FILMography
September 18, 2012 3:36 PM   Subscribe

 
Very cool; the Warriors one is my subway stop.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:37 PM on September 18, 2012


Brilliant. Nice find.
posted by chavenet at 3:38 PM on September 18, 2012


All movies take place a few blocks from Central Park.
posted by The Whelk at 3:39 PM on September 18, 2012 [17 favorites]


So they shot a scene for North by Northwest at some Dwemer ruins? Awesome.

Sorry - been playing Skyrim lately and, well, you know.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:41 PM on September 18, 2012 [6 favorites]


Oh, that's marvelous.
posted by figurant at 3:41 PM on September 18, 2012


This is a big win for left hands.
posted by roger ackroyd at 3:42 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


All movies take place a few blocks from Central Park.

Now now. Kubrick used establishing shots of the East Village in Eyes Wide Shut that look absolutely nothing like his sets.
posted by griphus at 3:43 PM on September 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


His one set.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:45 PM on September 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


I am going to do the same for movies shot in Edmonton!



Well that was quick.
posted by mazola at 3:46 PM on September 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


That's pretty cool. I kind of want to do an LA one.
posted by phaedon at 3:48 PM on September 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Neat. I can imagine this being super exciting if you had a) watched more than 10% of these movies and b) knew New York.
posted by DU at 3:52 PM on September 18, 2012


LA

All those alien planets and African plains that look suspiciously like Griffith Park.
posted by The Whelk at 3:53 PM on September 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


I can imagine this being super exciting if you had a) watched more than 10% of these movies and b) knew New York.

Careful you don't sprain something with all that wild and unbridled enthusiasm.
posted by elizardbits at 4:01 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Except the ones that are supposed to be in New York, in which case they're all actually in a 5-block section of Downtown Los Angeles.

Hey now there's always Toronto
posted by The Whelk at 4:03 PM on September 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


They forgot to the put the actual locations they went to.
posted by mulligan at 4:15 PM on September 18, 2012


They forgot to the put the actual locations they went to.

Awesome site, but yeah, that's aggravating. The locations are there in the comments/tags, but it'd be so much better if they put the location in the caption.
posted by mochapickle at 4:18 PM on September 18, 2012


I had an "isn't this where they shot that scene from..." moment once, on the street where I saw the film where I'd just seen the scene.

I had been to see Big at Cinema Village, which for a while was a revival house in New York three blocks from my dorm. There's a scene somewhere in the film where Tom Hanks and a kid come out of a restaurant and start walking down the street,a conversation. After the film, I left the theater, turned left and started walking west on 13th Street, back towards 5th Avenue, to get back to my dorm. I got about ten feet for I stopped, realizing I was walking on the very street I'd just seen in that scene.

Live in New York long enough and that happens a lot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:18 PM on September 18, 2012 [7 favorites]


Live in New York long enough and that happens a lot.

Louie does this to me like whoa. I'm 99% sure I have done the exact same thing he does at the pizza place in the titles at that exact same pizza place.
posted by The Whelk at 4:20 PM on September 18, 2012


Someone linked to Silent Locations the other day, which does this for silent comedies in LA.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:34 PM on September 18, 2012


This is cool, but the whole "hand holding a printout" thing is a bit analog-on-purpose and twee. Just paste in a still frame, you have a pirated copy of Photoshop just like everyone else.

Although I appreciate that the printouts are useful for finding the exact camera position, it's not necessary to actually keep them in the frame when you take the photo.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:37 PM on September 18, 2012


I Google Street View, my whole block is obscured on both sides by film production equipment.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:49 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I love this stuff. I just saw the movie Bullitt on a big screen and spent pretty much the entire time going "hey, that's right where x is now!"
posted by gingerbeer at 4:55 PM on September 18, 2012


It'd be nice if there were more Warriors and some Shaft in there.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 4:55 PM on September 18, 2012


I live on what I guess is a particularly photogenic block of NYC. Twice we've had movies camp out for a week or more for lengthy filming. The long opening tracking shot of Cradle Will Rock finishes by swooping into the same apartment as ours but one block over, right through the French doors. They shut down the whole block for a week, dirtying it up and parking period cars for that '30s Depression look. It was very cool.

Just after that Keeping the Faith set up shop for a week. As it was summer and they were shooting inside the church, they set up a jet engine-powered portable air conditioner with enormous ducts running into the building; the thing ran all day and much of the night. They also had giant balloons floating up and down the block with arc lights for night shots. I took a few flash pictures from our terrace one night when they were shooting an Edward Norton-Jenna Elfman love scene, which stopped the entire production as they searched for the culprit. I slunk back into the apartment sheepishly.

And a couple years ago a location scout for Boardwalk Empire knocked on the door asking about shooting from our little terrace for a funeral scene. They ended up going on the roof instead for a pretty cool shot that you can see in the Season 1, Episode 2 Making of video.

It's always a bit disruptive but the fun of watching the shoots as they happen and seeing the finished product is worth it.
posted by stargell at 4:59 PM on September 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yeah, some of these do have a strange lack of shadows on the "black and white photograph" that makes this somewhat Amateur Hour.
posted by alex_skazat at 5:06 PM on September 18, 2012


A few years ago, I lived on a ridiculously scenic block in soho, and there was ALWAYS something or other being filmed. My friend down the block was basically a Professional Movie Apartment Haver. Every few months some production company would come by and pay her ridiculous money to knock out a wall or reaping or move all her furniture three feet to the left. They'd pay her, destroy the place, she'd rebuild it. It was like the fraggles and the dozers.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 5:16 PM on September 18, 2012


Uh. Repaint. Not reaping. That probably would have been more money.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 5:17 PM on September 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


After the film, I left the theater, turned left and started walking west on 13th Street, back towards 5th Avenue, to get back to my dorm. I got about ten feet for I stopped, realizing I was walking on the very street I'd just seen in that scene.

I had this experience, in reverse, for A Scanner Darkly. Some friends and I went to see it at a theater over by UC Irvine, and took the 405 down there, getting off at Culver. Then there's a part where they're driving down the freeway in the movie, and they pass the Culver exit sign. Given the tone of the movie, we got a little freaked out.
posted by LionIndex at 5:44 PM on September 18, 2012


I kind of want to do an LA one.

Start taking lots of pictures of Flower St. between 4th and 5th, the 4th St. viaduct between Figueroa and Hope, the 2nd St. tunnel, and the Bonaventure Hotel.

Done.
posted by hwyengr at 6:04 PM on September 18, 2012


I've lived in LA since 1997 and other than the 2nd street tunnel that everyone knows and other super-obvious landmarks, the only location I've ever really noticed was the cold storage place where they filmed that one episode of Angel.

I'm not the most observant person in the world.
posted by flaterik at 6:21 PM on September 18, 2012


...makes this somewhat Amateur Hour.

From now on, I resolve to stick to Professional Internet!
posted by DU at 6:24 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Start taking lots of pictures of Flower St. between 4th and 5th, the 4th St. viaduct between Figueroa and Hope, the 2nd St. tunnel, and the Bonaventure Hotel.

Done.


Actually, you left out UCLA. Quasi-university setting for a film or tv show filmed in LA? Odds are good that's UCLA. To be really specific, probably the lawn in front of College Library and a few areas around it.
posted by librarylis at 6:40 PM on September 18, 2012


The first time I visited Manhattan, I looked up at the buildings and thought that I was in a movie...
posted by ovvl at 6:55 PM on September 18, 2012


Actually, you left out UCLA. Quasi-university setting for a film or tv show filmed in LA? Odds are good that's UCLA. To be really specific, probably the lawn in front of College Library and a few areas around it.

Or Occidental.

Also, the Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena City Hall, Gamble House, and the Huntington Library & Gardens. You know, I should do one of these on JUST Pasadena (and Altadena).

And, of course, Vasquez Rocks.
posted by ApathyGirl at 6:55 PM on September 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Someone should do this for movies set in Washington, DC. They could start with the Georgetown Metro scene from No Way Out.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:08 PM on September 18, 2012


My favorite LA landmark was the alley I used to take as a shortcut down to Sunset/Echo Park from my old apartment. It was totally in a chase scene in Lethal Weapon. One popular network drama (which one, I never did find out?) adopted the House Ear Clinic as their Hope County Courthouse. This is in Westlake/McArthur Park, hardly the most photogenic neighborhood, on the damn street where I parked every night.

Relevant to the thread, Paramount's map of California's geographical facsimiles, originally uploaded by MeFi's own Ambrosia Voyeur.
posted by carsonb at 7:45 PM on September 18, 2012


The other 'for NYC' area of LA is a little tiny street just south of Wilshire somewhere in the Western/Normandie region.
posted by carsonb at 7:46 PM on September 18, 2012


Toronto's too clean to plausibly pass for any U.S. city. They have to put in CGI grime and garbage.

ha! no kidding, once I was crossing Yonge St. and wondering "what the hell is up with the street today? it's filthy and there's garbage everywhere" another block along I find that they're shooting a hulk film and have messed up the place so it will look like new york
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:25 PM on September 18, 2012 [6 favorites]


Had there been only one, I would have been satisfied. Neat idea, though.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:56 PM on September 18, 2012


Seconding the idea to do an L.A. version. And I have to say, the hand-held printouts are precisely what makes these so neat.

Part of the problem with an L.A. version is that, of course, things change very quickly around here (though I noticed this blog included lots of more recent films, which makes things easier.

I live around the corner from the Dietrichson House used in Double Indemnity. If I can get my printer working, I may have to attempt this tomorrow.
posted by ShutterBun at 9:45 PM on September 18, 2012


I got about ten feet for I stopped, realizing I was walking on the very street I'd just seen in that scene.

I once watched The Player at Hollywood Forever Cemetary (they show outdoor movies there during summer) and noticed that the funeral scene we were watching was shot from the same location and angle we were sitting at. (the palm trees even lined up with their real-life counterparts!)
posted by ShutterBun at 9:52 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I think this is a cool idea, but I prefer the way the guy at PopShotNYC does it with his site about finding old album cover locations. In this example of Bo Diddley's Have Guitar Will Travel album cover you get the album cover, the location shot today, and then the album cover superimposed over the shot - once opaque and again slightly transparent. Plus you get a map of where the location is. It's obviously more work (which is probably why he doesn't that many), but I think it makes a great presentation.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:53 PM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Remember the Microsoft ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Sinefeld where they were living with normal people? Shot on my street. When I noticed all the security, I said: "I wonder if some local celeb is involved." The production company, which had told us filming was going to take place, was getting us to sign a contract, as our house had been included in the shot, and said: "Didn't you know, Bill Gates was in this..." That must be what it is like to live in NYC...
posted by Windopaene at 10:54 PM on September 18, 2012


Ooo! Ooo! Do March of the Penguins next!
posted by LordSludge at 12:15 AM on September 19, 2012


See also The Movie Mimic (Previously)
posted by muta at 1:39 AM on September 19, 2012


Speaking of Seinfeld, on the DVD extras they talk about having to scout NY-looking areas of LA for some exterior shots - I think in reference to the scene where Newman rolls downhill in a runaway rickshaw, as they couldn't build that on a set.
posted by phl at 5:08 AM on September 19, 2012


Providence needs one of these for "Movies that people swear on their mother's grave were shot in Providence but totally weren't" with people holding up various movie stills that don't match in front of the Bank of America building.
posted by Perfectibilist at 5:53 AM on September 19, 2012


I want to do something like this, only from the opposite direction, where I go around DC and use photographs and still photos to point out how approximately 0 people in Hollywood have ever been to this area (I'm looking at you Live Free or "one of the longest streets in DC (14th) depicted as a small alleyway / skyscrapers and a NY traffic tunnel / 'We're in the middle of nowhere WV and we need to meet Kevin Smith in 20 minutes HEY LET'S DRIVE THERE NO SWEAT" Die Hard )
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:07 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


*meet him in BALTIMORE..
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:08 AM on September 19, 2012


I want someone with more motivation than me to do this for San Francisco.
posted by chemoboy at 10:03 AM on September 19, 2012


I grew up in NYC and watched a lot of Law & Order when I was in grad school. I think my spouse got really sick of me saying, "Hey, that's right around the corner from [my apartment, my high school, my first job, etc. etc. etc.]" I actually wonder if he thought I was making stuff up, but really, Manhattan is not THAT big and at one time or another I was regularly everywhere on that island except the UES.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:40 AM on September 19, 2012


I think my spouse got really sick of me saying, "Hey, that's right around the corner from [my apartment, my high school, my first job, etc. etc. etc.]"

Try watching Law and Order if you not only live in New York but have worked in theater - easily about 10% of their extras are people I've worked with myself on other things. I think it's been 3 years since I've seen an episode where I can't point to some random eyewitness or bartender or guy in a lineup or juror and say, "Hey, I remember them from that Shakespeare thing in 2003."

I watch Law and Order alone now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:15 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Someone should do this for movies set in Washington, DC. They could start with the Georgetown Metro scene from No Way Out

Wait, there is no Georgetown metro stop. Clicks video. Goddammit.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 11:55 AM on September 19, 2012


Well, I made an attempt at getting a shot of the Dietrichson House from Double Indemnity, as promised. I had to go "new school" since my printer wasn't working, which revealed one of the challenges: based on the size of the image, it has to be large enough to fill the appropriate amount of space, but also be held far enough away so that it's in focus with the background.

Obviously a reallllly wide-angle lens would be in order here. But the results weren't half bad.

The Dietrichson House

Funny story. I have lived around the corner from this house for better than 2 years, but never bothered to take a picture of it, despite Indemnity being easily one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. So I walked over today, started taking some pictures, when a cab pulls up. A guy gets out, camera in hand, and starts looking at the house, readying to take a shot. I asked: "Are you doing the same thing I'm doing? The Dietrichson House, right?"

"Yep! I just took a cab all the way here just to find this place!"

What a coincidence. I've driven past the place hundreds of times, but never seen anyone stop, then the one day I decide to get pictures, another fan shows up at the same time. Ha!
posted by ShutterBun at 1:11 PM on September 20, 2012


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