The area that directors decide to use for shooting is obviously pretty important for making the movie stand out, and for other reasons. After all, not all cities are ideal for filming movies. The tricky part for directors is matching up the look they need with cities that are convenient and cost effective for filming. Increasingly, these cities are coming from Eastern Europe.
- Filming Locations East EuropeFadzly @ Shutterhack / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
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Example-Poland
Poland is a popular location for filming anything relating to World War II. Many very popular and critically acclaimed movies have been shot there. Some of these include the following.
- The Pianist- This movie details the travails of a musician who’s caught in Poland during the worst parts of world War II.
- Schindler’s List- This movie stars Liam Nielson and depicts the story of Oskar Schindler who ran a Jewish workforce in Poland and tried to protect them from the Nazis. The awards heaped on this film were numerous.
- Trois Couleurs-This French series includes colors like “Blue,” and “Red.” It’s known for taking an unconventional approach to themes like grief and loss, focusing on musical ways of portraying it rather than the more traditional dialogue ways.
Poland is likely a popular recent area for shooting due to the continued interest in telling the full story of World War II and the holocaust. It was such a wide spread event, spanning the entire world after all, that there seems to be an almost endless number of stories to tell that are set in Poland.
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Hungary
One trend that makes people wonder about films in Eastern Europe, is the tendency for movies to shoot in Hungary. Some have even started calling Hungary, “The New HollyWood of Europe.” One city that seems to become the major film locations for movies more and more often these days is Budapest. Some have described the Budapest film business as “thriving.” Part of the reason for this is probably that the city has a foreign type feel to American audiences, who are after all the intended target for most of Hollywood’s movies. Many films have been shot in the city, and continue to be shot here. Most recently the Twilight star Robert Pattinson was seen in the city shooting a movie called Bel Ami. But really, just about any movie that’s supposed to be in Europe can end up in Budapest. Another example of this is Spieldburg’s Munich.
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Why Eastern Europe?
Many Eastern European areas are just now realizing that potential of making money off of Hollywood. An example of this is a progressive new film-tax code in Hungary as a shooting location. Films like Hellboy and Hellboy II were drawn to the area, KordaStudios in particular, partly for this reason. The Hungarian National Film Office continues to gain ground in Hungary as people are realizing the possibility of bringing in funds even despite the economic crisis.
After all, entertainment is an in industry that is classically shielded from economic crises. It’s one of the few industries that doesn’t tend to suffer overly much as a result of downturns. In some ways, people need the distraction of entertainment even more when times are bad. Since areas like Hungary and Poland are beginning to realize this as a way out of poverty, Hollywood is taking notice and moving more and more into the area for filming. This is quite a win—win all around, even for consumers, since cities like Budapest make for some pretty impressive vistas.
About the author:
This is a guest post by Lindsey Mcmahon. Her interests are entertainment, television, parenting and health but she is constantly extending her field of view to incorporate interesting news suggested to her by her readers. She currently works for DirectTVDeal.com.
