While Southern California and Hollywood are considered by many as the
traditional home of moviemaking, the film industry is without a doubt a
worldwide enterprise. Today, feature films produced by US companies
are filmed throughout the globe. For many films, principal photography
can--and often does--span more than one location. Accordingly,
FilmL.A. worked to identify both primary production locations and
secondary production locations for studied films.
In the end, our research determined that nearly 30 different US states
and foreign countries were used as primary production locations among
this study’s 106 films.
From a national perspective, the US served as the primary production
location for 64 percent (69 count) of the 106 films.
From a California perspective, the year saw a healthy reversal of the
paltry 14 percent share from the prior, with 21 percent (22 count) of
the films produced primarily within the state. In 2014, the home of
Hollywood decisively dethroned Louisiana’s “Hollywood South.”
New York’s rise to second place in the 2014 rankings is extremely
impressive. The four films that primarily shot there among the 2013
releases didn’t even rank the Empire State in the top five locations
in last year’s report, when the state tied with North Carolina for
seventh place. Canada (as a whole) hosted three fewer films, tying
it with the UK for third place with each location hosting 12 movies
(within Canada, British Columbia hosted 8 films, Ontario 2, Quebec
1, Manitoba 1). Rounding out the top five locations was the State of
Georgia, which hosted 10 films compared to 9 the year before.
Louisiana’s plunge from number one in total project count (18 films in
2013, 5 films in 2014) to sixth place cedes ground to southern rival
Georgia (9 films in 2013, 10 films in 2014). Louisiana state officials
are contemplating capping their film incentive, but the $200 million
cap under consideration is unlikely to hamper the state’s attraction of
big-budget films.
Many high-profile films of 2015 were filmed in Louisiana, including
Jurassic World, Fantastic Four and Terminator Genisys. These will show
up in future FilmL.A. feature studies.
What seems clear is that while the individual rank of the top five or six
production centers may fluctuate, the list of those centers is unlikely to
change from year to year.
"...(Shot partially in Australia, the film carves out a strange cameo role here for Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue: After “Holy Motors,” “San Andreas” is Minogue’s second consecutive film in which she appears for a single scene, then promptly falls off a roof.)..."
"...Thanks to this lack of tension — when two major world cities lie in ruins, it’s hard to get too worked up over the danger of the rubble re-collapsing — the film drifts off in its last hour. Ray and Emma have a few quiet moments together, though they’re largely wasted dealing with the recriminations of a needless backstory. Meanwhile, Blake and Ben develop a nervous sort of romance as they trudge through the streets, with Blake losing a new article of clothing at every aftershock. Bay Area natives will surely chuckle at some of the geographic oddities here, as the trio consult a map to find their way from Chinatown to Coit Tower, a landmark that ought to be easily visible simply by looking up."
