Accessibility, convenience, professionalism of local film crews, and low risk – this is how foreign producers describe the filmmaking opportunities in Latvia. Technical and artistic production teams will have access to an extensive range of hotels and other various accommodations, in addition to a vast network of gastronomic and leisure establishments.
More on some services that the Latvian film industry is able to provide:
Riga Film Studio
Founded in 1948 is one of the oldest motion picture studios in the North-eastern Europe. Situated in Riga, the capital of Latvia, the studio offers modern production offices, construction workshops, green/blue screens, a water tank, wi-fi on all three stages and the option of alternative warehouse space for a larger-scale build.
Stage #1 – 10,634 ft², with a water tank
Stage #2 – 8,611 ft² with a green screen
Stage #3 – 1,614 ft²
Cinevilla backlot
Only outdoor filming backlot in Baltic region ~1,5 h car drive from Riga. Large-scale scenery covers about 22 hectares, plus over 100 hectares of adjoining land, specializing in the early 20th century buildings, but can be adjusted to other older periods, vintage steam locomotive and passenger railcars, 60 m long railway platform, canal and historic bridge.
Aerodium vertical wind tunnels
Just 1 h car drive from Riga the Aerodium vertical wind tunnel can be used to capture true to life skydiving action scenes for the next blockbuster or commercial. Tried and trusted by Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise. Allows you to shoot realistic free-fall episodes, thus replacing expensive and risky jumps from an airplane.
Latvian Filmmakers Union is a nation-wide public organization uniting professional filmmakers and craftsmen. 280 members representing the following profiles: directors, cameramen, actors, film critics, historians, film artists, costume and wardrobe artists, make-up artists, directors of animation, artists, animators, playwrights, scriptwriters, sound engineers, directors of editing, producers, and film directors, project managers, program coordinators, composers.
Film equipment rentals
Arkogints is renting cameras since 2002 and today has grown to be the largest Camera Rental Company in Baltic states. The inventory includes 35mm and 16mm Arriflex cameras, ARRI ALEXA, RED MysteriumX, Canon5Ds. We also provide wide range of lenses starting from Zeiss HS to Arri Zeiss Ultra Primes, Masterprimes, Vantage Leitz Macros and Cookes.
BBrental is a full-service professional camera rental house with branches in both Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia. In business since 1999, offers the largest range of equipment in the Baltics. Products include the digital cameras ARRI ALEXA, RED EPIC, RED SCARLET, CANON 5D and others. Wide array of lenses, camera accessories and grip equipment on our shelves. BBrental.eu has a strong chain of partner companies in the Baltics, Scandinavia, Germany and U.K.
SDG Lighting is a company founded in 2006, which deals with lighting services for filming: cinema, advertising and TV already in the second generation. The company has more than 1,000 rental units, the company regularly participates in filming various projects, and so far, has provided more than 100 projects and 30 full-length films with full lighting service, starting with illuminators, lights, generators and transportation. Major lighting projects: Chernobyl by HBO 2018 (on screen 2019); Survive 2019 (on screen 2020); The Pagan king 2018.
VFS FILMS have over 20 years of experience in Latvia and Europe, creating creative audio-visual content. Continually upgrade the equipment and offer full-service audio-visual services, with and without qualified creative personnel. Can offer state-of-the-art documentary cinema and TV filming equipment; world-class set sound recording equipment; four independent licensed Avid/Adobe editing systems; two specially adapted colour correction spaces with calibrated broadcast class reference monitors; acoustically projected and specially-built surround sound mixing studio; historical video format digitalization system; LTO-7 long-term data archiving system.
Riga Recording Studio
The Riga Recording Studio can offer high quality recordings of classical, jazz and popular music compositions. Its biggest recording studio is based in a former church, which has been renovated to meet audio recording requirements, thus ensuring outstanding natural acoustics. This studio is fitted with professional digital apparatus. The remaining section of the studio is intended for jazz, rock and pop music recordings. It has a number of individual spaces with great sound insulation and 24 channel digital apparatus. The studio is suitable for the production of both demo recordings and original versions intended for circulation.
Orchestras and choirs
The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) is one of the core assets of the classical music scene in Latvia. It is a team of highly professional musicians with strong traditions, generous sound and devoted performance. The LNSO mainly focuses on 19th and 20th century orchestral masterpieces, classical and contemporary works of Latvian composers and occasional concert performances of operas or musicals.
The Latvian Radio Choir (LRC) ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe, whose high musical culture and wealth of unique sounds have firmly established it as a noted brand on the world map. The LRC’s repertoire ranges from Renaissance music to the most sophisticated scores by modern composers. Together with the Rīgas kamermūziķi Chamber Orchestra, LRC performs on the soundtrack for Eric Till’s historic drama Luther.
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is a classical symphony collective that holds to the traditions of the grand European symphony. The strength of this orchestra lies within its competence performing European classical and romantic music. Its proficiency at playing jazz and rock music allows the orchestra to address a very wide audience, and to continually increase its network of contacts.
Sinfonietta Rīga are young musicians open to creative challenge. While they are studying the traditions of Baroque music performance and the nuances of the interpretation of Classical music; they are also brilliant performers of contemporary music and do not shy away from non-academic experiments and crossover projects.
State Academic Choir Latvia performs with instrumentally nuanced, perfect vocal mastery and inimitable sound. It is no coincidence that eminent conductors including Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons and others want to see the biggest professional choir in the Baltics in their concert programmes. The choir is also open to innovative collaborations. The voices of the Latvia Choir can also be heard on the soundtracks of Tom Tykwer’s Perfume and in the new BBC series War and Peace.
Latvia Film Industry institutions