Doom Raiders Locations

Larnia Rock was used in 2 scenes: Discovery of the Idol and the film finale – the joining. Originally, the joining scene was to be filmed a Curium ruins, but due to rain (yes rain in Cyprus!) it was moved to Larnia Rock. This created a whole set of new challenges as the storyboard was set for a completely different location. Worse still the time lost in moving to Larnia Rock meant that John Hall only had 1 hour left to film with us. We decided to shoot all his shots first and then use Mark as a stand-in. So in the joining scene in the film, whenever you can’t see the General’s face – it is actually Mark! [view gallery]

Tomb of the Kings was actually a burial place for ordinary citizens, not kings. The tombs made excellent sets for the release of Sevenseas and the map room. Each set was then dressed to make it specific to our story. [view gallery]

This location was actually built inside the Episkopi Theatre Club building. This was very handy as we had mains power for lighting etc. One problem was the carpet however – how would we explain a camp in the middle of the village having a red carpet? Solution: we placed some red carpet protruding outside of the exterior shots to make it look like the General’s men had put it there. We also put sandbags around the interior edge as if to keep the carpet down. [view gallery]

For the truck chase and helicopter lift, we had to film on a day, time and location that the helicopters would be flying in. Working closely with 84 Squadron of the Royal Air Force it was very important that the RAF was not flying extra hours just for us; we had to coincide our shoot with their timetable. We agreed a plan and used the shoot as a training exercise for the helicopter crews. As a search and rescue squadron the helicopters frequently have to fly very slowly alongside ships to winch people to safety. The trucks made a great simulation without having to go out to sea and organise a real boat! the second helicopter was on routine forest-fire patrol which allowed us to film a nice shot of the other helicopter from the air. [view gallery]

Just outside of Limassol near the huge salt lake is a tree plantation that was ideally suited for a jungle scene. This gallery is of just one of 7 locations used for the jungle sequence. [view gallery]

Paramali village was abandoned during the Cyprus troubles. Since then it has been used as a training ground for British Forces. Working closely with the Army, we were able to use the location for a weekend. This meant dressing the sets on Friday night, filming Saturday and Sunday, and clearing the location on the Sunday night. [view gallery]

With the help of the Cypriot National Guard, Kouros Dam was used during the truck chase. When the soldier is waving at the trucks to stop, he is actually shouting a football chant in Greek! [view gallery]

This was a real bar located at RAF Akrotiri. We were lucky enough to have real dancers from Limassol to add to the authenticity of the set. [view gallery]

A real classroom was used to teach the little darlings. Filming with the youngans was great fun, especially when they had to carry the fruit! [view gallery]