Is Soho the new Hollywood? – Part 2/2

Having looked at the history of Soho in part 1, we wanted to take a look at where things are going now and so we talked to some of the big production houses to find out more.

Soho is very much set up for modern filmmaking processes, with so much more emphasis on digital post-production and visual effects these days. The area was already set up for that and has handled the transition well. 80% of Gravity was produced at Framestore for example. More production houses are also popping up in Soho and the area is now considered to be as far reaching as Pinewood and Shepperton on the outskirts of London where the new Star Wars films are being made.

Slightly more recently has been Double Negative’s success with Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. Like Gravity, Interstellar depicted outer space with stunning realism, and it won the BAFTA for Outstanding Visual Effects, and the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Double Negative have set the bar once again when it comes to visual effects, only affirming further why Soho is the place to go to get your film looking as good as it can be.

There’s also the matter of the serious box office contender Britain has found itself as. During the noughties, the Harry Potter franchise – while helmed by Warner Bros. – is a largely British affair, thanks to the involvement of the London-centric MPC, Framestore, Double Negative and Heyday Films, with the film series amassing $7,723,431,572 in box office receipts worldwide. The boy wizard was hugely important to the British film economy, and paved the way for Britain as a leading force in cinema once again.

Soho is fast becoming much more than the small square mile that it once was. But is it a legitimate contender to Hollywood?

In the hearts and minds of the people working here, the exceptionally high standard of the work that they are producing and how that work is being consumed and received the world over, it’s clear that soho is a real force to be reckoned with. Things are set to only get better, especially when we consider that mega blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently being made here.