Icelandic Media (Film)

     While researching Icelandic media, I came across several connections that link the US film industry with Iceland. I love making these connections because I think it allows US students to see in what ways many industries, such as film, have appreciated the aspects of Iceland and it's culture. I found many movies that were filmed in Iceland, for example, the recent "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "Batman Begins", and "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which stars Anita Briem, a native to Reykjavik, Iceland. We discussed in the class blog about Icelandic music, how the sounds and lyrics often reference mystical and mythical creatures and put your mind in the place of an eerie story book. Actor Tom Hiddleston from "Thor: The Dark World" states, "It was really exciting to shoot the exteriors of Svartalfheim in Iceland, which of all the places on this planet I think is the most magical. It has an otherworldly quality to it and looks like another planet... you get purple skies... It's a world of ravines and waterfalls and lava and expanses of black sand and the northern lights. It's a good place for elves to be from!" Janet Graham Borba from "Game of Thrones" says, "...we wanted something shatteringly beautiful, barren, and brutal. In Iceland, we found all of that..." Perhaps Icelandic music is purely drawn from the scenery and the feeling musicians have while being amongst these incredible landscapes!
     Iceland has also passed special legislation that offers a twenty percent reimbursement of production cost for films and television programs that are produced in Iceland. The goal is "to enhance domestic culture and promote the history and nature of Iceland." The website of Iceland's official film commission is one that not only shares facts about Iceland and it's culture, but involves relationships to the USA. The website also include the most incredible photos of the extreme locations so many producers go to Iceland to film in. You have to check them out for yourself!

http://www.filminiceland.com/extreme-locations/ 

It was really exciting to shoot the exteriors of Svartalfheim in Iceland, which of all the places on this planet I think is the most magical. It has an otherworldly quality to it and looks like another planet… you get purple skies. We were shooting on a volcanic lava field and you can get big picture, epic footage there, which you can’t get anywhere else. It’s a world of ravines and waterfalls and lava and expanses of black sand and the northern lights. It’s a good place for elves to be from! - See more at: http://www.filminiceland.com/case-studies/quotes/#sthash.mGeXK17x.dpuf

It was really exciting to shoot the exteriors of Svartalfheim in Iceland, which of all the places on this planet I think is the most magical. It has an otherworldly quality to it and looks like another planet… you get purple skies. We were shooting on a volcanic lava field and you can get big picture, epic footage there, which you can’t get anywhere else. It’s a world of ravines and waterfalls and lava and expanses of black sand and the northern lights. It’s a good place for elves to be from! - See more at: http://www.filminiceland.com/case-studies/quotes/#sthash.mGeXK17x.dpuf

It was really exciting to shoot the exteriors of Svartalfheim in Iceland, which of all the places on this planet I think is the most magical. It has an otherworldly quality to it and looks like another planet… you get purple skies. We were shooting on a volcanic lava field and you can get big picture, epic footage there, which you can’t get anywhere else. It’s a world of ravines and waterfalls and lava and expanses of black sand and the northern lights. It’s a good place for elves to be from! - See more at: http://www.filminiceland.com/case-studies/quotes/#sthash.mGeXK17x.dpuf