After a long silence, I’ve decide to go on with our behind the scenes stories. Here is the job we did in April’19 for Walkers Sensations’ TVC. The spot is shot in two days in a backlot studio in Istanbul to double three different street markets; Indian, Mexican and American.

Location

The most challenging part of this project was to find the right locations which can be doubled as three different countries and they had to be production friendly to build those street markets. There are very good options to cheat India, Mexico and United States in Istanbul (as we did in our Delta Airlines job). But as the project required big set builds, we needed to close those streets for pedestrians and vehicles at least for 2 days to set up and shoot. So, it was not feasible for this job to shoot on real streets. Also, we need to complete the shoot in 2 days due the budget constraints, which pushed us to find one location for all the scenes without any unit moves.

To be able to achieve all the requests within the limitations, we offered to build those setups in a backlot studio which already had appropriate streets with different characters. At the end, all the parties were very happy with this location and our production solution.

Production Design

In this job, we’ve worked with a very talented local production designer. As you guess, cheating a location required a very detailed production design process and serious preparation to convince the agency and the client. So, we created mood boards, detailed drawings for each market scene, and planned the placement of the stalls on the streets for the most cost efficient way without comprimising the visual quality.

Food Styling

Due to the nature of the project, food styling was an important part of the pre-production process. Herbs, spices, cheese, meat and many others, the ingredients of the product and they were the heroes of the scenes. Fortunately, we have top notch food stylists in Turkey and we worked with one of the best in this job, so we were in safe hands. To save time on shoot days and be on the safe side, he organised a cook-up day in his own kitchen studio to present all the prepared ingredients to the director and the creatives a day before the shoot.

Equipment

The DoP preferred to use a RED Helium with a Zeiss lens set. The camera was always on a steadicam for all the scenes, so our steadicam operator was the hero of our set. His performance was incredible during 12-hours shoot days with that heavy equipment, and he was really appreciated by the DoP and the director.

Social Media Videos

Besides all those scenes with a pretty busy schedule, we produced additional social media videos as well with a second unit. For that, we put a green background in a space next to the main set and stole our hero talents from there during the breaks to shoot those extra pieces.

The Behind The Scenes Video and The Spot

Please see the making of video and the original spot below:

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

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

During these lockdown days, I had a chance to turn back and go over our previous projects. I realised that last year was a busy one for us with many local and international jobs. Among them, I’d like to share our experiences on the most challenging, interesting and intense one, which is for a British insurance company Liverpool Victoria — aka LV=.

The job was for LV’s 2020 campaign consisting of 3 main TV spots and several social media contents. We shot all those in 5 days with a 2-day-prelight and of course with our hard working great team. As you’ll see in the upcoming photos and BTS videos, we built all those locations in two studios while we had just 3 weeks for all the construction work. And I must say they were not easy setups as I’ll be explaining in the following sections.

Set Building

We had 8 different setups for these spots and all of them were built from scratch in two different big studios next to each other. Those are;

• Forest / camping site
• British residential street with Victorian houses
• School front
• British neighbourhood park
• Office building entrance
• Local football field
• Beach front
• British home interior

As per the creative, the setups were not just simple, static structures. The whole houses were needed to be moving, most of the furniture was supposed to slide, flip, and even the walls and the floors were moving as well. So, besides building them, we needed to put heavy duty casters, tracks and pulley systems on many parts of the setups.

After building the set, the backgrounds were another issue. Since we needed huge backgrounds (like 20x6 meters), we were planning to print them out on vinyl sheets and hang them on the walls. But once we printed a small sample and tested it, we found out that the material was quite reflective and would have been a problem when the set is lighted. So after a long discussion with our DP, gaffer and art director, we decided to go for custom printed wallpapers which worked very well at the end.

Besides all those set building work, there was another important part of the project; cars! As two of the films are about car and multi-car insurance, we had 3 cars in different segments. And of course they had to be wrapped in the brand’s colors.

There was a very big challenge about the cars in this project. As the spots would be aired in the UK, the cars had to be Right Hand Drive, but in Turkey it’s the opposite, all the cars are Left Hand Drive. And we found a way to work around it; we ordered RHD dashboards for these specific models from the UK and switched their dashboards and steering wheels to make them look like RHD.

Let’s see our set building BTS video here;

The Grip Job & Some Tricks

Many moving big and small objects mean a lot of grip job of wiring them, installing pulley systems and pulling the right strings with the accurate timing in a great coordination. I can’t forget that in one setup there are 18 strings to be pulled, and as far as I remember we achieved the desired movement sequence after 8 trials which was a huge relief for all the team.

Besides all those moving things, there was another challenge about the costumes. In one scene, our main talents’ outfit needed to be changed from casual to sport ones and it had to be done in a second and the old outfit needed to disappear as well. Our wardrobe and grip teams worked in collaboration to make this happen. Custom clothes were prepared, necessary strings were attached and here is the result:

All the scenes for 3 main TV spots were shot with Steadicam, so it means 4 days full time job for our Steadicam operator. Ideally, those films should have been shot with a motion controller unit to be able to achieve smooth transactions between the scenes. But as you guess, due to the limited time of pre-production and budget optimization, we couldn’t use it. But thanks to our great operator, we pulled it off with his good physical condition and pitch perfect movements. He was the hero of our set during those difficult 4 days.

The Lighting

As we had a huge studio and set builds, we needed a big lighting setup. Also, we had 3 hero cars in the films, we had to build enormous soft boxes with double silk layers — the biggest one was 25x12 meters — to avoid light marks on the cars.

So during these 5 shoot days, we used 50 space lights, 30 soft lights, 16 Sky Panels and around 20 tungsten lights in various sizes from 1K to 12K.

As you’ll see in the films in the next section, there are morning, afternoon, and night scenes with invisible transactions. So, we needed to adapt the light of each scene to be synchronised with the camera movements and have correct timings. With the help of our time coded lighting desk and talented operator, we pre programmed all the light setups with the time codes and everything worked smoothly. It was a very good experience for both our DoP and gaffer.

At the end, it was a very challenging, educational and pleasing experience for all of us. Once again, everybody was very happy and satisfied with the result as you can see in our traditional wrap selfie;

The Backstage Video and The Spots

Now it’s time to enjoy the BTS video and the spots, after a long reading. The third spot hasn’t been aired yet, will add it once it’s out.

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, location alternatives and our remote production solutions. I’m based in London, and would love to hear about your project.

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

Filmed in Turkey — LV= Insurance 2020 Campaign was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re really excited to announce that advertising, TV and film production is open in Turkey. It’s been very difficult and strange times for all of us, we all missed to be on set already and happy to say that we’re on now!

As the Turkish Government has reacted to Covid-19 outbrake at the early stages, the numbers are going well in the country now. So, the restrictions have been eased step by step, and at the latest stage video production can resume within the Advertising Producers Association’s guidelines.

Remote Production

If agencies and clients are still reluctant to travel, we’re offering remote production service from our sets and pre-production process which is proudly local technology (the equivalent of Q-take commonly used in Eastern Europe). You can see the details of this system here, it offers;

• multi channel live stream
• bi-directional open audio channel with all remote participants
• access to video playback library (each take is uploaded just minutes after it is shot)

Local Directors & Co-directing

We’re able to offer very talented local directors for your jobs. Also, when you have your own director for a job and if you still believe that a creative eye must be on site to foresee the preps and the shoot, we’re happy to open our roster for co-directing opportunities.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Finally, it’s very important for us to see the creative/script in the development phase, since the ‘new normal’ would require some scene/location restrictions as a result of the health/safety guidelines. So, if you have a potential job now, please give us a shout and let us find out how and when we’re able to shoot it: emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

By the way, it’s great time now to shoot summer films in the breathtaking locations of the Turkish Riviera where is still quiet due to Covid-19 outbreak. Please have a look at my previous post about summer filming locations here.

Shooting Guidelines

I guess you’re already familiar with these safety measurements which are almost the same in every country now. But, I would like to share the most critical ones as follows, please see the full guideline here;

TALENTS

• Casting sessions should be done remotely.
• Those with known pre-existing conditions, aged over 65 and under 20 shouldn’t be in projects.
• Talents have to sign health declaration form before confirming them.

PRE-PRODUCTION

• Staggered call times should be applied.
• All the crew will be called 24 hours before the set to check their health status and if any Covid-19 symptoms are appeared.
• Back up for all the head of departments should be considered.
• Location/studio and equipment have to be sanitised before set by licensed professionals.

TRANSPORT

• Preference is one location wihout unit moves.
• Crew should drive themselves to set if possible with maximum one person.
• All vehicles have to be sanitised before set.
• If necessary, crew/talent shuttles must be used with half capacity to obey social distancing rules.

HEALTH CHECK

• There has to be a paramedic on set.
• Paramedic has to measure body temperature of all crew before letting them into set.
• Health and safety officer should be on set.

DURING SET

• All crew have to wear masks and gloves all the time.
• Video village must be outside set, and if possible image should be streamed for remote video village.
• Alcohol based hand sanitisers must be visible throughout location.
• Mostly touched surfaces like door handles must be cleaned frequently.
• Camera have to be 2 meter distant from talents.
• There must be enough space for crew to provide 2 meter distance.
• Max crew member on set depends on location, there must be 4 meter square per person in empty spaces, 6 meter square for furnished locations.
• There has to be two toilet vans on set and they must be cleaned after every use.

SCENE RESTRICTIONS

• Scripts need to bear in mind the restrictions in the mechanics of production.
• Crowded scenes which don’t allow social distancing shouldn’t be shot.
• Physical interaction between talents should be avoided.
• If space allows to maintain social distance, some scenes with background extras can be shot.

COSTUME, HAIR & MAKE-UP

• Wardrobe department should utilise talent owned costumes first.
• Costumes fitted by one talent can’t be worn by another talent.
• All kits must be unique to each talent.
• Talents should do their own touch-ups during shoot.
• Hair and make-up tables have to be separated by 2 meters.

CATERING

• All meals have to be single serve pre-packed instead of buffet catering.
• Staggered meal breaks should be provided.
• Dining space must allow crew to have social distance.

Production During Covid-19 in Turkey was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Beaches & Sea 🏖

Don’t know about you, but my kind of summer is a beautiful sandy beach accompanied with a calm blue sea. I’ve spent a fun childhood in Turkey, running along the sandy beaches of the Mediterranean sea. Turkey is very rich in terms of beaches and seas, which makes it a very popular summer holiday destination amongst European tourists. You can find a variety of beaches — a long and sandy one, one with pebbles, one surrounded with cliffs, one with a city background or a deserted one within an isolated bay — there’s something that suits every taste (and every production brief 😉).

Water Sports 🏄‍♀️

Over 8,000 km of coastline, suitable weather conditions, crystal clear waters, numerous beautiful rivers and lakes make Turkey one of the most spectacular and globally popular paradises for water sports lovers. There are several wind surfing and kite surfing (kiteboarding) spots in Turkey, hosting international events all year long. Turkish waters are also very good for sailing, kayaking, scuba diving, rafting and many others.

Streets / Sea Sides

In addition to the clear blue waters and unspoiled beauty of the region, there are lovely small villages where you can experience the authentic Aegean culture walking in the narrow streets between picturesque white-washed houses, discovering the delicious local Aegean food. Who would have thought these villages are at least as beautiful as the Greek islands but much more production budget friendly. You are very welcome.

Hotels

One of the most famous traits of Turkish culture is undoubtedly hospitality and thanks to the high demand from foreign visitors, the hospitality industry is very well developed. There are many luxury resorts with lots of amenities. Several of them have huge golf courses where international tournaments take place. One of them even has its own theme park within the resort.

In the last decade, boutique hotels have also become very popular in the Turkish Riviera. With their white or stone walls, pretty blue door and window frames, individually designed simple, but not austere, modern rooms, they offer their visitors the real Aegean experience.

Marinas ⚓

The Lycian Coast, which lines on the Aegean edge of southwestern Turkey and makes up much of the Turkish Riviera, attracts many sailors around the world with its bright blue waters and wonderful natural and historical bays. There are several natural marinas on the coast but they are not enough for the high demand. So, many modern marinas are built in the area for local and international sailors.

Bonus: Blue Voyage ⛵

After a whole winter of hard work and looking at the photos in this post, you might now have started dreaming about your summer holiday. If you haven’t done any plans yet, let me do you a favour before I finish this post and introduce you to the recreational blue voyage along the Turkish Riviera. The voyage offers holiday makers an enjoyable trip aboard the iconic local gulet yatches to ancient cities, harbours, tombs, mausolea and intimate beaches in the small coves, lush forests, and tranquil streams that lace the country’s Turquoise Coast. It’s another good reason to shoot in Turkey!

Plus, Value for Money

As a developing economy, Turkey has low living costs relative to Europe and the US. As a result, many budget items cost less, including work force, permits and rentals.

In addition, the latest currency exchange rate of Turkish Lira make Turkey a high quality / low cost production heaven in Europe.

Tell us about your project!

If you like to know more about the cost of producing your commercial, movie, documentary or music video in the Turkish Riviera (or any other part of Turkey) please contact me for a bespoke quote. I’m based in London, and would love to hear about your project over a cup of coffee, or a pint.

Emre Ozgur

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

Summer Filming Locations was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

With ‘Unique Locations’ post series, I’d like to introduce you to outstanding locations to film exclusive to Turkey. Cappadocia makes a great start to this series with its mystic and fairy mood -a rare gem not only in Turkey, but also in the world.

Fairy Chimneys

Cappadocia is a region of natural wonders in central Anatolia, characterised by fairy chimneys and idiosyncratic cone-shaped rock formations. This fabulous landscape is a gift of volcanic eruptions dating back 10 million years. Cappadocia was initially an inland sea, until it was dried up by the lava flows. The lava in time cooled of, forming tuff rocks, which were then sculpted into sinuous valleys with curvy cliff faces and pointy fairy chimneys by the help of the wind and rain.

Hot Air Balloon

Hot air ballon is a major touristic attraction in the area. Due to the microclimate of the valley, the balloons rise up early in the morning accompanied by an amazing dawn light, offering a fabulous scene not only for the riders but also for the viewers — a good alternative to enjoy the experience for those who have fear of heights (*cough* like me *cough*).

Cave Houses

Cappadocians chiselled their home sweet homes in the soft rock, paving the way for cave-dwelling hippies and today’s luxury boutique fairy-chimney hotels. La crème de la crème des vacances!

Byzantine Frescoes

Monastery life existing in the area left a series of mural paintings in caves which were being used as churches. Despite centuries of weathering and vandalism, many of the frescoes have preserved their colours and are still standing gloriously, making an attractive archeological feast for visitors.

Underground Cities

There are approximately 40 underground cities in the region which were carved out by the Hittites around 2000 BC. Between the range of 5,000 to 10,000 people gathered and lived underground during war times. The amazing 120 meters deep ventilation system was designed to source fresh air to the tiny tunnels spanning eight floors. Our antecedents never cease to amaze.

Landscape and Roads for Car Commercials

The images you have seen so far already speak for themselves. So it is probably no new information to you when I say this wonderland, with its great landscapes and roads, offer perfect locations for car commercials.

Surroundings

The area doesn’t only have this natural wonder, it also offers us many diverse landscapes and old towns within 1 hour driving distance.

How to Access to Cappadocia

It’s an hour flight from Istanbul with 8 direct flights a day. I know, your commute is probably more difficult. :)

Tell us about your project!

If you like to know more about the cost of producing your commercial / movie / documentary / music video in Cappadocia, please contact me for a bespoke quote. I’m based in London, and would love to hear about your project.

Emre Ozgur

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288880

www.gogo-project.com

Unique Locations — Cappadocia: “The Fairy Land of Turkey!” was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As a big fan of Discovery Channel’s “How It’s Made” series, I’m attracted to the making process of any product or service. For all my like minded mates out there (I’m looking at you, hidden geeks), I decided to write a series on our global projects’ behind the scenes stories. I reckon these stories will make it easier for readers to grasp our production quality and capability in Turkey rather than just taking our word for it.

Our latest project, Expedia’s global TVC for its Champions League sponsorship, is a great candidate to start this series with. We shot the spot last November in 3 days in Istanbul’s various remarkable locations.

The Locations

We filmed the spot with one team in 8 different locations, including a beach, a plane studio, a historical place, a giant stadium, a hotel rooftop pool, a scenic road and a few other streets. It may sound impossible but all these locations are in a single city — Istanbul, with a maximum of 45 minutes travel distance between any two locations. As mentioned in my previous post, Istanbul offers an ample choice of diverse locations in convenient distances.

The first location was Sile beach in the north coast of Istanbul by the Black Sea. The location offers us a deserted, long and wide sandy beach, a calm or wavy sea depending on the weather and beautiful rocky cliffs. It’s possible to film a summer beach or a surfing scene, with just a 45 minutes trip from the city centre!

Below is another beach in the city centre, which faces West and therefore offers a beautiful sunset with city backdrop.

Below is a huge stadium in Istanbul, hosting UEFA Champions League matches. When there isn’t a match (which is quite often the case), the place is available to rent as a whole complex. We can utilise every facility of it day or night!

In the old city district of Istanbul, we can easily find a cobbled street like the one below. This is in Galata, a bohemian part of Istanbul, which looks exactly like a historical European city street.

We have an exceptional facility to effortlessly shoot airplane films in Istanbul. The studio offers various types of airplane cabins and cockpits. They can customise the interiors with airline company’s specifications and branding on demand, which facilitates shooting any airline commercial within surprisingly reasonable budgets. You can find detailed information on this studio, along with more photos in my “Challenging Filming Locations” post.

You can hire a luxury 5-star hotel in the middle of the city with a stunning Bosphorus view for filming. In addition to an awesome rooftop pool, facilities like rooms, restaurants and lobby area are available for travel ads.

The Basilica Cistern below is a stunning and unique historical location in the old city which was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Empire. The gigantic structure is an underground chamber of 9,800 square metres — capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres of water. The ceiling is supported by a forest of 336 marble columns, each 9 metres high, arranged in 12 rows and 28 columns, spaced 5 metres apart. We can film inside this place, placing our filming lights without harming the historical structure.

The Grip & Equipment

Praised with the highly active production environment in Turkey, we have easy access to wide range of latest film equipments.

The Team

An additional perk of Turkey is its highly developed, experienced and talented professionals skilled in every stage of the production.

You’ll probably be surprised to see in the photos and in the backstage video that we have many female crew members. I am proud to point out that diversity is quite common practice for Turkish sets. If you’re interested to learn more, please read my post on Gender Diversity and Women Involvement in Filming and Advertising.

As spotted in the photos and the backstage video, each crew member is on the go and always have a can-do attitude.

The Hospitality

Turkish people are famous for their hospitality. If you have ever visited Turkey, you must know what I’m talking about. We always take care of our clients and agencies, making sure they are comfortable and feel at home.

We do not only look after our clients/agencies, but also our crew. Since, it’s an important motivation for Turkish people to eat good food, we always serve open buffet meals to everyone in a set (I’m looking at you, foodies).

The Challenges

Each production has its own challenges. We actually start getting worried if everything goes smoothly in a set — it just doesn’t feel right.

This one particularly had a very interesting challenge. There was a sunset beach scene in the script. On the recce day, we double checked the weather forecast for the shooting days to be on the safe side, only to find an unpleasant surprise — the forecast had now changed to cloudy for all 3 days! Instead of panicking, we decided to take immediate action and shoot the scene right then and there. We had only 3 hours until sunset but we accepted the challenge. Everyone worked like a beaver to gather all the team and the equipment to the location in just 2 hours. We then got ready in half an hour and filmed the scene right on time. We were short of crew compared to a regular set day but it didn’t stop us from shooting the beautiful sunset scene below.

The weather has actually challenged us on all shooting days. We needed the sun on another shoot day for a different beach scene, but the clouds were again hiding it. So, we created our own sun with a big light and a mirror! :)

Carrying the equipment from the basecamp to very long and wide beaches was another big challenge for us. We rented a tractor to be able to move swiftly without wasting set time.

The Backstage Video and The Ad

Please see the making of video and the original spot below:

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

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

Filmed in Turkey — Expedia “Travel Like a Champion” was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When we started working on international projects, we were surprised to see the foreign agencies and clients getting very impressed with our gender diverse crews. I reckon this wasn’t expected from the Turkey image they had in mind before arriving. Indeed, Turkish women are open-minded, hardworking and powerful figures both in the work environment and within Turkish families.

Gender balance, along with all other aspects of diversity is very important to escape biased echo chambers. Amazing things happen when we open our minds to a broad range of views. Hearing from people unlike ourselves opens our minds, enriches and balances ourselves and allows broader thinking, resulting in great outcomes for any project we work on. That is why we are very lucky filmmakers in Turkey.

I’d like to share a photo from one of our sets below, which we worked with Flare BBDO, filming for Hewlett Packard in Turkey. As a big supporter of the #FreeTheBid and #SeeHer campaigns, HP and BBDO were glad to see the strong presence of women in the crew.

In Turkey, most of our first Assistant Directors are women. We have female focus pullers, art directors, costume designers, production managers, runners, and many more. I’ll introduce them personally in my upcoming blog posts.

Emre Ozgur

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288880

www.gogo-project.com

Gender Diversity and Women Involvement in Filming and Advertising was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

Challenging Filming Locations: Underground, Airport, Train Station, Aircraft etc. was originally published in GoGo Project on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Turkey has a big potential as a filming destination with its wonderful locations, very experienced and talented crew, rich culture, diversity of casts and reasonable budgets.

Reasons for high quality

It’s uncharted but Turkey has 100 years of filmmaking expertise. The filmmaking industry had its up and downs in the past, but now it’s the golden era of Turkish production business thanks to the remarkable advertising campaigns for local and international brands and many TV series being recognised and exported to all around Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Talented Professionals

As a result of the intense production environment, Turkey has developed highly experienced and talented professionals skilled in the every stage of production from camera crew to set design, lighting team, grip guys and post production. And they all speak English.

Wide Range of Film Equipments

Another benefit of this environment is easy access to wide range of latest film equipments. Rental houses and grip teams offer rich gear options like ARRI cameras, Leica lenses, sky panels, cranes, and many more.

Variety of Seasons and Locations

Filmmakers in Turkey are lucky to have nature and geography are on their side. With four distinctive seasons, Turkey has sunny summer beaches, snowy winter mountains, blossoming springs and rainy yellow autumns. At the right season, you can even shoot a sunny beach and a snowy mountain in a single day!

Istanbul is the biggest city and filming hub in Turkey which connects Asia and Europe. Within 100 kms radius, you can find all sorts of locations ranging from a modern city to historical places, beaches, mountains, lakes, rivers, and many more. With the help of these various locations, it’s easy to double for an European street, a Middle Eastern town or the French Riviera.

Diversity of Casts

Istanbul has been the capital of many civilisations throughout the history. Due to the historical richness and the attraction for people from many countries, it has one of the most cosmopolitan population around the world. Thus, it enables us to find a vast diversity of casts like Caucassians, Afro-Americans, Asians and many more.

Reasons for low cost

As a developing economy, Turkey has low living costs relative to Europe and the US. As a result, many budget items cost less, including work force, permits and rentals.

In addition, 16 hours working days (12 plus 4 overtime) and the latest currency exchange rate of Turkish Lira make Turkey a low-cost / high quality production heaven in Europe.

Plus, It’s Easy to Access

Istanbul is a travel hub in the middle of Europe and Asia. It is a 2–3 hours flight from many European cities.

• 4 hours from London with 12 direct flights per day
• 3 hours from Berlin with 7 direct flights per day
• 3.5 hours from Paris with 12 direct flights per day
• 5 hours from Dubai with 11 direct flights per day
• 8 hours from New York with 3 direct flights per day

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

emre.ozgur@gogo-project.com

+44 7899 288 880

www.gogo-project.com

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