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Post-apocalyptic locations


Ruairi Robinson

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Hey - got a question. If one was to shoot a post apocalyptic movie, and imagine for a moment our budget is unlimited (hah!), where on the world are the most stunning, desolate, post-apocalytic locations imaginable? Ruined towns or cityscapes, destruction everywhere. (or at least enough to work with that you can augment the rest with CG)

 

I'd say Afghanistan (particularly since the light there is so stunning) but obviously you could never shoot there.

 

Suggestions welcome!

 

Cheers,

Ruairí Robinson

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Geez that's an easy one, have you been to Buffalo or Detroit?

 

Whole tracts of Buffalo look like the aftermath of WWIII.

 

R,

 

Very true. You could actually do well for this 'assignment' in what's left of the Kodak complexes in Rochester. :(

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Just about any Rust Belt city, of course. Milwaukee used to have a perfect ruin near the Amtrak line, but they tore it down a couple years back and put in a condo! Meanwhile, check out junkyards, architectural recycling lots, highway demolition projects, anywhere you'd find lots of busted up concrete and rebar. Chernobyl won't work, because the film fogs faster than you can shoot it, and gives you radiation poisoning to boot.

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Just about any Rust Belt city, of course. Milwaukee used to have a perfect ruin near the Amtrak line, but they tore it down a couple years back and put in a condo! Meanwhile, check out junkyards, architectural recycling lots, highway demolition projects, anywhere you'd find lots of busted up concrete and rebar. Chernobyl won't work, because the film fogs faster than you can shoot it, and gives you radiation poisoning to boot.

 

 

Then I take it that Chernobyl is NOT safe yet? That's kind of why I threw in that qualifier. Can you imagine the production insurance cost? :lol: :P

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I really think it depends on the nature of the apocalypse, in Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" he ingeniously omits what actually happened and just describes an oppressive, cold, cloud covered rainy landscape bereft of life. Which with a bit of imagination and set design, could be almost

anywhere, and less cliché i might add.

 

Kieran.

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some abandonded strip mines in pa are all ash colored grit for as far as you can see.

 

Ah, you remind me. Centralia, PA! It's an old coal town built right over a mine. Mid 20th century sometime, the coal in the mine caught fire and the whole town had to be abandoned. The mine is still smouldering and there are smoking cracks and fissures scattered throughout this 50s or 60s town. Google it.

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The abandoned marine base at El Toro. I'm shooting there January. 4700 acres in the middle of Orange County (SOCAL) complete with ghost town, hangars, and runways. My flick doesn't use it in the post apocalyptic sense, but it is so run down it could be.

 

Plus how often do you get to shoot on a real freaking base.

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Ahh Centralia. I remember the night I wound up there. . .

Seriously, though, it's an awesome location.

 

If you want really run down places in Europe, I would look into some of the old soviet bloc, I"m sure they have a bunch of non producing factories.

There is also the mid-west US, not all of it mind you, but places like Montana where I hear the population is decreasing. There should be a lot of tracks of just empty land, formerly inhabited.

 

Friend of mine and I had a notion for a post apocalyptic world wherein we'd not show any city-scape-- just rebuild what would best be Neanderthal land. . .with some leftover very destroyed modern things around.

Great reference films for this, btw, would be the Mad Max Trilogy.

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Thanks for the suggestions guys - any ideas for places outside of the US too...? Asia? Eastern Europe? Australia?

 

R.

 

Where's that port on the west coast of Africa where the ships have just been run aground and abandoned and now theres dozens of them like rusting carcasses. There are a few abandoned cities in China that were evacuated to make way for the three gorges dam. Some of them would be under water by now. And just about any commercial district is usually pretty empty on a sunday. Can be very ghostly...

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> an oppressive, cold, cloud covered rainy landscape bereft of life

 

London?

 

Phil

 

:) I wondered how long you could stay away from it! ;)

 

Actually I'd be intrested in hearing of any derelict type places in London or surrounding!

 

love

 

Freya

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There's an old underground train maintenance depot just off Wood Lane, near the BBC - it's great, but it's £500 a day!

 

Phil

 

Well I can't afford £500 pound a day as you probably guessed but I have to say that that is much cheaper than I was expecting!

 

Is it actually underground or just a derelict area, and do you have to put up with trains flying past?

 

Yeah I was thinking more FREE locations! :)

 

love

 

Freya

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It's got underground sections - tunnels cut into the floor, and a giant overhead traversing crane (nonworking but extant) which was used to lift the rolling stock off the lines. The lines are at the same level as the other underground lines in that area - you can see some of them cut into trenches if you walk west from TVC. Most of the building is above ground, the interior tiled with an interesting industrial-looking gantry.

 

Hnn, on second thoughts, looks like it might not be there anymore. It would have been about here.

 

I found a fantastic middle-eastern looking location at a gravel pit about ten minutes from where I live - they wanted a couple of hundred quid for it, and I was going to use it to shoot some war-themed thing about a TV cameraman. Never happened; that was the thing where I learned that there is no funding for shorts in the UK. Would have been great, though. All orange dust lying around and chunks of broken concrete.

 

Phil

 

PS - Actually, looking at that Google Maps shot, the building on the right with the vaguely-visible three windows and grey roof may actually be the one I was thinking of. Looks like it's being refurbished, about which I'm not surprised.

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It's got underground sections - tunnels cut into the floor, and a giant overhead traversing crane (nonworking but extant) which was used to lift the rolling stock off the lines. The lines are at the same level as the other underground lines in that area - you can see some of them cut into trenches if you walk west from TVC. Most of the building is above ground, the interior tiled with an interesting industrial-looking gantry.

 

Hnn, on second thoughts, looks like it might not be there anymore. It would have been about here.

 

Wow your description made it sound incredible, like many different locations in one! Oh well it's probably as well. I can't really afford £500, and theres only so much you could shoot in one day.

 

I found a fantastic middle-eastern looking location at a gravel pit about ten minutes from where I live - they wanted a couple of hundred quid for it, and I was going to use it to shoot some war-themed thing about a TV cameraman. Never happened; that was the thing where I learned that there is no funding for shorts in the UK. Would have been great, though. All orange dust lying around and chunks of broken concrete.

 

Hmmm! You mean the kind of place that could double as several other planets on British sci-fi tv shows? ;)

...or have I got the wrong idea?

 

love

 

Freya

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