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Features
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A Fantastic Experience in China
Written by Matt Birch, production supervisor of Mission Impossible III (2006)
When the scheduling and budgeting decisions were being made for “Mission: Impossible 3”, there were several factors that eventually led us to our shooting period in China. The script did have a portion of the film written for Shanghai, which made it ideal to shoot there, but we were unsure of costs as all of us had not yet shot in that area before.
In terms of being a co-production, Paramount had initially set up the co-production with another company in China, and this agreement ended up not being completed for various reasons. We were then introduced to the China Film Group IV who quickly assisted us in several planned shoots for the production: HD aerial footage of Shanghai, and principal photography work in Shanghai and Xitang.
Throughout our prep period, there was a learning curve coming from a western film company and never shooting in the east before. We find that getting timely and direct answers to some of our issues was the biggest hurdle we faced as our prep weeks became increasingly smaller as the days passed. Larger issues were getting military approval for the aerial photography work we needed, clearance for our chartered jet with crew to get its landing permit, water tests for Xitang and the logistics for our “Spydercam” rigging in Xitang that had to affix to homes and businesses over 500 years old. Politically we were guided appropriately from CFG through what could have been a landmine of issues. CFG was also integral in assisting our production with department head referrals, local casting and coordinating the rental of three restaurants in Shanghai that our US caterer was able to utilize during our photography in China.
Our experience in China, overall, was fantastic. We found an eager crew base, with creative problem-solving methods (i.e. rigging, etc), and would not have been able to complete our schedule without the governmental assistance on a daily basis. There are obvious cost savings there for labor, goods and services that just need to be weighed overall with the necessary travel to get to China.
I would not hesitate to plan shooting a film there again -- I feel I now have a wealth of knowledge of who to speak with and form partnerships to have a successful shoot.
Poster of Mission: Impossible 3
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