Bucharest was selected as the exclusive location to shoot both on-location and studio-based scenes. This was directly influenced by Voltage Pictures' satisfactory experience working in Romania: The Zero Theorem (2013) was Nicolas Chartier's second film project in Romania in 2012 after Charlie Countryman (2013). As pre-production was about to start, Terry Gilliam said according to the official production notes: "It's the best, cheapest place in Europe to work right now." Pre-production in Bucharest officially began on Monday 13 August 2012. Principal photography began on Monday October 22,2012. The schedule comprised of 36 shooting days, which involved 28 days in the studio, and 8 days on-location using 9 different places. In order to select these 9 locations, Gilliam used Google Earth: "I'd got most of the locations sorted out by using Google Earth before I first went to Romania. This is how we do location scouting these days." Studio work was performed at MediaPro Studios, located in Buftea, a town situated thirteen miles northwest of downtown Bucharest. The studios were built in 1951, and remained in state control until 1998. The studio facilities include 19 soundstages, 4 indoor water tanks, a costume workshop, visual effects specialists, and a backlot including an extensive lakeside. Since 1998, many international filmmakers have filmed there including Costa-Gavras, Franco Zeffirelli, Claude Lelouch, Pierre Morel, Christian Carion, Katja von Garnier, David Yates, Gillies MacKinnon, Joel Schumacher or Alexandre Aja. For The Zero Theorem (2013) large interiors were designed by David Warren and built in the MediaPro Studios including Qohen Leth's home - a decrepit, fire-damaged chapel. Towards the end of principal photography, there were two days of shooting at a large watertank for the virtual reality beach scenes, and also underwater shooting to simulate Qohen and Bainsley floating through space. The last day of shooting was December 4,2012. The production only went one day over schedule.
