Challenging Filming Locations: Underground, Airport, Train Station, Aircraft etc.
As a creative director, you might be hesitating to include an airport scene in your script. Likewise, as a producer, you might be sweating bullets when you see a scene shooting in an aircraft, thinking about high costs. Surely, it is a challenge to film in these locations if you are just considering venues in London, New York, Paris or Berlin. Fear no more — another European metropolis is here to make your dreams come true. Filming or shooting in these locations is a piece of cake in Istanbul. If this not enough for you, you should also see the reasonable budgets.😮
Filming in Underground Station or Train
In Istanbul, all the underground stations and the train cabins are filming / shooting studios for you after midnight with incredibly low budgets and high quality production service. During the shoots, you are allowed to utilise all parts of the station and the train. You can even move the train between the stations as many times as you like.
Filming in Aircraft
You won’t believe when you read this, but there is a team of designers in Istanbul who are crazy about aviation, producing aircraft cabin service training venues and — wait for it — aviation themed film studios in Istanbul. In the studio, it is possible to film in aircraft cabin mock-ups made of genuine aircraft parts. They can customise the aircraft cockpit or cabin interior design to fit any airlines specifications, adjusting number of seats, branding, service and kitchen cabinets. They can also manufacture any specific aircraft seat or cabin part from scratch! Not to mention that this studio costs the same as any plain sound stage in London. Too good to be true.
Filming in Airport Terminal or Runway
Several years ago, Istanbul’s second airport got a brand new, larger terminal constructed, leaving the former terminal as a filming location to commercials and feature films. It is now serving film crews with all its facilities, including but not limited to passenger areas, gates, passport control and security points.
Another medium sized airport, mainly used by private jets, offers its runways and hangars. It’s even possible to rent some of the jets for filming easy on the pocketbook.
Filming in Train Station
Due to the heavy passenger traffic all day long, it could be a nightmare to film in train stations, not to mention the pain of obtaining permissions and extravagant budgets. Fortunately, there are two big train stations in Istanbul which are not in use anymore. They host many festivals and events during the year and are attraction points for production companies like us. We love shooting in train stations. What’s not to love when you have an empty station and train cabins all to yourself, with all its facilities available to your service?
Tell us about your project!
If you like to know about the cost of producing your commercial / movie / documentary / music video in Turkey, please contact me for a bespoke quote and location alternatives. I’m based in London, and would love to hear about your project.
Emre Ozgur
+44 7899 288 880
