international locations Jun 2006

Portugal is a magical country with a spectacular coastline, breathtaking landscapes and one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe, Lisbon.

One hour from Lisbon are beaches that form part of a Natural Reserve, as well as the vast Serra de Estrela mountains, natural pine forests and many lakes. The south offers the calm beauty of the Alentejo area with landscapes and villages and towns with Roman bridges.

The Algarve region, famous for its amazing resorts, offers 5 star accommodation, alongside the picturesque fishing villages and a calm way of life.

Portugal is only 2.5 hours from most European capitals and is well established as a successful production centre. It has an excellent infrastructure and a large choice of varied locations which attract International clients from around the world.

It is usually about 15-20% cheaper to produce in Portugal than other European countries. And, for time off, the country offers some of the best golf courses in the world.

Barbados offers a great variety of locations, all in very close range: turquoise Caribbean seas, white palm beaches, cliffs, jungle, mountains, and a peaceful co-existence of luxury mansions and traditional colourful wood houses, gourmet restaurants and local rum shops, elegant golf resorts and fishing villages, bicycles and stretch limousines.

All-year shooting is possible, but best from October to August. There are daily direct flights from New York, Miami and all major European cities. Comfortable accommodation, professional crew, and reasonable production costs are on offer. There are no taxes, duties or deposits for temporary imports, nor location fees for public places and beaches.

The Caribbean Production Services Company has been registered and based in Barbados since 1998, offering production service for the entire Caribbean and Belize.

Company owner Ellen Hoch-Kramer, is a former advertising agency owner from Berlin. Her long term business experience and professional international and local team provide the background for successful productions in the whole Caribbean region.

Cuba is much more than old cars, old Havana and old men... It is a young, striving island, with an interesting history and plans for a great future.

It is an ideal place to catch the Latin spirit and the colonial flair, with beautiful 40s and 50s Art Deco and classic colonial architecture sitting alongside modern facades in the capital city of Havana.

Extraordinary productions are feasible - with ad and press campaigns being recently photographed for Mercedes and AUDI, as well as various fashion shoots.

Cuban-based Take Me To Cuba explain what makes them different: "we know Cuba inside out, our production doors are open, our crews are great to work with, and we speak Spanish".

More details, including their European coordination office, at the website.

Holborn Studios has a new Location Support facility in Cyprus. The island was selected because "it is a microcosm of world location photography". All the pictures featured here were shot on the island.

It takes about three hours to cross from one of the island to the other by car. This, together with more than 300 dry, sunny days a year, and a very co-operative local attitude make it easy to get good location pictures.

Holborn Studios' fleet of vehicles includes a motor yacht and specially equipped Land Rover Defender and an assortment of people carriers. After flying in to Larnaca, you will be met at the arrivals hall and accompanied throughout the trip. The St Raphael Marina Resort provides excellent accommodation and facilities, and has central access to the whole island.

Holborn Studios have over 20 years experience of Cyprus and can provide virtually any location within a three hour drive. They can also reach inaccessible places by yacht, and can provide sea or land sunrises and sunsets. There are literally hundreds of different types of swimming pool and dozens of different types of beach available in Cyprus.

Ranged along one of the widest parts of the Regents Canal, the Eagle Wharf Marina is home to six luxury offices in converted canal barges, pretty residential narrow boats, Sturts Lock and the Commissary restaurant and bar. The range of location potentials is impressive - from office interiors, through marine and boating shots, fishing and sun decking to restaurant exteriors and interiors.

 

There is also a 1,600 square foot lifestyle studio, ideal for fashion and portraits as well as a light and airy loft-style apartment that includes mezzanine level bedroom, changing room and kitchen.

 

The central courtyard within Holborn Studios is available for hire - contact Marie for further details.

 

ANAKENA provides location scouting and management services, and an extensive location catalogue for TV, film, movie and video shootings, as well as for advertising, commercial or editorial photographic sessions.

 

Full production services are provided for still photography. Services also include production coordination and management, location scouting, location catalogues, permit management, talent casting, budgeting/billing, travel and logistics planning.

 

They are happy to oversee the location or production needs of your shooting with an eye for detail and quality as well as the bottom line of your production.

ANAKENA is also a modelling agency featuring women, men, kids and high profile athletes.

Poplight is a photo production service company based in Athens, Greece. Established in 1999, Poplight services both local and international clients, covering the entire production process from preproduction to post-production. Their aim is "to provide you with a smooth and successful production catered to your specific needs".

Due to its dry, sunny climate, Greece is ideal for outdoor shoots. Locations include ancient sites, modern city centres, natural vistas (mountains, lakes, forest, seas), the architectural and natural beauty of the Greek islands as well as urban environments (cafes, restaurants, houses, pools, bridges, stadiums, offices, underground stations etc).

Poplight offers a full range of production services, tailoring each service to the client's needs and budget. They can arrange travel, hotel reservations, transportation, castings, and bookings of the necessary crew. They work with a wide range of artists: fashion stylists, hair stylists, make-up artists and production coordinators.

Poplight also owns a photographic and lighting equipment rental house, carrying a full range of Hasselblad, Profoto and Manfrotto equipment.

Johannesburg: fast-paced, modern, cosmopolitan, with good hotels, mansions, botanic gardens and dry, sunny weather... not to mention the wildlife: lions, cheetahs, hippos, elephants, buffalos and more.

Within a 40 minute drive from Johannesburg are golden grasslands, dry bush and a rich variety of game. These landscapes can often be best for filming during South Africa's winter (that is during the Northern Hemisphere's summer).

For details about South Africa-based production company, Euroconnection, please visit their website.

Mallorca is the largest of the Mediterranean's Balearic Islands with endless sunny days, an average summer temperature of 30 degrees centigrade, very light winter months and little rain.

The island is considered an ideal location for many shoots, with its wide variety of sites: white sandy beaches, clear water coves, cliffs and mountains, rural villages, modern city buildings and state-of-the-art architecture.

Mallorca offers beauty and convenience; locations across the island are easy to access and require limited travel. And the island’s versatility means that it can mimic almost any place around the globe.

Palma Pictures offers over 115,000 location references in their image bank; a professional crew and "the most modern studio complex in Europe".

Provence and the French Riviera are real classics in the European production scene. With the Alps in the background, the Cote d'Azur is considered one of the most versatile regions in the Mediterranean. It has a microclimate that almost guarantees blue skies. And its central position allows for short flight times from most places in Europe.

ORLA was founded 18 years ago and since then has been active in car, fashion and advertisement photo productions, with knowledge, connections and thorough preparation being their hallmarks of quality.

They have two well-equipped mobile homes, with American production standards, and a rig for car shoots.

You can find more details at their website.

Patagonia is often portrayed as deserted lanscapes, with dawn or sunset moods. But according to local production company, 7SeasProductions, "Patagonia is not the dark side of the moon: It is a lively place, with people, animals, cities, lakes, mountains and glaciers".

From the production point of view, there is skiing in Bariloche, great backgrounds for fashion shoots, and roads for car shoots with almost no traffic.

More information at the 7SeasProductions website.

Phuket and Koh Samui in Thailand offer beautiful beaches, unique hotel resorts, excellent spas, pools, sports facilities, city locations and a rich natural environment. Here, there is a mix of classic Asian style combined with Western standards.

myClip studios offers a one-stop service for photo production; photographs, pre-production and print preparation. All these services may also be booked separately.

They also offer location and model databases, daylight studios, rotatable stages for outer areas, equipment, props, digital material samples and a high speed data connection.

They make it possible to do catalogue and internet production at high speed and high quality.

Kilombo in Brazil offers an extraordinary location as an advertising set and for all types of photographic or audiovisual reportage.

 

- There is a choice of five villas, each with different architecture and design, and a range of outside spaces: gardens, swimming pool, beach with direct access via a 25-metre dune, with the sea as a backdrop.

 

- The floor space of each chalet is completely open plan, with different height levels, taking advantage of the light of the sun.

 

- Spaces that have been designed and built with audiovisual professionals in mind, with natural light, lighting tracks in the ceilings and so on.

- Exclusive natural environment offering a range of set options for shoots.

- Kilombo also offers production support, such as location scouting and film permit management throughout Brazil, as well as technical equipment hire and support staff.

 

The location
- Sibaúma – Ciudad del Sol (minimum 24º centigrade, sun, and good weather!)
- 80 km from Natal

The city of Seville offers classical backdrops, historical buildings and castles, squares and parks. Plus spectacular roads and landscapes, offering a "sense of cowboy country". And weather that permits year-round shooting under blue skies.

Seville is the capital of the Spanish region of Andalusia, which has been used in many European and Hollywood film productions. Currently, the new Asterix movie is being shot in Huelva, to the north of the city.

SETUP Productions is opening the infrastructure for its clients to shoot with proper permits, a wide variety of props, set-building, animals, cars etc. They say "Simply give us your idea, be it a story in a haunted castle, a bullfight, a hacienda... we’ve got it on file for you to see. And then see you in Seville and Andalusia for your next project."

There is a reason why Stockholm is often referred to as the “Venice of the North”... perched on 14 islands, it is beautiful city, cinematic in every sense of the word. From the narrow web of atmospheric streets in Gamla Stan (Old Town), via the bustling Drottninggatan (the equivalent of London’s Oxford Street) through to the picturesque nature of Djurgården.

Not to mention the rest of Sweden: from the barren island of Fårö in the south (where Ingmar Bergman lives) to the Ice Hotel and aurora borealis in the north. Archipelagos, great wide plains and deep forests offer unique settings for directors including Lars von Trier and Lasse Hallström.

The “Right of Public Access” offers cheap access to almost everywhere, the "VAT return system" offers a 25% discount to foreign filmmakers. There is an average 18 hours of daylight in summer. And everyone speaks English!

Luminosa is a full service photo production company that was founded in 1999 by Matteo and Christin Skory. The company specialises in organising and coordinating catalogue, advertising and editorial work. They cover all aspects of the production process, and offer their own loft-studio for rental.

The company is based in Lugano Switzerland, close to the Italian border, and they have an office in Munich, headed by Sukhama Stadler.

With his experience in the field of fashion, advertising and architecture, Matteo can quickly understand and meet the very high expectations of his clients regarding locations. Meanwhile, Christin and Sukhama had been working as freelance stylists for big-name fashion companies and photographers and, therefore, have first-hand experience of the production process and the needs of photo teams.

Luminosa invites you to discover unexpected and unique locations, such as Tessin which offers a mix of fantastic and varied landscapes as well as classic and modern architecture. Other interesting locations include St. Moritz and Zermatt, Chamonix and Megève in the French Alps, and from Lake Como in Italy down to Sicily.