Thailand Location Series: The Northern Beauty

Thailand is increasingly becoming a popular destination for the productions from all over the world. In one of our last blog, we covered reasons for shooting in Thailand despite the lack of incentives. In this new series of blogs, we cover locations from each part of the country.  Many might already know of the locations we will cover. A few we believe are unknown to many of the international location scouts. The series will show that there is more to the country than the notorious nightlife and the beautiful beaches.

We begin with the Northern Thailand. The north of Thailand is geographically a hilly area. There are many national parks, indigenous villagers and rare wildlife and plants. The area is often hailed as the most culturally significant part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is the largest city of this part of Thailand in addition to being the second largest city of the country.

Below are few of the locations

Doi Inthanon Chedi

Doi Inthanon National Park: Imagine for a moment. A beautiful location populated by beautiful waterfalls. All around you can see the source of the rivers. And this location is located at the highest point of the country, at 2,599 meters to be exact. This is Thailand’s most well known national park and one whose beauty make your work more than enjoyable.

Doi Mae Salong plantation

Doi Mae Salong: The area’s plantation doubled for many local and international productions notably American Gangster (2007), Ridley Scott’s helmed project starring DenzelWashington and Russell Crowe. It is however a beautiful tea, coffee and fruit plantations and not drugs as depicted. It has also been featured in many productions for romantic backgrounds.

Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Chedi Luang: This particular location is very popular for local productions for many reasons. The main reason is its location among the beautiful hills. The second is the long staircase with what is believed to be the most beautiful man made methodological serpents rambling from the entrance of the chapel to the door, on both sides of the staircase. For a shoot that covers exotic Thai temple not flanked by the usual skyscrapers of Bangkok, this is total ideal.

Doi Phu Kha

Doi Phu Kha National Park: If you have watched a little known movie titled “The Elephant King”, this location’s beauty will not be of a surprise to you. The pink flowers are in here in this park, Chomphu Phu Kha to be exact. They are in full bloom during February. This location has been a favorite for both local and international productions alike. Permits can be applied for and accommodation services inside the park are available.  

Some of the international productions shot here in Northern Thailand included American Gangster (2007), Rambo(2008), Rambo 3 (1988), Surf Ninjas (1993), Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), TheElephant King (2006), Somewhere (2004), Hot Potato (1976) and Sniper 3 (Video2004).  Northern Thailand has also been featured in the famous TV series “The Amazing Race”. Lost in Thailand(2012), the highest grossing Chinese movie was also shot around in the area. 

In the next series, we will move downward to cover the beautiful locations in the north western.

The Latest Effort in Luring Filmmakers to Thailand - Thailand International Film Festival 2013

Thailand International Film Destination Festival which debuted from April 1 to April 10 was part of an effort to promote the country’s exotic settings and production facilities to the international screen industry.  Thus it came to no surprise that the movies screened during the festivals were the ones that were filmed in Thailand, headlined of which were the dystopian backpacker film, The Beach and the raunchy comedy, The Hangover 2.

(For the list of the films, click here)

The event included a one day seminar held on April 5^th at Centara Grand, Bangkok with two discussion panel sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with local well known figures from the film production in discussion with the foreign guests. Mr. Kulthep Narula represented Benetone Films which have had experience in the field for over a decade.

The morning session hosted two well known location managers from Hollywood, Mr. Michael John Meehan (Pirates of theCaribbean trilogy, Master and Commander: Far Side of The World, Oblivion and etc.) and Mr. Mike Fantasia (The Amazing Spider-Man, Catch Me If You Can and etc. ), Mr. Daniel Zirilli, a young filmmaker who has directed and/or produced over 250 music videos. The afternoon session hosted producer Mr. Andrew Pfeffer (Bangkok Dangerous, Running Scared and etc.), director and cinematographer Mr. Adam Kane (Formosa Betrayed, multi episodes of Heroes and etc.) and actor, producer and writer Mr. Will Tiao (Formusa Betrayed and etc.)

The local speakers besides Mr. Kulthep were actor, producer and writer Mr. Jude S. Walko and producer Ms. Sasisupa Sungvaribud who is also the president of the Film Production Services Association.

Even though, the sessions were dominated by different concerns, there was however one common issue that was raised and discussed extensively: lack of incentives in Thailand for the foreign productions. All of the guests concurred that while Thailand is an attractive option for the filmmakers, thanks largely to the exotic locations, professional and hard working crew, excellent infrastructure and film production services, its lack of incentives is hurting the business that the country should have been getting.

In our next blog, we will detailed the discussions and explore more on the issue of the incentives.

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