences.
The key to this is to generate and transmit volumetric video. Calling it holographic conjures up Princess Leia from 1977’s Star Wars but volumetric is more or less the same thing and the race is on to crack the code to deliver such content at scale.
“Volumetric content means video where the user can choose the viewpoint, they can move around and watch from any angle,” says Nick Fellingham, CEO and co-founder at Bristol-based developer Condense. “Shared live experiences in social 3D spaces are the future. We want to take reality and condense it down and put it in front of you. That's going to be a really compelling.”
Founded in 2019, Condense is backed by BBC Ventures which bought a GBP500,000 stake in the company last year.
“By partnering, we can rapidly explore new ways to engage younger audiences who don't regularly come to the BBC,” explained Jeremy Walker, Head of BBC Ventures. “We can shape the next evolution of content creation.”
There are around 600 million active users of virtual environments who primarily spend time inside applications like Fortnite Roblox, Rec.Room and VRChat. As more and more people gravitate towards interactive 3D environments the market is building for content.
“The problem is that it's difficult for producers to get high quality video content into those places,” says Fellingham. “The data needs optimising.”
The Condense team have found a way to stream volumetric content live for playback within interactive 3D engines like Unity or Unreal and viewed by users wearing headsets. It combines a portable rig that uses just ten cameras to capture the live video and a proprietary algorithm to stitch and compress the data for streaming.
“The combination of these things mean that content creators now can actually start producing content,” says Fellingham. “Our algorithms are among the fastest in the world which is how we can do this in real time.”
The rig circling a performer measures three meters by three meters by two meters. This is good enough to capture details of a performer’s nose and eyes in a live stream where there’s occlusion, as will happen when there is more than one artist within the performance space, the system applies predictive techniques to fill in the blanks.
“The whole capability of the system will increase along with computer power as well as how well we can optimise our algorithms,” he says.
BBC PARTNERSHIP
Its platform is being used by BBC Radio 1 and badged as The New Music Portal. A camera array is set up at Maida Vale Studios where artists including Gardna, Charlotte Plank, Sam Tompkins and Confidence Man have performed live streamed gigs.
“SHARED
LIVE
EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL 3D SPACES ARE THE FUTURE. WE
“The ambition is to be running these events much more regularly,” says Fellingham. He says the rise of volumetric video is inevitable because it is superior to conventional video, especially for live experiences. “You really feel a sense of presence when you're consuming volumetric video. Users feel closer to the content and feel more involved.”
WANT TO TAKE REALITY AND CONDENSE IT DOWN AND PUT IT IN FRONT OF YOU.”
A screen in front of the artist shows them what viewers of the virtual venue are seeing and this encourages them to interact with the virtual audience.
“We often find that when a performer comes in they aren’t really prepared for what to expect,” Fellingham says. “They are peering out into a sea of avatars. But pretty soon they realise they can interact with the virtual audience. As soon as they make a ‘shout out’ to the crowd and the crowd does what they say it totally changes how it feels in that space. Something special happens when a viewer’s avatar and that of the performer are sharing the same 3D space.
That’s what's been missing from so many virtual events hosted on online platforms to date. I would call them ‘showings’ rather than concerts. They are replays that feel clinical. If you don't feel like you're sharing the moment then you don't feel like you're connecting and that's what's different about live.”
HOLOGRAPHIC BROADCASTING
The emergence of next generation mobile technology 6G over the next decade is energising experiments in live holographic broadcasts at UK government-funded innovation lab Digital Catapult.
“The potential is huge to test and create a proof of concept,” says Jessica Driscoll its Director of Immersive Technology. “How do we start thinking about AI-powered interactive storytelling, or what does more collaborative art and music production look like? How will multi-sensory experiences enhance storytelling?”
Separately, researchers from Abertay University have showcased how actors could shoot scenes together in real-time from two different locations using a 5G connection against a consistent virtual environment. One practical incentive is to reduce travel time and cut carbon costs.
“There is the appetite to be able to share talent across different geographies, but people’s mindset remains very traditional,” says Driscoll. “Until sustainability becomes much higher up people's agenda, and we do not insist on travelling to down the carbon footprint then real dual site or multi-site performance won’t take off in the way that we thought it would.”
HOLLYWOOD QUALITY XR
SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENS WHEN A VIEWER’S AVATAR AND THAT OF THE PERFORMER ARE SHARING THE SAME 3D SPACE. THAT’S BEEN MISSING FROM SO MANY VIRTUAL EVENTS HOSTED ON ONLINE PLATFORMS TO DATE.
Such experiments include ‘dual site performance’ in which a performer in one place has their actions replicated via holographic video in another location, or where two performers in separate locations combine to deliver a performance in a virtual platform like Roblox.
“We are interested in pushing forward the potential of real-time holographic broadcasting,” says Driscoll. “What’s interesting is the audience interaction that feeds back into those virtual worlds. For example, if you've got two pop stars, one in the north of England and one in the south, performing together in Fortnite then what's the real-time audience experience and the feedback loop that goes back to the performers? That's something that hasn't been cracked.”
The Advanced Media Production (AMP) network, developed by Digital Catapult and motion capture facility Target3D, links studios in London and Gateshead with labs in Belfast, another in Gateshead and another in Newcastle. The facility was used by electronic arts duo Gibson/Martelli to create a dual-site performance using motion capture, virtual environments and live music. Artists in studios 250 miles apart were linked by high speed networks.
“As the performer, you can see people moving (virtually) in the metaverse, but you can't really discern individual gestures,” says Driscoll. “There’s a lag, it’s not seamless. But a completely low latency 6G environment would enable real-time interactions.”
She continues: “When there’s no noticeable latency everyone can experience something at the same time. You could have meaningful interactions and very high-quality volumetric video and audio that is also personalised. These are things we have barely begun to explore.”
Last year, music video ‘Weightless’ by Albanian singer Arilena Ara claimed to be the first ever to be created and released in streaming XR. The promo was published on the SteamVR platform where headset wearing users could view Ara less than half a metre from their eyes.
“We can put an audience in front of a star to experience the choreography of the performance,” says explains Guido Meardi, CEO of V-Nova the technology specialist that created it. “The detail is incredible down to the pores of her skin and eyelashes.”
Unlike the streaming holography being pioneered by Condense, Weightless was not live. That means the quality of the experience is superior, according to Meardi.
“OUR ALGORITHMS ARE AMONG THE FASTEST IN THE WORLD WHICH IS HOW WE CAN DO THIS IN REAL TIME.”
“A single volumetric image is several GB of data which you need to playback at a high frame rate (90fps) otherwise you would see a mismatch and feel nausea [because of the virtual proximity the viewer would be to the subject].”
He says, it’s not possible to deliver photoreal high quality 360-degree experiences live at this moment given the limitations and cost of existing technology and processing power. But you can pre-record (prerender) volumetric content, stream and display it using technology VNova has developed, he says. Its solution offers ‘Hollywood-grade CGI, lifelike parallax, occlusions, reflections, and textures, at full display frame rate.’
In addition, V-Nova promises true 360-degrees freedom of movement around the virtual world. “The user feels like they are inside a video game,” he says.
Like Fellingham, Meardi contrasts their approach to current video content made for VR and XR displays. “In a VR environment when you are immersed in the content and you can move your head around,
Weightless, created by songwriter Diane Warren & singer Arilena Ara (pictured above & below), is the first song to be released as an immersive VR experience by V-Nova.
WE CAN PUT AN AUDIENCE IN FRONT OF A STAR TO EXPERIENCE THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF THE PERFORMANCE. THE DETAIL IS INCREDIBLE DOWN TO THE PORES OF HER SKIN AND EYELASHES.
you need the content to alter according to parallax (change of perspective) without lag just as we see the real world. The multi-billion dollar XR entertainment market is blocked if it cannot get around this issue.”
NBCU and DreamWorks are using V-Nova’s tech to turn IP like How to Train Your Dragon and Abominable into streamable volumetric content. When the existing asset is already CG the process of re-rendering it for XR is “very inexpensive” Meardi says. “If the content is part CG part live action (like films featuring Iron Man or Spider-man) then you would need to use AI to reconstruct the live action elements in 3D.”
Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Ferrari or Lamborghini are also interested. “These brands want content produced at the highest level of quality or not at all. With this technology, we can do everything that you would do for high-end CG productions but in immersive XR.”
Other Hollywood studios are reportedly interested. The company is even talking with “a rapper who likes to smoke” (Snoop Dogg?) about an XR
experience in which the rapper’s psychedelic imaginings are also depicted. “You can see what it looks like when he’s high,” Meardi muses.
“What about transforming a star into a werewolf or rejuvenating ABBA or other aged stars? I would love to talk to Michael Jackson’s family,” he continues. “Our technology allows you to see Michael Jackson moonwalk in front of you – on the moon.”
BBC Radio 1’s New Music Portal.
UAE Arabian Days
F1, Dune, Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are among several major film, television and commercial productions to shoot in the UAE. Enticed by the potential 50% incentive, variety of landscapes and growing studio and crew base.
Abu Dhabi was already proving a popular filming location, hosting the likes of Warner Bros.’ Dune and Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But since raising the rebate from 30% to between 35% and 50% at the end of last year, the interest has gone up a few notches.
“We are now getting a lot more enquiries and expecting double the number of productions of all sizes coming here,” enthuses Sameer Al Jaberi, head of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, which supports incoming production from getting permits and scouting to accessing the incentive.
“We work with the productions on the rebate from the start, looking at their documentation, scheduling, budget, script etc, and then we do the calculations to see how many percentage points they’ll get, and work around certain things to enhance it even more.”
(See our Q&A on the next page.)
“YOU DON’T NEED TO VENTURE FAR TO GET NICE FILMING SPOTS A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE MAIN ROAD WHERE YOU CAN KEEP TRUCKS AND TRAILERS AND THEN DRIVE 4X4S.”
One of the biggest recent productions to take advantage of the incentive and receive support from the film commission was the Apple Original F1, starring Brad Pitt, which filmed for 29 days, including at the Yas Marina circuit during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“It required a high level of planning, co-ordination and support from stakeholders and government entities. We helped with getting permission to shoot and were always liaising with the police about access to the circuit. It was incredible having a live event happening at the same time as dealing with the production team. A unique and brilliant experience,” says Al Jaberi.
LOCATION HIGHLIGHT
One of the highest ranges in the Arabian Peninsula, 3,000 metres above sea level, the Hajar mountains offer dramatic backdrops for filming.
The mountains, spread across Oman and the UAE, have formed over millions of years by the collision between the Arabian and Eurasian Plates, displaying a dramatic landscape with rugged terrain, towering peaks, and deep gorges.
If productions are filming in the Fujairah section of the mountains they’ll need to contact the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Authority for permits.
SAMEER AL JABERI Head of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission
Q: Please tell us about the updated tax rebate.
A: When we started with the rebate in 2013, it was fixed at 30%. It’s been very successful and we’ve supported many projects, but we’ve also listened to feedback from filmmakers and producers on ways to make it more enticing and the process smoother. So then recently we decided to move it to a baseline of 35% with the potential to reach 50% on a production’s principal photography and post production costs by meeting new criteria.
It’s a scaling points system, where the more criteria you hit, the more points you get, which transfer into a higher percentage. The criteria includes featuring the UAE’s national history, culture and identity in the productions’ storylines, and having Emirati above the line (writer, director, lead cast member etc).
The rebate has also opened up to short form content as well like music video clips and animation. We’ve doubled the cap from USD5 million to USD10 million for feature films, and from USD1 million to USD2 million for television series on the total cashback incentives on qualifying production spend.
Q: What other support do you provide for incoming productions and crew?
A: We incentivise them with Golden Visas and freelance visas so they can stay longer in Abu Dhabi and call it home.
We are also the link between productions and government entities like the police, municipalities and customs to get their visas and filming permits, and import equipment. Plus, we support them with their location choices, and troubleshoot everything (with a plan B and C) so they have a seamless experience.
F1 also shot in the Zayed International Airport and at studios within Twofour54’s Yas Creative Hub, 10 minutes from Abu Dhabi airport, which feature two 600 sqm sound stages, green rooms, make-up suites and loading bays.
“The F1 production team was supported with everything from studio space and equipment to location management and logistics, showcasing Abu Dhabi’s ability to host large-scale international projects,” says Mark Whitehead, CEO, Twofour54.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was another major project to film in Abu Dhabi recently, including scenes at the new Midfield Terminal of Zayed airport. “They filmed just before the terminal opened and had to make sure there were no delays,” says Al Jaberi. “Amazingly, they managed to get a unique shot on the rooftop of the airport. We were heavily involved at the site with the production team making sure they had good access with the equipment and crew.”
DESERT DELIGHT
There is very much a welcoming approach to filming in Abu Dhabi, with international productions getting access to a variety of modern and historical locations [all within a couple of hours of each other], including futuristic cityscapes, mangroves, pretty coastlines, and the hugely popular desert landscapes where both Dune and Dune Part Two filmed.
“The sand dunes in Abu Dhabi are very impressive,” says Duncan Broadfoot, supervising location manager on both sci-fi films. “We stayed in a fantastic five-star hotel, which was just a short drive from the Liwa desert. And then managed to build our own network of roads leading off from there, stretching about 18 miles into the dunes. The local authorities were very accommodating [and Twofour54’s tawasol services streamlined all the necessary administrative and logistical processes, from permits to resource co-ordination, helping make the complex shoot run smoothly].”
“Abu Dhabi has a collaborative and proactive approach to production management,” insists Whitehead. “This includes coordinating with local authorities to arrange street closures, traffic control, and other logistical support required for filming in public areas.”
It’s a similar story in Dubai with its own desert landscapes and cityscapes, where local production service providers are on-hand to support productions with all their needs.
“We’ve supported productions filming in Al Qudra with its flat deserts and beautiful lakes just 40 minutes from Dubai city,” says Karen Coetzee, CEO and principle producer at Central Films.
While local outfit VIP Films recently worked on a project with Adidas and Finnish artist David Popa to create and shoot a giant sculpture of the brand’s new Desert Runner shoe in the middle of the Dubai desert. “We managed to cordon off a section while it was built,” says Rafic Tamba founder, VIP Films. “Everything is straightforward, as we are used to shooting so many car commercials in the desert, and you don’t need to venture far to get nice filming spots a short distance from the main road where you can keep trucks and trailers and then drive 4x4s.”
International productions just need to be careful about the heat in the desert, which can reach as high as 50 degrees celsius (erecting air-conditioned tents to protect cast and crew is advised), strong winds that can damage equipment and affect visibility and the occasional bit of dune bashing. “We had some 4x4 dune bashers on our Adidas shoot, racing up and down the dunes, so had to set up a security perimeter to keep them out,” adds Rafic.
Filming and getting permits is generally straightforward in Dubai, especially through local outfits thanks to their connections with government. “There’s not as much red tape as other parts of the world,” assures Coetzee.
Outside of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sharjah offers a major city, mountain terrain and striking red sand dunes. “It can double well for Saudi Arabia and is a bit like how Dubai was 30 years ago with a combination of modern city and old traditional
looks,” says Tamba. There’s the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, known for the majestic Hajar mountains (see location highlight) and white sandy beaches.
CREW AND INFRASTRUCTURE
There are also plenty of studios being built and available for international productions, including twofour54 Studios at KEZAD (Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi), due to open this year. “This new facility, spanning 400,000 sqm, will feature a comprehensive range of world-class amenities, including large-scale sound stages, an exterior water tank for aquatic shoots, and versatile standing sets,” says Whitehead.
While Studio City in Dubai offers sound stages ranging from 11,000 to 50,000 sqft. “These are based on the American model with ceilings as high as 18 meters,” enthuses Tamba.
The crew base is continually expanding and getting more experienced with the arrival of international productions, helped by the enticement for projects to receive more rebate if they hire Emirati production and technical crew.
“The big productions coming to shoot in the UAE tend to use mostly local crew with a few core guys/HoDs from the other locations,” insists Nicki Meyer-Taylor, crew agent at Callacrew, who supplied 200 crew to Amazon MGM Studios’ Jack Ryan movie, starring John Krasinski, which recently filmed in Dubai.
“F1 provided opportunities for on-screen Emirati talent and engaged roughly 284 local crew members,” adds Al Jaberi, who believes there’s now enough crew depth to cover two major productions shooting at the same time.
There’s also a great mix of ethnicities in the UAE. “We have more than 200 nationalities in Dubai alone, so you can cast any look,” says Tamba.
The UAE has everything a production needs, “Which means you can achieve exactly what you want,” concludes Coetzee.
SOMETHING ELSE
The UAE Ministry of Justice has revealed a concerning rise in the number of divorces in the UAE, some within hours of the marriage taking place.
The ministry, which recorded a total of 448 divorces across four emirates in 2024, said some dissolutions occurred for seemingly irrational or trivial reasons. Several marriages ended within a week, including one divorce just five days after the wedding, two cases after seven days, and numerous others within a month.
Legal experts, family specialists, and social researchers attribute the phenomenon to incompatible relationships built on weak foundations, including poor partner selection, personality clashes, and a lack of conflict resolution skills.
Authorities also highlighted the negative impact of social media, family interference and financial pressures – particularly high dowries and the costly demands associated with marriage – in fuelling marital disputes. a
Director Gareth Edwards returns to Thailand after filming The Creator there for another science fiction but this time with a far bigger budget and a new approach to VFX. Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Rebirth starring Scarlett Johansson has a reported USD265 million budget, three times that of The Creator which was shot mostly with a single camera using in-camera SFX, although the VFX vendor, ILM, is the same for both films.
Principal photography between June and September 2024 visited Bangkok as a backdrop for some urban sequences and Thai coastal regions of Trang, Phang Nga, and Phuket for exotic and jungle settings. The Huai To Waterfall at Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi also features in the movie. Large water simulation tanks at Malta Film Studios, in Kalkara saw action, as did the ocean around Malta an experience described by Edwards as "very difficult" due to sea conditions. Scenes were also staged on the LED Volume at Sky Studios Elstree; Greenwich
University played a role in establishing the film’s setting. Additional scenes were shot in Brooklyn, , specifically in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area.
Cinematographer John Mathieson (Gladiator) shot on 35mm in order to recall Steven Spielberg’s 1993 franchise starter. Original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp has written this sequel with Spielberg an EP on the project through Amblin Entertainment.
PROFILE Surgent Studios
Actor and producer Abubakar Salim founded transmedia production studio Silver Rain Games in 2019, later rebranded as Surgent Studios, and in 2021 landed a deal with Electronic Arts to develop an original video game.
The game, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, explores a young boy's journey through grief and was highly personal to Salim because it was born from the grief of losing his own father. It won the 2025 Bafta for Game Beyond Entertainment.
He explains, “My dad was a great storyteller. In normal social settings, he was actually the quietest in the room. Every time he opened his mouth to tell a story or to share his opinion, the room would go quiet. It wasn't necessarily because of how commanding his presence was because he wasn't really a commanding man. He just told honest, real, grounded stories. That's where a lot of my love for storytelling comes from. I’m not seeking to explore things that happened in my life that I can then reflect upon and communicate it’s also about other people's truths and experiences.”
Released in December 2023 Tales of Kenzera: ZAU was billed as an ‘Ode to a Lost Father’ who introduced his son to the medium. “Games, to me, are the most powerful medium to share stories. What better way of honouring him, our relationship and love than through this experience?”
working on video games, but has also branched into film with a series of co-produced shorts. Salim executive produced Canadian filmmaker Caitlyn Sponheimer’s feature directorial debut Wild Goat Surf and has director Bryce Hodgson’s drama Thanks to the Hard Work of the Elephants in post.
“Being an actor is about telling stories and if I wanted to keep telling my own or other people's stories, I wanted to be in the driver’s seat,” he says. “I enjoyed the idea of being in control of narratives that we can tell in fascinating ways through games, television, or through theatre, film or podcasts.
“I’m obsessed by the very idea of storytelling. You’re taking people on journeys, transporting them. That's something that I know from acting and what I wanted to do with a production company.”
An inspiration for Surgent was actor-producer Reese Witherspoon’s own indie Hello Sunshine. “Her ability in creating this platform to tell stories for women by women is beautiful. To see that her creative engine was what brought to life this brilliant space in which to tell brilliant stories.”
Another draw was Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. “I think their bravery and unapologetic way of sharing stories that they want to tell is, again, really inspiring.”
ZAU exists as part of the wider Tales of Kenzera IP, or as Salim puts it, “a franchise that showcases the power and resonance of African mythology and futurism set within a single universe.”
ABOUT ABUBAKAR SALIM
Gaming fans will know Abubakar Salim as Bayek, one of the most popular protagonists in the Assassin's Creed series, for which Salim delivered performance capture and voice acting and was nominated for a British Academy Games Award and named a BAFA Breakthrough Brit. Fans of HBO fantasy House of the Dragon might know him as Alyn of Hull, bastard son of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint). Sci-fi afficionado’s will have seen him play Father in Ridley Scott’s Raised by Wolves. Salim was also cast by Scott in Napoleon.
you're telling. It's dangerous to start from the idea of building a single story world that can exist everywhere. I don't think that's possible.
“What you can do is find a story within that story world that fits the medium in which it exists. That’s the approach we’re taking. We try and find a story or a theme that resonates with and supports the medium in which we want to tell it.
The
principally
“ZAU itself could only be told as a video game,” he insists. “It couldn't have been a television show or a theatre piece or a book. It had to be experienced as a game and you have to respect the story which
“My mother, for example, isn't necessarily going to play my game but she can enjoy the story either through a television show or through a film, something that is more of a passive format.
“Individually, stories can carry the same strength by themselves, but collectively you get a lot more out of it too. Transmedia is almost something that you don't want to pursue purposefully. It’s something you keep in mind but not something that should direct your creative strategy. The most important thing to remember during the creative process is to constantly ask yourself why you're doing it in the first place.
“Success for me is about zeroing in on the passion of why you want to do something because I think audiences respond to passion. They don’t want something that’s overtly commercial. They do want something that is authentically from a creator. That’s what we're leaning into.”
success of ZAU, lauded for its authenticity, put London-based Surgent on the map. It currently employs 17 full time staff,
Atomized TV Breeds Creative Response
The huge volume of content, from TikTok and Instagram videos to game and reality shows to multiple series dramas from the streamers and broadcasters, and the multiple ways of watching them, have caused a massive disruption in the television market.
“Things have atomized,” exclaims David Abraham, co-founder and CEO of Wonderhood Studios, and former CEO of Channel 4 and UKTV. “We’ve had a lot of disruption. AV content hasn’t shrunk, but the shape of it is fundamentally changed. Curated and editorialised content is not the dominant cultural and economic model it was before, and traditional subscription services have seen a slowing in growth globally. This has created opportunities for other platforms, with YouTube and Meta exploding with content and engagement, but also uncertainty for the television industry.”
Content creators and providers are having to re-think their strategies based on viewing trends and habits, particularly with the demands of the younger generation who have grown up with multi- platforms and content options.
“I speak to a lot of the content owners and their focus is on ‘how do we keep people, especially families, in the living room together watching the big TV screen?’ However, the reality is it may be on, but the kids will be watching other content on their mobile screens,” says Adam Harris, head of Gaggl.TV, which delivers content to creators and transforms it into a live and interactive community experience.
“Teenagers have been brought up on multimedia environments, and so are used to flicking their attention from one to another. This includes interactive, live, real-time gaming worlds (Fortnite, Roblox etc), which are community experiences. We cannot ignore this and have to appeal to these new behavioural patterns to be successful.”
As one senior television executive tells makers: “I asked my teenage son recently what’s the ideal format and length of content and he said, ‘two minutes max on my phone. If it’s a series, I’ll give it 10 minutes and if I’m not engaged, I’ll watch something else.’ This is what we’re contending with.”
I ASKED MY TEENAGE SON RECENTLY WHAT’S THE IDEAL FORMAT AND LENGTH OF CONTENT AND HE SAID, “TWO MINUTES MAX ON MY PHONE. IF IT’S A SERIES, I’LL GIVE IT 10 MINUTES”.
But Harris believes longer form content won’t die out. “Yes, attention spans are shorter, but there are kids that still watch half hour or hour long episodes of series, even feature length content on things like Twitch, so it doesn’t all have to be bite-sized.”
He insists it’s more about the personalities involved in the content (especially influencers), the interactivity, and if the stories can engage on the given platform.
Harris’s platform Gaggl.TV takes successful old shows like The Price is Right and Family Fortunes, uses a little AI magic to sort out any dated visuals, and gets influencers and creators to interact with it, and the viewers at home to watch and play along.
“Reaction content like this is growing massively,” says Harris. “If you look at TikTok, there were about 50 billion views of reaction content last year [that’s about a 400% rise on the previous year]. While YouTube has seen an 88% increase in reaction videos. So behaviours are drastically changing.”
“The key is utilising the technology and talent in an innovative way, then you can start upcycling,” he adds. “There are some powerful IPs out there gathering dust on shelves that could be brought back to life with the right people.”
The streamers are aware of this, which is why Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, Peacock et al are looking to exploit their extensive libraries of classic television shows, while also attaching themselves to the influencers, like Jake Paul and MrBeast, to reach the younger generation.
“You look at the boxing match recently between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on Netflix. That was like a Black Mirror moment. It was a spectacle showing how fame is emerging and blurring and it reached a colossal audience,” says Abraham.
Harris adds: “The streamers are using these new celebrities with their own distribution channels and followers to attract more business to their older
platform,” says Harris. “There are also new, niche food and fashion creators and influencers working with established producers of content to appeal to a wider audience.
“But, actually, it is the audience that these influencers and creators have built that’s more appealing, how they’ve done it and resonate with them, rather than as personalities being put in a television show.”
STREAMER SLOWDOWN
This comes at a time when the streamers are seeing a retraction and retrenchment of spending after a “phenomenal gold rush”, says Abraham.
This includes Apple TV+, which has spent billions in recent years on big talent for its shows, like Cate Blanchett in Disclaimer, Meryl Streep in Extrapolations, Tom Hanks in Greyhound, Nicole Kidman in Roar, Harrison Ford in Shrinking. But their viewing numbers are not so big. Apple is being more careful about what it’s green-lighting and how much it spends.
“REACTION CONTENT LIKE THIS IS GROWING MASSIVELY. IF YOU LOOK AT TIKTOK, THERE WERE ABOUT 50 BILLION VIEWS OF REACTION CONTENT LAST YEAR.”
“[By contrast,] YouTube’s investment in creators globally is as big as any major Hollywood studio, and the global revenue of Meta is predicted to overtake all of the commercial revenues of every commercial television channel in the world next year,” says Abraham.
That’s a lot for the industry to get their heads around and maybe learn from – the fundamental dominance of the mega tech platforms and the kind of content they’re creating.
“YouTube is leading the way at the moment and should probably be the model for others to follow,” insists Harris. “It’s successfully offering content adapted for the various age groups and devices, even being successful on television screens.”
THE STREAMING SYSTEM IS A KIND OF ZERO IP WORK FOR HIRE ENVIRONMENT, AND YOU HAVE TO KEEP PUTTING SOMETHING NEW OUT ALL THE TIME.
Plus, there are other emerging technologies impacting how content is viewed. “It’s not just about flat screens anymore,” says Angela Chan, Head of Inclusive Futures, CoSTAR National Lab. “Look at Meta with its Aria glasses. Content providers, especially producers, are getting excited about multi-sensory experiences for the audience. This means adapting the content too.”
The whole landscape has been democratised, insists Harris. “However, flipping the coin, this is actually what the industry is afraid of. The monopoly of production and distribution has evaporated since the arrival of the smartphone.”
Harris believes we’re past the point of executives and commissioners dictating the content we should or can watch, but rather it’s the market, trends and influencers deciding the direction, with assistance from algorithms.
And AI is obviously having an impact too across content and distribution. “Interestingly, 25% of the creators that have signed up to our service [Wonderhood Studios] are V-tubers – animated avatars using AI and motion capture tools. These virtual personas are already getting larger audiences than a lot of human beings,” says Abrahams.
TERRESTRIAL TRENDS
Meanwhile, UK broadcasters are also tapping into emerging trends and tastes, with a strong focus on their streaming platforms. “ITVX is a pivotal part of our modern television strategy,” insists Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV.
ITV is the largest streamer in the UK, according to its own figures from 2023, with a 23% share of all viewing, compared with 15% for Netflix, 6% for Disney+ and 5% for Amazon Prime.
The broadcaster’s revenue from unscripted is 63% and scripted is 37%, but it is looking to flip that to meet growing global demand. The target is to have 400 scripted hours of content per annum from 2026, and they are on track, having grown from 276 hours in 2022 to 316 hours in 2023.
It’s a similar story for the BBC and Channel 4. The BBC is planning to improve iPlayer to compete with other streaming services, and to make it more personalised. There were a record 8.1bn streaming requests on BBC iPlayer last year – up 10% on 2023, and people spent 5hrs 44m watching BBC TV/iPlayer on average per week – more than all the big SVOD streamers combined.
But the Corporation admitted in its latest annual report that it “must accelerate the pace of change to increase relevance and value in a time of limitless choice and interactivity”.
While Channel 4 has an ambitious plan to be a digital-first public service streamer by 2030. The strategy – called Fast Forward – aims to embrace the generational shift in television viewing, focusing investment in distinctive, streaming-friendly British content and social media.
Abraham says, “Traditionally if you’re running a television network, you’d commission a show, there’d be a captive audience, so you could nurture and develop a show and it would be economically viable for the publisher, broadcaster and producer. But the streaming system is a kind of zero IP work for hire environment. You have to keep putting something new out all the time. The long-form, peak television storytelling era of Mad Men and Breaking Bad and the economics of that model are now imploding. Instead, decisions are being windowed across multiple platforms in order to create sustainable shows.”
He believes distributors could learn a thing or two from the Amazon peer-to-peer model, with reviews that customers trust. It’s about following other people’s recommendations.
“When I was commissioning for Channel 4 and BBC, a lot of the focus was on the low price point show. How can we do something that we can pump out? But now it’s about shared, interactive, live experiences. Post Covid, people want to come back together and share content and what they like,” says Abrahams.
“It’s the same with the creatives and craftspeople sharing ideas and coming up with new forms. It doesn’t have to always be high-end, expensive dramas, which rules out 95% of producers. [It’s about] breeding new creativity that meets the demands and interests of all,” concludes Chan.
THE GENERATION GAME
ADAM HARRIS…
“Television has moved from what I call 1.0, which is linear viewing experiences, to 2.0, which is the on-demand content to meet the changing technological needs of the millennials and Gen Xers – television on their terms and when they want to watch it. But both were/are still passive push experiences. Now there's another group emerging, and it's a younger group, what I term 3.0, who’ve only ever known a technological world, brought up with smartphones and touch screens. My kids are in that group, and the amount of times I've got peanut butter fingerprints on my television screen because my little boy thinks he should be able to control Netflix.”
