Shawshank Redemption was filmed in my hometown. I had already moved away so I don’t know what the local reaction was. The story was set in Maine, however, so my hometown location was not part of the plot or relevant to the film in any way. I didn’t know there was a movie made there the first time I saw Shawshank; I was watching and the part where the old guy got out of prison and got the job in the grocery store… made me go :eek: That’s my hometown! Also, when the guys are tarring the roof, the background looked really really familiar to me. I realized later it was because I had a friend who lived right behind that prison and you can see in the far background of the shot where there are some homes waaaaay off in the distance, beyond the fields behind the prison. Anyway, every time I watch that movie I get homesick.
Recount was filmed here. In fact, I had jury duty one day while they were filming and had to walk through the “set” to get to the courthouse. To my knowledge, because Recount (again) is not about the setting, my fair city is sort of irrelevant to the plot, except that it happened here so they filmed it here. One of the characters in the movie (not the actor, the real person) lives next door to my BFF. He was not too fond of the movie because it makes him look like a small town country good ole boy. Which he is, but doesn’t care to own up to that. I thought it was a very accurate portrayal of that guy’s personality, but I understand he doesn’t think so much of it.
Back when Northern Exposure was on the air, it was fairly popular here in Anchorage, Alaska. Most of the inaccuracies in the show were chuckled at (such as there being snakes in Alaska, my mother laughed at that for years), and the Washington filming location was a very good stand-in for South Eastern Alaska terrain.
The Proposal, however, was pretty bad. The foliage and the landscape were a little off, but the fake Native rituals and paraphernalia really stood out.
“House” is supposedly set in the Trenton-Princeton (Central Jersey) area, and being from that area, it was always fun to hear them reference things happening on streets or in towns at least somewhat near the generic area I grew up in. For most of the show, so far, the producers have at least tried to make it seem as if the exterior shots were in the area - showing “something” happen in row homes that at least look a little like the ones in Trenton or a suburban area that could easily double for Princeton. The shots of the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital used in season 6 were pretty cool.
At least until this past season. It’s been really atrocious this season. There have been more than a few instances where it’s way off. For the record - Trenton has a handful of tall buildings, and they’re mostly stone/concrete. My favorite instance was when Chase was shown driving down a 6-to-8-lane, upscale, arterial road with lots of restaurants and tall buildings on each side … and the producers had a quick shot of the GPS - showing Olden Ave at New York Ave, which is an area with a lot of light industry and small row homes.
Shows/movies set in DC are almost always comprised of an establishing shot using B-roll or even just stock footage of monuments and official (or just official-looking) buildings, then cut to an interior scene shot either on a soundstage or in LA or Vancouver.
See Bones (shot in LA; the diner they frequent and the “Founding Fathers” bar are entirely fictional), Lie to Me (shot in LA, and the exterior shots of their HQ is actually the Convention Center), and X-Files (exterior shot of the Hoover Building, cut to interior of office set in Vancouver).
Also it’s quite obvious that the writers/producers of all of these shows are just randomly placing their finger on a map of the area to get names of towns and cities in the area, and they all think everywhere, like Baltimore, is only 20 minutes from downtown (just getting to the Beltway from the Hoover Building could take double that, easy).
I was flipping channels tonight and came across “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” a made for TV movie about the Jon Benet Ramsey case. I immediately thought of this thread so I am watching it to see how authentic it is.
It is incredibly authentic. They use a fair amount of TV footage from the time, so that is obviously authentic, but most of the footage is shot right in town. There is a scene from the memorial service that has a shot of the actual church where it was held, and in recreating the service (I assume the church wouldn’t allow a film about some of their parishioners to be shot on their property) a very distinctive sign from the front of the church is recreated to exact detail.
There are several street scenes with actors that were shot in town. A couple of local restaurants either let them film inside or allowed their name and signage to be used.
A scene with the actor playing the DA showed him picking up a newspaper from his driveway, and it is the real Boulder Daily Camera.
One scene of an investigator at home with his wife shows him drinking a beer - it is Boulder Beer. This isn’t product placement, you only get to see a part of the label for a second or so, but it’s distinctive label is obvious.
The filmmakers went to great lengths to make it as authentic as possible.
The Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do is set in my home town of Erie PA. As far as I can tell they did not film here at all so the streets and city scenes are not valid. The film has some neat touches of Erie that I do appreciate like mention of our local NBC TV channel 12, The Mercyhurst Talent Show where the group wins first prize is a real local Catholic College and when the guys have a beer it’s a Koehler, brewed in Erie. So it was nice to see a few real Erie tidbits.
Heh. Reminds me of a short-lived TV show a few years back (I also don’t remember the name) in which the main character had a big office in Chicago with a gorgeous view of… mountains and palm trees.
I used to enjoy the location scenes on ER, but eventually they just seemed to use the same walkway along the Chicago river and the same stairway to the L platform over and over. And little things used to bug me on that show, like when somebody would mention “soda” instead of “pop” or when there was an accident on “the 290.” We never say “the” before the route number.
There are very few movies and shows set in northern New England. If they’re set in Steven King’s Maine, they’re pretty well received. (Haven has a lot of local fans). Other than that…There’s been all of one cartoon and one live action show, immediately canceled, that ever took place in NH, so it’s slim pickings tv-wise.
As for movies, I saw Yellowbrickroad this weekend, and it ticked me off. First, Liv’s attempt at a NH accent was completely atrocious. And second, the idea that there could be a place like that, a trail more than 70 miles long and no one at all has gone more than 1000 yards down it since 1940 is ridiculous. People hike everything here, there’s no way to keep people out without armed guards…and the end, God. No wonder it got a 4 point something rating on IMDB.
It’s been my (limited) experience that the “realism” aspect works better with a director who has spent time in that area.
For example, the area that I live in (the Louisville, KY area) doesn’t get featured all that much. However, there’s a guy named Stu Pollard who has written a couple of films that take place around here. Pollard is from Louisville, so it seems like there’s a little more…pride? Effort? In making sure that the area is represented accurately. Even as far as geography goes.
Contrast that with, for example, Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, which had Orlando Bloom traversing all over the state, in every direction EXCEPT the one he needed to go, and arriving at his location with no problems.
I thought it was a very accurate portrayal of that guy’s personality, but I understand he doesn’t think so much of it.