Brisbane Rises as Filmmaker’s Choice

The film industry has injected more than $73 million into Brisbane's regional economy in just one year. Filming approvals have doubled in five years. The type of filming ranges from high school student assessments to Hollywood feature films. The recent major productions that have taken place in Brisbane include several car commercials, the Netflix original television series Tidelands, reality television series Married at First Sight and MasterChef. There are also Hollywood feature films including Thor: Ragnarok, Pacific Rim Uprising, San Andreas and Dora the Explorer.

Popular locations include Brisbane landmarks such as Queen Street Mall, King George Square, the Mt Coot-tha Lookout and Story Bridge. It has been observed that Spring Hill Reservoirs is also becoming popular for children's television shows, music videos, short films and still photography shoots. Griffith Film School senior lecturer and LiveLab creative director Richard Fabb said several factors were driving the increase of filming in Brisbane.

One of them, Fabb acknowledged is the film-friendly council which invested a $50,000 fund for emerging filmmakers in Brisbane. "Another is the proactive agency, Screen Queensland and the government funding and attracting production." Furthermore, a new $12 million filming studio at Hemmant to complement the Gold Coast studio has also helped where there is actually a Paramount production called Monster Problems currently in the making. Fabb said several domestic and international productions were slowly putting Brisbane on the map as a perfect filming location.