Paramount’s new war drama/comedy 68 Whiskey follows the antics of a group of army medics stationed in Afghanistan. Sadly, it has now come to the end of its ten-episode series.
War movies and TV series tend to have quite high production costs with lots of difficulties, for obvious reasons, as they try to re-create wartime conditions.
Despite these challenges, 68 Whiskey has done a good job of recreating a wartorn region of Asia.
Admittedly it avoids a lot of the war part, preferring to focus on the day to day activities and misadventures of the army medics.
So, where is 68 Whiskey filmed?
How did they create the gritty, dusty mountains of Afghanistan and the authentic-looking afghan village?
Did they travel to the country itself? Perhaps with a large security detail? Did they travel to another exotic far-flung country with similar terrain?
No.
They’re in Santa Clarita, California, about a 30-minute drive from Hollywood Boulevard and about 7,500 miles from Afghanistan. The cast and crew allegedly refer to the set as Santa Clarita-stan.
According to production designer Tomas Voth they, “chose Santa Clarita because there’s a part of Santa Clarita where we’re in that can match pretty closely to Laghman Province in Afghanistan.”
68 Whiskey built an army base and Afghan village
Rather than building a set to mimic parts of an army base, the crew actually constructed a real life-size sprawling army base.
This allows them to get fantastic outdoor shots of characters walking from inside the base to one of its buildings without having to splice footage together.
If building an army base wasn’t enough, they also constructed an Afghan village.
Actor Fahim Fazli, who plays an Afghan warlord on the show, was born in Kabul. He has been instrumental in advising producers on how to get the look and feel of Afghanistan just right.
Voth worked to design and build all the outside and indoor sets on the show.
Writer and executive producer Roberto Benabib said of Voth’s work, “he was able to build an entire forward operating base for us. Nothing short of miraculous.”
The show has also employed the use of veterans and military consultants to advise on all the small details. They even got real Blackhawk pilots flying their helicopters.
Fingers crossed they renew for a second season.
The Paramount Network could do with a boost after a scandal earlier in the year when Oliver Peck was sent packing from Ink Master after he was pictured wearing blackface.