Principal photography for
Antitrust took place in
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
California, and
Portland, Oregon.
Stanley Park in Vancouver served as the grounds for Gary Winston's house, although the gate house at its entrance was faux. The exterior of Winston's house itself was wholly
computer-generated; only the paved walkway and body of water in the background are physically present in the park. For later shots of Winston and Hoffman walking along a beach near the house, the CG house was placed in the background of
Bowen Island, the shooting location.
Catherine Hardwicke designed the interior sets for Winston's house, which featured several different units, or "pods", e.g., personal, work, and recreation units. No scenes take place in any of the personal areas, however; only public areas made it to the screen. While the digital paintings in Winston's home were created with
green screen technology, the concept was based on technology that was already available in the real world. The characters even refer to
Bill Gates' house which, in real life, had such art. The paintings which appeared for Hoffman were of a cartoon character, "Alien Kitty", developed by
Floyd Hughes specifically for the film. served as an outdoor shooting location for NURV headquarters.
Simon Fraser University's
Burnaby campus stood in for external shots of NURV headquarters. served as an indoor shooting location and inspiration for NURV headquarters' "The Egg". The
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the
University of British Columbia (UBC) was used for several internal locations. The centre's foyer area became the NURV
canteen; the set decoration for which was inspired by
Apple's canteen, which the producers saw during a visit to
their corporate headquarters. The inside of the Chan—used for concerts—served as the shape for "The Egg", or "The NURV Center", where Hoffman's
cubicle is located. Described as "a big surfboard freak" by director Peter Howitt, production designer Catherine Hardwicke surrounded "The Egg" set with surfboards mounted to the walls; Howitt has said, "The idea was to make NURV a very cool looking place." Both sets for NURV's Building 21 were also on UBC's campus. The internal set was an art gallery on campus, while the exterior was built for the film on the university's grounds. According to Howitt, UBC students kept attempting to steal the Building 21 set pieces. Hoffman and Poulson's new home—a real house in Vancouver—was a "very tight" shooting location and a very rigorous first week for shooting because, as opposed to a
set, the crew could not move the walls. The painting in the living room is the product of a young Vancouver artist, and was purchased by Howitt as his first piece of art. The new Skullbocks office was a real
loft, also in Vancouver, on Beatty Street.
Open source Antitrusts pro–open source story excited industry leaders and professionals, with the prospects of expanding the public's awareness and knowledge level of the availability of
open-source software. The film heavily features
Linux and its community, using
screenshots of the
Gnome desktop, consulting Linux professionals, and including cameos by
Miguel de Icaza and
Scott McNealy (the latter appearing in the film's trailers).
Jon Hall,
executive director of
Linux International and consultant on the film, said "[
Antitrust] is a way of bringing the concept of open source and the fact that there is an alternative to the general public, who often don't even know that there is one." Despite the film's message about open source computing,
MGM did not follow through with their marketing: the official website for
Antitrust featured some videotaped interviews which were only available in
Apple's
proprietary QuickTime format. ==Reception==