Why shooting in Thailand without incentives is still an attractive option

In our last post, we mentioned the importance of incentives and how Thailand loses a lot of potential businesses from the big international studios for the lack of it. Yet, there is no denying that the country is still attracting filmmakers from all over the world who find other factors prevalent in the country to be attractive. In this post we will highlight these factors. 

During the one day seminar of the Thailand International Film Festival 2013, many of the guests agreed that Thailand is one of the best places to shoot a movie and some including Mr. Daniel Zirilli and Mr. Andrew Pfeffer (Bangkok Dangerous, Running Scared and etc.) shared their wonderful experiences of shooting their projects here. During their stories, they repeatedly highlighted some of the factors that make Thailand an attractive place to shoot. In this post, we will detail each of the factors and share the experiences from the filmmakers to illustrate how without the incentives, Thailand is still one of the most appealing place to shoot.

Hard working and experienced crew: Daniel Zirilli recounted an incident on one of his earliest shoots in Thailand when heavy equipment was urgently required for a shoot on top of a hill and it was proving to be difficult due to some unforeseen problems. One of the crew members solved the dilemma by lifting the equipment and went all the way to the top without once complaining. This story is one of the many examples of hard working attitude of the locals who are not afraid of working hard and are always ready to brave any kind of situation. Additionally, with many upcoming film production services in the country, more and more people are gaining the valuable experiences and thus become what one of the guests said “the most attractive workforce for film production in the region.”

Locations: When the Chinese government suddenly revoked the permit to film a week prior to shooting, Weinstein Company’s ambitious project Shanghai ran into trouble. They had to walk away from an expensive set and find a new location in a short time. Fortunately for them, Thailand has the locations that can double up for the historical time China and at a lower cost. In other instances, Thailand’s beautiful (and the popular notorious side) beat out Rio to be featured in Hangover 2; and of course the beautiful paradise for Leonardo Di Caprio in TheBeach. The country is no short of having beautiful locations and has in fact been a favorite for many Bollywood filmmakers who increasingly using it to double up for places such as New York, Bahamas, to name a few.

Low cost of production: Thailand as mentioned above was used to double up for many other locations primarily not only because of its beautiful locations, but also of the low cost of production. The production services down here are not only reasonably priced but other factors including logistics and accommodation are among the best and cheapest in the region. Moreover, sets construction is admittedly by many of our clients one of the cheapest at the highest quality in the region. This all contribute to the lower cost for the filmmakers and thus saving costs to a large extent.

Excellent Infrastructure: Thailand’s infrastructure is undeniably one of the best in the region. Many filmmakers find it easy to shoot in Thailand and easy to transportation of the equipment or the crew to locations quickly. In fact we have had finished shoots that take place at 3 different locations in a single day itself!

Professional Production Services: The guests had praised highly of the professionalism of the production services in Thailand and this made us proud. We at Benetone Films had strive to be the best of the crop and we value transparency and honesty highly when servicing the clients.

Friendly atmosphere: Thailand is popularly known as the land of smiles and this is always pleasant for the filmmakers who come back to Thailand again and again to enjoy the hospitality and joy of working with the locals. Moreover, Thai people are gracious and go out of their way to make sure the visitors are comfortable. Mr. Kulthep Narula representing Benetone Films in fact shared how during the 2010 Thai political protests,  the shoot went on without any trouble a mere distance away from the protests. Moreover the protesters were handling out water or refreshments to the crew.

The above factors are one of the other many others to make the filmmakers choose Thailand despite not having incentives. In the end, we welcome you to experience the country for yourself and for any assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Bottom Line: Incentives - Thailand International Film Festival 2013

This post follows our earlier post on Thailand International Film Festival 2013 highlights. This is an expansion of that blog on the issues discussed during the seminar with incentives being the primary concern. You can read the earlier post here.

Attractive locations, hard working crew, high quality production and lack of tax incentives and other factors came into discussion at the one-day seminar of Thailand International Film Destination Festival Bangkok, 2013. The seminar as mentioned was headlined by two of the leading location managers from Hollywood and international filmmakers with experience of shooting in Thailand. The guests collectively provided interesting insights into the factors that determine studios’ decision to choose a location and shared their experiences of working in Thailand

In both of the sessions, as challenges of shooting in Thailand were discussed, the discussions of course inadvertently turned to the lack of incentives.

Incentives for those who do not know are usually something that motivates an action to occur. In the context of filmmaking, incentives (known as Movie Production Incentives) are usually tax rebate, co-production treaties, government grants and other attractive packages like free transportation for the cast and crew and etc. These attract the filmmakers to come to the locations where they can enjoy the incentives and help them lower the cost of the movie productions.

Despite being in the spotlight for many movies being shot here, Thailand unfortunately have had no incentives. Regardless, many foreign movies continue coming to shoot here for there are other reasons such as low cost of production, hard working and experienced crew, exotic locations, excellent infrastructure, availability of equipment and etc. making it one of the most attractive in the region.

However, many big budget movies are reluctant to come and shoot here for the executives running the studios behind those movies consider incentives as the most important factor while considering a location to shoot. Moreover, their time is limited and thus if there is no incentives, other details of what Thailand has to offer is of no interest. The issue of not having the incentives thus makes it difficult for Thailand to be on the shortlist of locations for only the countries with incentives and so deemed cost effective will be more favored.

We do understand the importance of incentives however, in the same discussion other factors of Thailand were too highlighted which made it attractive. In the next post, we will thus explore those factors and how without incentives, Thailand is still very attractive place for filmmakers to come.

Stay Tune!

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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