Evidently people aren’t all that happy with Boston the way it is, and are trying to reshape it via CGI.
The front-page story in today’s Boston Globe – the most prominent one – is about how the CBS broadcast of the 4th of July fireworks display clearly used CGI to place the fireworks breaking over a series of Boston landmatrks that they can’t possibly be seen over:
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2011/07/08/cbs_broadcasts_altered_views_of_bostons_fourth_of_july_fireworks/?p1=News_links
At the same time, there’s a review of the movie Zookeeper, in which it’s reveale that they use CGI to make the city of Boston seem closer to Franklin Park zoo.
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2011/07/08/zookeeper_a_mashup_lacking_age_appropriate_humor_sense_of_direction/?p1=Well_Movies_links
In addition, they re-orient the city so that the quickest way from Back Bay to Logan airport is over the Zakim bridge, but, hey, I’ve seen such geographical mixups in lots of films, about lots of cities. But I haven’t seen them CGI re-arrange a city before.
Of course, being inaccurate with Boston Zoos is par for the course. Altered States, ostensibly set partly in Boston, was filmed nowhere near the city, and has a rhino and a herd of antelope in the zoo. Zookeeper gives us an elephant and other beasts we don’t actually have.
True Story: When I first visited the zoo, back in the 1970s, I rode my bike up to it and walked through the gates. There was a long wide swath of gress in front of me, with no enclosures or cages. The animals must be farther up, I thought. I walked down the grass, passing large, old, and obviously unused buildings, one with an elephant head on it. In front of me I saw a gate. Aha! That must be the REAL entrance! It was. It was the entrance on the other side. I had walked all the way through the zoo without seeing a single animal. It’s goten a lot better since. You couldn’t walk through from entrance to entrance anymore without running into Tropical World or the Zebra/Ostrich enclosure. But there’s still no elephant.