The Hurt Locker Iraq border. She had wanted to film in Iraq, but the production security team could not guarantee their safety from snipers. Principal photography began in July 2007 in Jordan and Kuwait. Temperatures averaged over the 44 days of shooting. Often four or more camera crews filmed simultaneously, which resulted in nearly 200 hours of footage. The producer Greg Shapiro spoke about security concerns of filming in Jordan, "It was interesting telling people we were going to make the movie in Jordan because the first question everybody asked was about the security situation here." Her choice to film in the Kingdom
The Hurt Locker be opened, X-rayed, or damaged. Accordingly, film was hand-carried on a flight by a production assistant from Amman to London. After the Super 16mm film was transferred to DVcam at a lab in London, the video dailies were transported by plane back to the Middle East to be imported into the editing system. The whole journey would take anywhere from three days to a week and was described by Innis as the "modern-day equivalent of shipping via donkey cart". The low production budget and the lack of a developed film infrastructure in the area hampered the process, according to Innis.