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MGM STudio filiming
- Thread starter joejoed
- Start date
None.
Except for a few small - and usually far between - exceptions, the studios are no longer working studios.
M:SpilotISTC12
Well-Known Member
Actually it is still a working studio but not by professionals. It is used by the New York Film Academy.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
...and never was.
With the exception of the New MMC, Sheena, and a TV-movie with the dad from Seventh Heaven, it never was a "working" studio. It was all make believe - including the "upcoming music video" you used to see them "filming" on the backlot tour (after the tram passed by they reset the actors and did it again). Or the courtroom sets "You'll be sure you see on a screen near you soon!"
AEfx
sbkline
Well-Known Member
Back when it was a working studio, what kind of stuff did they film there and when did they do it? I mean, with thousands of WDW guests milling about all day long, how did they film movies there? Did they close down the park in order to shoot a movie, or did they just do small scenes there, where the guests in the background are just the "extras", such as city scenes and such?
Lee
Adventurer
Ummmm....not true.
Several films were shot there. For example, I personally watched a portion of "Instinct" with Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding be shot on the stages.
WelshBatman
Active Member
They used to film that Adventures In Wonderland there as well back in the early 90's.
mickeysgal
New Member
Wasn't the Hulk Hogan series...Thunder in Paradise (I think that was the name) filmed there, too. I could be mistaken, though.
The Tom Hanks-produced HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" was also filmed there in part. I was at WDW while it was being filmed, and during the old backstage tour, when you used to walk in the glassed-in area over the soundstages, the view was completely blocked, as they had built closed sets. My hubby was very disappointed.
Additionally, some production to do with Mortal Kombat was filmed there (movie or tv show, I don't remember), and I did see some work being done on that while on another backstage tour.
It's really too bad they stopped using it for filming, and it's a shame how they gutted the backstage tour--I don't even bother to go on it anymore. We walk in thru the exit doors to see if the AFI gallery exhibits have changed.
Additionally, some production to do with Mortal Kombat was filmed there (movie or tv show, I don't remember), and I did see some work being done on that while on another backstage tour.
It's really too bad they stopped using it for filming, and it's a shame how they gutted the backstage tour--I don't even bother to go on it anymore. We walk in thru the exit doors to see if the AFI gallery exhibits have changed.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Sorry, Lee, in spite of your post (and others), I stand by my statement. It has never been a "working studio". I guess it comes down to semantics.
A "working studio" is a studio that where filming takes place a majority of the time; MGM has never been that. A "working studio" has a studio infrastructure, which MGM does not (no, the displays of Disney costumes on the Backlot Tour does not a "wardrobe department" make).
I think in the posts following yours where people have listed the sporadic projects that have been partially filmed at MGM cover just about every scrid of filming done in the EIGHTEEN YEARS it has been open. That is no where near a "working studio". And virtually none of the filming (with the obvious exception of the few live audience shows that have visited/been done from there) that HAS taken place has been in public view; i.e. something tells me you weren't on the backlot tour when you saw the filming of "Instinct" you are speaking of, you were likely visiting privately (correct me if I am wrong, by all means).
My posting above was completely accurate in describing the "tricks" they used to pull to make you think that, indeed, there was actual filming going on around you (especially as part of the Backlot Tour). There wasn't. You never "just missed a major star out filming their music video", it was all staged for the guests; it was all fake.
So while yes, VERY sporadically soundstages and such have been used, MGM has never been, nor ever will be, a "working" studio, and almost none of it has been in the theme park setting where the public was a part of it. I believe that was the intent of the OP, who thought that somehow filming would be going on that the public would be exposed to.
It's no more a "working studio" than any warehouse space occasionally rented to film in. Everything else was an illusion - in the early days of MGM they tried to trick you into believing the infrastructure was there, but it wasn't; for the most part it was glorified location shooting or warehouse renting. Again, though, that's the tiny fraction of the time it was ever in use at all. USH has more in-production any given day than MGM has had in it's entire lifetime. Being an occasional location where filming occurs does not a "working studio" make. The portions done for guests (again, with the obvious exceptions of when "Millionaire" visted or what have you, which were stunts that have happened at other Disney parks as well, i.e. Regis and Kelly at the MK), have always been make-believe, as I stated.
AEfx
clarksfan95
Member
If you include the animation studio...then it was a working studio lot. If you don't, then things get a little fuzzy.
disneygoof1
New Member
The entire movie Ernest saves Christmas was filmed at the studios before it opened, and sorry AEFX, but when I worked at the studios, I knew quite a few people in higher up positions that said the Studios was a working studio. Where do you get your facts?
AEfx
Well-Known Member
No, the entire movie Earnest Saves Christmas was not filmed at MGM. Portions of it were, like just about anything else that has been filmed there.
Look, as people have listed, you have maybe what? A dozen or two instances of the place being used in almost twenty years? There just was no "working studio" ever there. In the very early years there were a few productions but, by and large the "backstage" of anything was a figment of Disney's imagineers. It was artificially created. They displayed Madonna's dress from ________ Tracy, but just because they sent it from California to display...
I too was taken by the fake backlot tour when I was a kid; my most vivid memory is of that fake music video thing - for the rest of the tour I begged the guide to tell me which "famous rock star" we "almost!" saw, LOL. As I have said above, the fact that bits here and there were filmed there does not make it a "working studio". If it was, they wouldn't have had to fake it so hard...heck, they still are (look at the hokey "we're filming an action movie!" at LMA).
Again, it seems to be a question of semantics...I guess to some people simply having an occasional film crew somehwere makes it a "working studio". That's just not a working studio, in my experience. That's a glorified location shoot with some indoor facilities. I guess you would say I am passionate about this topic because I just find it so incredibly cheesy that they tried to represent it as a "working studio" when for the most part it was warehouses that were empty of actual filming most of the time. And even that didn't last long - has there been any production since Sheena shut down, besides that film school?
AEfx
RedFoxRunner
Member
Yeah, for the most part it has been a working studio off & on.. it's not super huge.. so obviously they won't be making major movies there. I remember when I was younger in the early 90s they were "filming" a commercial there advertising MGM Studios and the release of Hercules.
They had several cameras.. and one on a crane.. with a couple of Hercules floats and we were in the "parade crowd" acting super excited about it. I was so estatic b/c I thought I'd see myself on TV. I saw it on TV about 9 months later.. they used a 2 second close up of Hercules waving during a Disney/credit card commercial.. there wasn't any footage of the crowd or floats. I'm guessing that was all a big put on.
-Bryant
They had several cameras.. and one on a crane.. with a couple of Hercules floats and we were in the "parade crowd" acting super excited about it. I was so estatic b/c I thought I'd see myself on TV. I saw it on TV about 9 months later.. they used a 2 second close up of Hercules waving during a Disney/credit card commercial.. there wasn't any footage of the crowd or floats. I'm guessing that was all a big put on.
-Bryant
Mr_Tom_Morrow
New Member
I forgot all about that show,I had the hugest crush on Elisabeth Harnois when I was a kid