With everything ready, filming soon began.
Science-fiction films were extremely expensive to make because they required huge amounts of CGI for the special effects. Even Duanmu Huai was having a hard time shouldering such expenses. So after discussing it with Director Shimizu, they ultimately decided to film all the scenes that did not require special effects in person.
With technology as advanced as it was now, CGI could do almost anything in movies. As long as you had enough money, you could even create the illusion of a group of actors traveling to Arizona in a shabby studio. But if you actually went to the location to film, the cost would be far lower than creating the effects.
The film was broadly divided into three settings.
One was Kyoto after the disaster, where the protagonists would pass through the streets and old capital while gathering supplies, battling the Mutated Creatures and zombies wandering around.
Then there was the survivor camp, and finally the villain's Biochemical Research Institute.
The latter two were relatively easy to find. Because of Japan's aging population and the impact of the economic bubble, there were abandoned villages and deserted, bankrupt factories everywhere. The filming crew quickly contacted the local government and chose an abandoned settlement as the location and set. It had once been a research facility built by a pharmaceutical company, but the unfortunate company went bankrupt during the bubble economy, leaving the site abandoned as well.
For the local government, having a film crew come there to shoot was naturally a good thing. If the movie became a global hit, the area would surely attract a huge influx of traffic and tourists, so they were highly supportive and welcoming. The crew quickly obtained a filming permit, and the government even offered to seal off