Oscars 2017: Hidden Figures filmed in Atlanta
Hidden Figures used Atlanta filming locations as doubles for Florida and Virginia to tell the story of African-American women mathematicians who helped the US win the space race in the 1960s.
By Nick Goundry 20 Feb 2017
Hidden Figures used Atlanta filming locations as doubles for Florida and Virginia to tell the story of African-American women mathematicians who helped the US win the space race in the 1960s.
The film is nominated for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards.
Multiple Georgia locations stood in for interior and exterior settings within Virginia’s Langley Memorial Research Lab where the women were based, while similar efforts were made to recreate Florida’s Cape Canaveral – home to the Kennedy Space Center.
Morehouse College in central Atlanta was used for exterior shots of the Virginia research lab and the production team employed some artistic licence to use the rounded features of the nearby Frederick Douglass Hall for selected interiors.
“That circular building dominates the campus, so we decided to use it as the exterior of Space Task Group,” said Wynn Thomas, the film’s production designer. “The real Space Task Group was not in a circular environment, but it makes the space so visually interesting.”
Monroe, 50 miles from central Atlanta, was used to film scenes where the women are off work, as the town’s architecture fit the 1960s timeframe.
Georgia is one of the top production centres in the US due to its generous filming incentives, studio facilities and flexible locations that can double for many different parts of the country.
Marvel has been the highest-profile repeat visitor to Georgia over the past couple of years, basing most of its feature films at Pinewood Atlanta Film Studios. Production recently started on Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, with new movie Ant-Man and the Wasp scheduled for the spring.
Image: Hopper Stone/Hopper Stone, SMPSP/Twentieth Century Fox Film
Multiple Georgia locations stood in for interior and exterior settings within Virginia’s Langley Memorial Research Lab where the women were based, while similar efforts were made to recreate Florida’s Cape Canaveral – home to the Kennedy Space Center.
Morehouse College in central Atlanta was used for exterior shots of the Virginia research lab and the production team employed some artistic licence to use the rounded features of the nearby Frederick Douglass Hall for selected interiors.
“That circular building dominates the campus, so we decided to use it as the exterior of Space Task Group,” said Wynn Thomas, the film’s production designer. “The real Space Task Group was not in a circular environment, but it makes the space so visually interesting.”
Monroe, 50 miles from central Atlanta, was used to film scenes where the women are off work, as the town’s architecture fit the 1960s timeframe.
Georgia is one of the top production centres in the US due to its generous filming incentives, studio facilities and flexible locations that can double for many different parts of the country.
Marvel has been the highest-profile repeat visitor to Georgia over the past couple of years, basing most of its feature films at Pinewood Atlanta Film Studios. Production recently started on Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, with new movie Ant-Man and the Wasp scheduled for the spring.
Image: Hopper Stone/Hopper Stone, SMPSP/Twentieth Century Fox Film
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