Lviv: A New Exciting Filming Destination!

Lviv: A New Exciting Filming Destination!
Lviv is an informal capital of Western Ukraine, its biggest business and cultural hub. In year 2012, in the days of Euro Championship, it became a star of European tourist charts (see Reuters). And there are reasons for that. Exquisite architecture, well developed infrastructure, welcoming millieu, proximity to European capitals – all this makes Lviv a wonderful place also for film endeavours. The recent year was also marked the local currency decline towards USD and EUR that makes the rates perhaps the most lucrative in Europe.

Apart from general conditions there are also industry-specific considerations:
1) a variety of available locations – from Medieval architecture to Renaissance, to Gothic and to contemporary top-notch IT clusters. Supportive city administration and easy filming permits. There are additional attractions in close vicinity like Bukovel Ski Resort, Carpathian Mountains, numerous castles, cathedrals and chateaux.

 

2) city location costs are hard to believe:
  • Lviv Airport – 100 USD per shift in non-restricted sections
  • Lviv Stadium – 500 USD per shift (additional charges for lighting)
  • Lviv Opera – 4000 USD per shift, other theatres from 1000 USD

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There are locations still willing to film for free!

3) modern shooting equipment is available in place. The biggest rental house of Ukraine – Patriot Rental – has founded a base in Lviv and holds a wide range of equipment ready. The pieces unavailable in Lviv are brought at zero cost from other bases.

4) the casting costs are starting from 50 USD / shift per actor, and 5 USD / shift per extras.

Lviv is connected to other Ukrainian cities by express trains and domestic flights which makes bringing cast a snap.

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5) direct flights from many European cities – including Vienna, Munich, Warsaw, Dortmund, Rome, Naples, Istanbul (see Schedule). Moreover, Ukraine adopted an Open Sky program for Lviv making it attractive for lowcosters. The first of them, AtlasJet, has announced a bunch of new destinations to open from May 2015. These include Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris, Luton, Milan, Duseldorf.
6) Ukraine is visa-free for lots of countries including EU, US, Canda and many more! This permits easy recce travels, bookings and changes in shooting plans which involve foreign crew and cast. There are no special work permits for any kind for service productions.

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7) There are no progressive overwork rates in Ukraine, no special union guidelines or requirements limiting the workload. As far as involved parties agree the production could progress 24h or more which is often the case for short projects with small budgets – as music videos or student shorts.
Further, a range of finest restaurants, night clubs and decent hotels make the coming and stay in Lviv an exciting experience and adds a leisure value to a hard work of filming. Average restaurant paycheck is 15 USD, housing is from 30 USD for an apartment to 150 USD for a classy hotel.

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More Lviv location photos could be found in the proper section of our website.