you filmed it where?

TORN has an article about the problems of filming Amazon's new LOTR series in New Zealand. Apparently, the Wellington area is busy with the new Avatar, so they had to use Auckland. And then there is the question where they will film.

Film and TV productions are always having to research and locate interesting places that fit what the production needs, so the fact that so many locations in New Zealand have already been established as feeling like Middle-earth is a boon. But then, there are hundreds of beautiful places around the world, and with chunks of filming now happening in studios, does it really matter where those studios are? Is it possible that Amazon can do location filming in New Zealand and Studio work in London, Hollywood or Vancouver? Or why not film in British Columbia, or Northern Ireland or Slovenia for that matter?

part of it is price, and part of it is the availability of staff and logistics, which is why Groundhog day was filmed in Indiana, not in Punxsutawney, which is fairly isolated.

That quip about Slovenia is a quip, but the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was partly filmed in eastern Europe:

Wikipedia writes it was shot mainly in New Zealand, though locations were used in Poland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

One of the items I find interesting is that the cinematography of some modern TV series is beautiful: up to the standard one once only saw on regular films.

Poldark is one example.

And so is Outlander: Did you know that this season's North Carolina locations are filmed mainly in Scotland? Radiotimes article discusses.

well at least they did use "first nation" actors: They flew them in from Canada.

CNTraveler has an article on the various sites in past seasons. Uh, South Africa?


or as CNT writes:

The show—which has already taken its characters to France (via Prague and Scotland) and the Caribbean (psych, it's shot in Cape Town)—is now heading to the Carolinas' this season. Fun fact, they're actually on set in Scotland—though the sweeping shots of the Blue Ridge Mountains are green screen (if you couldn't tell already).

lots of nice photos at each link.

but they do spill the beans about the standing stones: they are Styrofoam fakes.

Oh well.

actually, standing stones are all over the place (something noted in the later books, where they travel back in time from the islands off the coast of NCarolina.) and the later books have a theory that they only work for you if you have the right gene and carry a gemstone. So Jamie can't time travel, but Brianna can (and so can Roger, whose ancestor is Gellis the witch).

the film series Standing with Stones has this on the stones of Scotland: