AUSTRALIA

Australia offers a range of world-class movie, film and television production studios. Warner Roadshow Studios is situated 45 minutes south of Brisbane International Airport and 20 minutes from Queensland's famous Gold Coast.

Next to the Warner Bros. Movie World Theme Park, the studios offer truly world-class film production facilities comprising of eight sound stages, three water tanks, 10 production offices, editing suites, wardrobe, makeup, construction, and paint and carpentry shops. All sound stages are equipped with current industry-standard facilities, including air conditioning, extraction fans, steel grids, and catwalks.  The stages vary in size with an overall floor area of 116,727 square feet, making it one of the largest studio lots in the Southern Hemisphere. The studios also boast the largest purpose-built film water tank in Australia. This main outdoor tank ─ with a surface area of 12,915 square feet ─ holds six million liters of water, and has state-of-the-art filtration and heating systems.

The studios provide a comprehensive support network of experienced film service companies conveniently located on the lot. These companies are available to provide valuable expertise, experience, and equipment for any production. This includes production services, casting, camera and lighting equipment, rigging, special effects, travel/freight, film processing, visual effects, and postproduction facilities.

Producing films in Queensland at the studios can be extremely cost effective.  Below the line expenditures are effectively reduced ─ in comparison with a U. S. dollar budget.  The savings are achieved by scale of economics in crew size, lower labor and equipment rental rates, a favorable exchange rate to the U. S. dollar, and importantly, both federal and state government incentives and rebates. Committed to assisting international filmmakers, Warner Roadshow Studios liaise with prospective clients, evaluate their needs, and tailor solutions through personalized service.

Since opening in May 1998, Fox Studios Australia has quickly become one of the world’s most sought-after studio facilities. The studio complex is nestled in Parklands, just 15 minutes from Sydney’s city center, on a spacious, 32-acre site. The studio features eight stages, production offices, and workshops, alongside the creative community of over 60 independent businesses.  These businesses provide everything from fully serviced productions to casting, travel/freight, equipment rental, postproduction, and special effects. They also offer postproduction specialists in film editing, sound re-recording and mixing, as well as a purpose-built orchestral recording stage. Fox Studios Australia's approach is to provide flexible production buildings and technical infrastructure to support filmmakers.    

Farther down the coast is the Melbourne Central City Studios (MCCS), the newest purpose-built film and TV complex in the Asia Pacific Rim that opened in 2004. Designed to meet the needs of today’s demanding production requirements, this complex is part of Melbourne’s Docklands re-development, just minutes from the city center.
MCCS Studios is comprised of five purpose-built, state-of-the-art sound stages with additional stages to be added. The sound stages range in size from 8,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet. All stages have silent air conditioning with ample three-phase power, and parking.

Attached to each stage are buildings that house comprehensive production support facilities, including make up rooms, green rooms, star dressing rooms, and general-purpose spaces. Upper floors house self-contained production office with full telecommunications and computer networking facilities. The complex also has a warehouse/workshop area of over 73,000 square feet.

MCCS also has plans to expand, with considerations for a multi-story office tower that will house a variety of service companies associated with the industry. 

                
HONG KONG

Renowned for its unique landscapes and a magnificent harbor, the city is “an ideal location for filming in Asia,” reports Patricia Wong of Hong Kong’s Film Services Office.  Hong Kong is also famous for crews who can converse equally well in English and Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin). In addition to the one-stop services, the Film Services Office provides filmmakers on-location filming in Hong Kong.  The city also has deep resources ─ comprised of sound stages and studios ─ to meet the pre and postproduction needs of filmmakers, both locally and around the world.

Shaw Studios is an advanced film production and digital postproduction facility in the town of Tseung Kwan O. Coming into operation in phases since 2007, the (U. S.) $180 million establishment features one of the largest, fully air conditioned, vibration-insulated soundstages in Asia. It features a full-service color lab and digital imaging services, over 20 sound and editing suites, a 400-seat dubbing and screening theatre, executive and production office space, banqueting facilities, and visual effects and animation capabilities. In all, over a million square feet of digitally wired and secure facilities are dedicated solely to film production and postproduction.

Located in Cyberport, Hong Kong’s IT flagship, the Digital Media Centre (DMC), provides a range of world-class facilities and expertise to assist content providers and multimedia professionals in digital entertainment productions. Its studios and sound stages are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and hardware.

“There are other indoor and outdoor studios well-equipped with electricity, lighting, and audio-visual facilities with filming areas [of] up to 1,000 square meters,” adds Wong. “There are also sections to meet the different requirements of mocking up from domestic household, office, prison cells, and more.  These studios include 3-bit Production Co. Ltd., Clarence Film Studio, Dillon Studios, Million Studio, Professional Fashion Photographers Association Ltd., and Rm. 307 Rental Studio, to name just a few.”

CALIFORNIA

While large, state-of-the-art stages are popping up all over the world, Hollywood still offers a huge concentration of top facilities and cutting edge gear. The Century Studio Corporation in Culver City has nine large stages, Universal Studios has some 30 stages, and Sunset Gower Studios has 12 stages. Historic studio lots such as Paramount, Warner Bros., Fox, and Disney, all offer world-class spaces and services.

Panavision in Woodland Hills, offers clients a 60 x 53-foot stage equipped with 2400 amps, 1200 amps of hard power on the floor, and a two-wall pre-lit white cyc. “We’ve been doing a lot of screen tests for some big features, including Return to Witch Mountain,” stage manager Heather Mayer reports. The stage is always in great demand, “especially for promo spots and commercials, as well as pickup shots,” she adds. “We just did a big promo spot for The Pussycat Dolls for the CW Network, and commercials for Sanyo and Haagen Dazs, so we’ve been very busy.”