In the almost 30 years since Steven Spielberg’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was shot in Costa Rica, much has changed in the country’s film industry. From a virtually nonexistent market in the late ’90s to a burgeoning powerhouse whose exports are sweeping awards at major festivals such as Cannes and Berlin, Costa Rica has invested heavily not only in boosting its own cinematic output but also in attracting major international productions to shoot in its territory.
At this year’s Costa Rica Media Market, the country’s leading industry event, experts in global production gathered to discuss how major players choose where to take their big shoots in a panel titled “The Decision Behind the Location: How Global Studios Choose Where to Film.”
Michael Woolston, Manager of Physical Production at The Walt Disney Studios and an experienced producer who worked on films such as “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “The Little Mermaid,” said that the decision to take a production to a foreign country relies on the availability of two key assets: crew and talent.
Speaking about his process, Woolston said that when comparing countries with similar budget ranges, variables become make-or-break factors. “You’re looking at all those other variables, and crew and talent are probably one of the biggest. Maybe we’ll bring, obviously, the director, producer, maybe a production designer, but we would love to hire all the local talent that we can.”
