I wonder why they film movies like Scooby Doo, The Matrix, MI2, etc. in Australia.
I can understand Canada because of its proximity to the US and the fact that production costs are lower, but it seems rather costly to move a production to a country that’s half way around the world, especially a movie that doesn’t rely on Australia’s spectacular scenery (which I guess rules out MI2.)
A WAG, but I’d assume they found production costs in Australia were cheaper than in Canada or the United States. I don’t know the details of the making of the Scooby Doo feature, but if the executives stayed in California and the crew was local, they probably only had to fly a couple of dozen people to Australia. So it wouldn’t have taken much of a savings in production cost to justify the expense.
Australia is even cheaper than Canada, with an even lower dollar.
Moving stuff there is expensive, but in practical terms that expense isn’t a very significant part of the cost. Most of the equipment you’ll need and most of the technical experts you’ll require can be rented or hired in Australia for less than they’d cost in Hollywood. Lights, sets, booms, sound equipment, cameras, and costumes can all be had from the local film industry, and trained operators and stagehands abound. American production companies will NOT bring their own equipment, for the most part; they rent it. Toronto, where I live, has several large companies whose entire purpose is renting full suites of movie equipment to big Hollywood studios for shooting films here.
When you get right down to it, the only thing you’d have to ship there would be the named talent, and 20-30 plane tickets to Australia plus accomodations is not a significant chunk of a $50 million budget. Plus, much of your post-production work will be done in Hollywood anyway, even if the main photography was done in Sydney.
On an added note, I’ve read that Freddy Prinze hates to travel and didn’t like spending all that time in Australia. But apparently he decided it was a worthwhile sacrifice to travel halfway around the world in order to continue having sex with Sarah Michelle Gellar. In my opinion, he made the right call.
Interesting.
May I just add that a first-class r/t ticket to Australia on Qantas is around $14,000 (U.S.) :eek:
Why did they film Scooby Doo in Oz?
That’s where the talking dogs live!
Good answer, furryman.
Actually, the Wiz and Ozma, acting on Glinda’s advice, have been subsidizing the national film industry in order to improve their balance of payments, given the success they had with the Judy Garland flick…
Oh.
That Oz.
Sorry. 
It’s purely because the movie-makers can find all the facilities they need there more cheaply than anywhere else. Simple as that.
Just to confirm what everyone else is saying, the actor who played Shaggy (I forget his name) was on the radio show Loveline a few nights ago and one of the hosts (IIRC) asked him why they filmed in Australia. He said it’s much cheaper there, and the local crews and facilities are very good.
If you remember that we have both Fox Studios and Warner Brothers Studios located in Australia, doing as much as possible in Australia makes sense. We have top flight facilities, and it’s much cheaper to have key personnel here - even of those personnel are being paid at Screen Actors Guild rates - because all other production costs will be substantially cheaper.
There are also subtantial incentives offered by our government to those producing films here.
Cool. In that case I wonder why they don’t film MORE movies there!
I think a better question is, “Why did they film Scooby Doo?”
Oh, please. That’s a dog of a different color.
When I first saw the title of this thread, I got the mental image of a computer-animated dog and assorted friends being ushered by a group of burly men into a maximum security prison…
Much preferable to the actual movie…
One other reason nobody has mentioned is that Summer down here is during Winter up there. So you can coordinate schedules a little more creatively that way to suit weather. i.e. if normally a TV series or other movie is being filmed during Summer in the US, then you can squeeze another movie set in Summer within the same year if you go where the sun is.
Man, I thought you were talking about the set of the TV show Oz.
That’s always been Fred’s secret fantasy.
See, this is one of the strong points of having an exchange rate that means the Australian dollar is worth two flat rocks and a piece of string.
Devalue your currency! Get big movie stars!
Yeah, but everyone knows the Munchkin and Wheeler unions are controlled by the Mob.
Ranchoth
(o/- We represent, the Russian mob, the Russian Mob, the Russian mob…o/-)
[Jana Wendt]Hmm, yes, sounds like a reasonable exchange to me[/Jana Wendt]