Money influences movie production site

There are other variables that determine where the film is set.
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
If you have ever wondered how a movie production winds up shooting on location, and how that location is chosen, Lisa Rawlins offers an interesting tutorial on the subject.
Rawlins, senior vice president for studio and production affairs at Warner Bros., runs the department that figures out where a Warner Bros. movie or TV show will film. She was part of a panel discussion at the National Conference of State Legislatures, which met in Salt Lake City recently.
She ran through the different factors that go into picking a shooting location.
The biggest factor, no surprise, is money.
Money is why Canada has been a popular site for movie and TV productions, largely because of a favorable exchange rate that makes it cheaper to shoot there. Several studios, including Warner Bros., have production facilities in Australia, which has many of the same attributes that has made Utah a popular film destination in recent years: a large and inexpensive labor pool, and a variety of locations from urban to desert.
Another burgeoning foreign locale, Rawlins said, is Eastern Europe. Several former Soviet Bloc nations have big empty studios, left over from the days when their governments subsidized the film industry, and experienced crews eager to work cheap. The Civil War drama "Cold Mountain" filmed in Romania, and the supernatural trio of "Blade II," "Hellboy" and "Van Helsing" were filmed in part in Prague.
Various factors
Each movie presents its own challenges, and its own variables that determine where to film, Rawlins said.
A special-effects movie -- she cited the new "Superman" movie and an upcoming remake of "Logan's Run" -- are mostly shot on soundstages, so they will probably go to Canada or Australia, where construction costs are cheaper.
Weather is a factor. If a movie is set in a sunny climate, shooting in Vancouver in the fall isn't worth it.
When Warner started developing this year's "Starsky & amp; Hutch" remake, the filmmakers spent six months debating whether to shoot in present-day or make it a '70s period piece -- a difference that could run up substantial costs in costuming and props. Ultimately, director Todd Phillips insisted the show needed a California vibe, so the movie was shot in the L.A. area.
Many states are offering tax incentives to lure production companies.
Rawlins said those incentives can tip the scales toward particular locations. The WB series "One Tree Hill" shoots in North Carolina, where labor costs are slightly lower, there are available crews ("Dawson's Creek" used to shoot there) and the state has a particular small-town look. But South Carolina's legislature is on the verge of passing some tax incentives, Rawlins said, which may be sweet enough to prompt Warner Bros. to move "One Tree Hill" south.
Occasionally, filming in Los Angeles can be cheaper than going somewhere else. Rawlins cited Warner Bros.' Christmas entry, "Ocean's Twelve," the sequel to "Ocean's Eleven."
The movie is set in Europe and much location footage has been shot in Italy, and the tabloids have been stuffed with the overseas exploits of George Clooney, Julia Roberts, et al. But some scenes will be shot on Warner Bros. California backlot.
Cast's salary
Paying those big stars (Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones among them) a per-diem for shooting on location can get expensive fast, Rawlins said.
"It's cheaper for us to bring this 12-member cast, a large well-known cast, back to the United States and shoot for six weeks on stage in Burbank than to continue to house them in Rome and shoot onstage in Rome," she said.
The clout of a star or a director can determine location. "The Cosby Show" was shot in New York, Rawlins said, because Bill Cosby wanted to live in New York.
M. Night Shyamalan calls Philadelphia his hometown, and has set each of his films ("The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," "Signs" and the just-released "The Village") in Pennsylvania.