One way Gareth Edwards kept costs down was to shoot at least some of “The Creator” on a Sony FX3 — a prosumer digital camera currently going for around $4,000. But, as much as possible, he also wanted to use real-world locations rather than building elaborate sets, telling GamesRadar that “the cost of a flight is way less than the cost of building a set. We were going to hopscotch around the world and shoot this film, then layer in the science-fiction on top afterwards.” On his travels, Edwards came across an ideal location for a particularly explosive set piece. But in order to actually shoot there, he’d have to negotiate, and found that the owners had an interesting request.
Following a screening of some footage from “The Creator,” Edwards participated in a Q&A where he revealed that, in Thailand, he came across a facility that housed “a particle accelerator.” On the hunt for a location that could be used as “a really technologically advanced kind of factory,” Edwards had found the ideal spot. The problem was, he needed to use it to stage a huge shoot-out. As the director explained:
“We were like, ‘Please, please, please, can you let us film?’ It looked amazing. It had that whole circular hub thing going on. We went to visit, and they were like, ‘There’s no way you’re going to be allowed to film here.’ And they sort of asked, ‘What do you want to do?’ and we were like, ‘Well, there’s people with guns shooting, and explosions, and it’s a multi-, multi-million dollar facility with all these, leading it, cutting edge scientists.’ And they’re like, ‘It’s not going to happen, not going to happen, let it go, Gareth, let it go.'”
Fortunately, Edwards caught a break at the last minute.