Location, Location, Location!

One of the biggest appeals of filmmaking for me is the finding and shooting on locations, travelling the world and exploring new cultures. I love to travel, I have been to lots of places already but theres so many more places I want to see!

So far I have been fortunate enough to visit the locations of a variety of films. Ok, it's an animation but I have visited Sydney a couple of times, the location of Disney Pixar's 'Nemo' (2003, Andrew Stanton, LeeUnkrich)! The opera house, the harbour bridge! It's all there! Sydney is an amazing city, one I could never be bored with and so I hope to be back soon!

I have also been to San Francisco, location for several films including Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' (1956) which was one of the case study films for my exams, and 'Dawn of The Planet Of The Apes' (2014, Matt Reeves) which I actually watched during a flight to Australia! Winding roads, picture postcard houses and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge makes San Francisco a dream location for any genre of film.

A little closer to home, last Easter my family and I did a walk around the village of Turville, the location for 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' (1968, Ken Hughes). This is another one of my favourite classic films! I know all the words and have even seen the stage show! The windmill in the film is in fact the windmill in Turville and once belonged to ... How exciting !

'The Look Out', Bracknell, although not as exciting as Sydney! makes an appearance in the  Harry Potter films , I remember my English teacher telling us she'd accidentally walked onto the set whilst walking her dogs! Only to be removed by the security guard!

Although I have visited a few locations there are hundreds more that I want to see!

Top of my list is Matamata, New Zealand. Location of 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord Of The Rings', there are set tours of the farmland in which Hobbiton/The Shire was constructed. Originally, I heard that the farmer had wanted the set removed but after realising what a huge success these films have been ('The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King' (2003, Peter Jackson) is no.11 highest grossing films of all time! and picked up 11 Oscars!) he decided to leave it in place and it is now a huge tourist attraction.


The next location I would like to visit is Lake Squam. This is where 'On Golden Pond' (1981, Mark Rydell) was filmed, the first film I blogged about! Me an my mum would love to visit this idillic lake located near Sandwhich in America. It is her favourite film, and I love it too! so it would be perfect to visit the real place where it all happened.

Finally, I would like to visit Rockport  Massachusetts, USA. This is where some scenes from 'The Proposal' (2009, Anne Fletcher). Now as well as being my favourite rom-com ! This film actually contains some stunning locations, such as the island that Andrew's family own and live on. I would like to visit here not just because of the film, but because of the beauty.