Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,748 posts, read 23,813,296 times
Reputation: 14660
Advertisements
Having lived in Seattle and visited Vancouver many times I see most shows/movies set in Seattle usually will show a short clip of some Space Needle or skyline shot and the street scenes are very often shot in Vancouver. For those who know both cities it's easy to tell.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
Reputation: 11862
Wow I guess I'm not observant then, or am paying too much attention to the plot, cos I was assumed that movies are filmed on location these days, when it comes to cities at least. I knew Seinfield and stuff was mostly filmed in LA with the street-shots in NY, but this is an eye-opener for me.
Yeah with the Chicago examples its down to local details, but Washington DC is a very famous city thats so visited that many people are familiar with it. The biggest thing is the towering skyscrapers around when there is no such thing in the District at all anywhere. That is actually one of the defining features of DC compared to every other American city.
Now some other things you do have to be a local to get the mistakes. Like with ConAir the chase in Las Vegas they go through the Tunnel below McCarran Airport and then suddenly emerge in downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street which is something like 10 miles away though all of it was filmed in Las Vegas.
Romeo Must Die did a terrible job of substituting Vancouver for San Francisco, especialy one scene with the snow capped peaks in the background. Besides that it was probably okay but that one scene really stood out.
CSI Miami and Dexter are not flimed in Miami and in many scences it is so easy to tell. Dexter does not even get close once it looks nothing like Miami. CSI does its best and some episodes have been shot in the city but most are not. The easiest time to tell is when they are on a rocky beach and I have seen MOUNTAINS in the background many times.
It is funny a family member of mine from NYC asked me once where the big blue, glass window building they use for the police station is in Miami. I told him that building is somewhere around LA because they don't flim it in Miami most of the time. He was shocked.
For Miami shows they usually do great over the top shots. I remember Casino Royale had good scense from Miami airport and they were flimed there but they also had a fake huge old looking museum in Miami that does not exist but I wish it did! Made Miami look even better than it is. For the most part a lot of flims that are set in Miami and use Miami as a "character" they do a decent job. Many are flimed in Miami to begin with at least big scenes that need the correct city like Causeway Chases or boat chases in the bay etc..
It is one thing for movies to make small mistakes such as using non-existent street addresses or "compressing" the town so people get quickly from one sight to another. Those don't usually bother me much and I think that kind of thing falls in the "supsension of disbelief" category needed to enjoy most moovies.
But it is ridiculous when they do things like get the entire look of a city wrong or include huge natural features that are incorrect. When I see stuff like that it really takes me out of the movie. I lived in DC for a while, so I probably notice it the most with DC, but lots of other stuff is really bad when they show mountains, large bodies of water, etc that shouldn't be there.
recently Pittsburgh was used for Philly Movie and Philly was used for a DC and NYC movie
I guess it comes to cost and location for filming
Rittenhouse sq was recently used for DC, the building they ran by were taller than any in the district. It really doesnt matter too much but is interesting
John Q takes place in Chicago. I kept telling my wife, "That ain't Chicago." Not that she disagreed. It was filmed in Toronto, IIRC.
I was in the break room at work and caught a glimpse of a movie called Roll, Bounce. Story takes place in Chicago. I'd like confirmation. What I saw didn't look like Chicago.
No place gets it worse than Texas. For decades, because of Hollywood, it's become a commonly accepted "fact" that this state is nothing but cowboys, Mexicans, mountainous desert, and flat, treeless pasture.
Allot of Chicagoans noticed it in Transformers lll. They should of made the whole movie based in Chicago.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
