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Indeed we did. For the production part of it anyway.
Now, how about a movie filmed in Vancouver, set in Vancouver, that features Canadian actors, and that becomes a huge global hit?
Then we get to keep that production money, plus we get the tourist money, plus the free advertising that comes from millions of eyeballs seeing Vancouver on the screen and actually thinking about Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Sounds like an even better deal to me.
Exactly....
Quote:
t wasn't us sticking it to those Americans, it was Americans sticking it to Americans, since those TV shows and movies were American. We got the money from that.
In that case Vancouver just got the crumbs as Acajack correctly said...
Not really my point either, little buddy.
I never said Vancouver was more international than Seattle and frankly didn't even care about that comparison. You dont need to get so defensive about Seattle, friend...You care more than I do, and you should stop caring so much about this old topic because it's like a bad smell on you. I can smell it all the way over the internet.
You said: "It's true. Seattle is a great city and all, but I'm willing to bet that if you go outside of North America, most people will know what Vancouver is. If you tell them you're from Seattle they will be like wtf is that?"
So the point you were making is very clear to me.......by the way, I was not the one re-opening this old thread.....defensive?? Frankly, I do not care much for both cities and Seattle ranks very low in the list of cities I would like to live if independently wealthy......if I will move out of the PNW I'm not even sure I want to come back for a visit....not for a very, very, very long while at least....
Toronto is the rich, largest city of 6 million people in a rich G8 country and yet most of its people have never even seen the city play *itself* in a movie on the big screen.
I think that is a bit unfair to just point out the 'big screen' - there are certainly Canadian movies and many Canadian TV shows where its played itself (Flashpoint being the most recent big example of that) and most recently even an American produced flick - the F word with Daniel Radcliffe was filmed and actually set in Toronto - The Sentinel with Michael Douglas comes to mind as another and wasn't Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal set in T.O? .. Now of course we all know how many times Toronto is the set for an American city (its skycrapers and city streets could be some of the most familiar in the world without people outside of Canada even knowing it) and this is obviously due to target audience. I still think the comment was a bit underhanded (well those are your specialty lol) with the 'it could be worse' statement and just singling out the big screen.. If you think about it very few big screen American movies are EVER set in any Canadian city - very very few so unfair just to point out T.O here regardless of its size/national importance..
I do agree it would be nice to see more but this isn't really a Canada only problem either- the world is awash with Big Screen movies set in the U.S.. Most other nations who even have successful in house movie production culture don't typically garner Big screen International appeal.. Also, If you see Paris, London, Sydney etc in a movie that is on the big screen - most likely its an American movie with at least a famous American starring in and playing the lead role too. That American connection is almost always there because the machine needs to make 315 million people happy if not by setting the film in their back yard - at the very least having the protagonist as the American saviour.
Look at the U571 kerfuffle - link below so Canada isn't the only victim of the American Big Screen movie machine (which you really seem to obsess over AJ lol - I for one am watching a heckuva lot more Canadian and non American stuff especially in the last few years with the internet and my VPN).
Back to Toronto - it is also not historically 'the' Canadian city and you know this well that Montreal has actually been more important for a longer period of time pretty much across the board until the mid 20th century where it starting getting knocked off its perch.. I'd say its only in recent history over the last few decades that Toronto has emerged in probably the most criteria (not every one) as the most prominent Cad city but it'll take more time for it to sort of reverberate universally. Don't worry AJ its happening -
In both Toronto and Vancouver's case - we may not get a lot of big screen movies set in our cities but we sure have a huge amount of movies filmed in them!! Ultimately is this a bad thing - umm HECK NO it means dollar dollar bills son! Our city streets are constantly brimming with either construction activity or cordoned off due to filming so I just think - cha ching, cha ching...
. If you think about it very few big screen American movies are EVER set in any Canadian city - very very few so unfair just to point out T.O here regardless of its size/national importance..
I do agree it would be nice to see more but this isn't really a Canada only problem either- the world is awash with Big Screen movies set in the U.S.. Most other nations who even have successful in house movie production culture don't typically garner Big screen International appeal.. Also, If you see Paris, London, Sydney etc in a movie that is on the big screen - most likely its an American movie with at least a famous American starring in and playing the lead role too. That American connection is almost always there because the machine needs to make 315 million people happy if not by setting the film in their back yard - at the very least having the protagonist as the American saviour.
)
Note that this entire segment seems to be saying ''we don't see Toronto on the big screen because of those darned Americans!''. Well why should Canadians have to depend on Americans to see their own city in the movies? People in the places you mentioned (Paris, London, Sydney etc) sure don't.
They don't chiefly see their cities through American eyes (though it does happen sometimes).
They see their cities in their own movies which local people go to see in appreciable numbers.
I think that is a bit unfair to just point out the 'big screen' - there are certainly Canadian movies and many Canadian TV shows where its played itself (Flashpoint being the most recent big example of that)
TV is better than the movies it is true. But not significantly. Flashpoint was a pretty good show but if so, why didn't more people watch it? It had good production quality plus a local angle, so why wasn't it at least near the top of the ratings? It never was.
A ''non-flop'' (which FP clearly was) is not the same thing as a ''hit''.
The reason, at leas to me, is clear:
Most people are conditioned to think ''American cultural and entertainment stuff = good, Canadian stuff = bad''.
Toronto is the rich, largest city of 6 million people in a rich G8 country and yet most of its people have never even seen the city play *itself* in a movie on the big screen.
Just watch Orphan Black then. But there's plenty of Canadian movies set in Toronto and filmed in Toronto that I can think of(they're not big hits in the US, but why should that be the only criteria for Canadians to see Toronto on the big screen)--they're often smaller indie films. But that's how the international film industry works, films made for a domestic market have budgets to reflect the size of the domestic audience.
So Vancouver plays everywhere else on film except itself, though why can't Seattle ever just play itself? I watched the series The Killing and it kind of ruined the realism of it where they were trying to pass off these random Vancouver locations as Seattle. Likewise the movie 50/50 is supposed to be Seattle and opens with a shot of the Lionsgate Bridge! So basically US film studios like to use Seattle as a story location, but have little interest in actually filming there--and just figure that Seattle, while the name is well known, most audience won't know the difference between one Pacific Northwest location and another. If you cut in stock footage of the Space Needle that's all it really takes to convince people not from Seattle that they're seeing Seattle. Though in the end it doesn't matter that much since a lot of iconic NY set TV shows and films were actually filmed with a few locations around downtown LA and sound stages. The film industry is just an industry like any other.
Portland actually does play itself on TV these days which is interesting in how they portray it, though just a few years ago they were using it to pass off as Boston(!) for another TV series.
Last edited by CanuckInPortland; 05-15-2015 at 08:08 AM..
Catskills are way bigger than you think, eh? Damn, the South Bronx looked so clean in the early 90s!
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