Feature Film Shooting Logistics

Construction

Art department production values run very high for low cost in Thailand. We have recently seen a trend of productions coming to Thailand for stage work that could be done anywhere in the world... simply because of the double attraction of high-quality work by local construction and art teams for comparatively little money.

Skilled labor for feature film construction teams often is brought in from different parts of the country to wherever the film is located. For example, the best carpenters are from Northern Thailand, the best plasterers are from the East and the best painters are from the Central regions or the South. It's not always necessary to bring people in from the provinces, but for bigger projects, it can make sense.

Some construction requirements can be sub-contracted as well. For example, when we shot the pirate epic "Blackbeard" we subcontracted the construction of ship decks, because they were one-off projects made to a very specific blueprint. However, for our construction of "Bahamas town," a recreation of a Caribbean city from the 1700's, we decided to use our own pay-rolled construction department to carry out the work.

Construction in Thailand differs from many other countries in that lots of wood is used for framework (its amazingly the most cost effective.) Also, many of the workers are used to old school English style plaster work versus pre-fab fiberglass molding. The plaster work is more labor intensive, but one quickly realizes that the savings in construction in Thailand are not in the materials but in the labor costs.