Where's Papua New Guinea
March 11, 2021 10:19 AM Subscribe
The most filmed location in (almost) every country Single link to website
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup
I like to imagine a secret location in the middle of Nebraska where an exact replica of New York City's Central Park has been built where Hollywood actually goes to film.
posted by gwint at 10:52 AM on March 11, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by gwint at 10:52 AM on March 11, 2021 [15 favorites]
Isn't Toronto the go-to city in Canada when Hollywood wants to film NYC/Chicago or other general US urban environment?
posted by SoberHighland at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Powerscourt Estate is in County Wicklow (Republic of Ireland), but the pointer on the map is on Ulster (Northern Ireland).
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:06 AM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:06 AM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]
It's nice to see Prague hlavni nadrazi (Central Station) there, though I imagine it's changed a bit since I was there in the late 90s, when it was essentially an enormous bare hangar with signage in Czech, Russian and German.
It was the starting point for a trip to Marianske Lazne - three hours on the slow train through some of the most beautiful scenery, and the ticket cost £2.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
It was the starting point for a trip to Marianske Lazne - three hours on the slow train through some of the most beautiful scenery, and the ticket cost £2.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Not buying it for Canada. It would be somewhere in Toronto, no question.
posted by dobbs at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2021
posted by dobbs at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2021
The most filmed in Canada is Niagara Falls (makes sense), followed by Banff National Park and the University of British Columbia. When I lived there in the 90's you couldn't go more than a month without seeing a crew filming in Gastown, since it can be many different eras from last century. Half-expected it to crack the top 10, but nope.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:15 AM on March 11, 2021
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:15 AM on March 11, 2021
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil.
Well that nails it down, thanks.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:55 AM on March 11, 2021 [9 favorites]
Well that nails it down, thanks.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:55 AM on March 11, 2021 [9 favorites]
Most of the pointers are in the center of the country unless that interferes with another country (see Poland and Ethiopia) or if, as in Ireland mentioned above, it is accidentally in a neighboring country! The popouts are a bit jarring since you see Yemen when looking at the Kamchatka Peninsula.
posted by soelo at 11:56 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by soelo at 11:56 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's an interesting investigation. TBH I don't love the presentation (why not just expand the image instead of having so many overlapping borders and blowups), and I think a distinction should be made between named landmarks (eg Central Park) as opposed to locations used for filming. I would wager that most shots of Central Park were actually done in LA or Canada, for example.
posted by Think_Long at 12:08 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Think_Long at 12:08 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
The link to the blog post the graphic is from is here, worth reading.
posted by tavella at 12:14 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 12:14 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Reading that blog post I can see how their methodology would yield some very counterintuitive results. Looking at imdv's filming location data for things filmed in places I've lived is.... hi or miss. Certainly no regularized, normalized or geotagged. So named landmarks are going to be over represented in the source data.
That being said if one did have better data, and looked at tv filming locations in the last decade, and were able to get locations down to around a block..... I'd bet money that this block in Surrey (of all places) would rank very highly in Canadian filming locations.
With the Surrey Central Mall & Simon Fraser Surrey Campus at the south end and the Library & City Hall a block to the north you capture a surprisingly large number of filming locations.
An aside: given the... peculiar architecture matched with the.... neighborhoods reputation... it's always funny to see the city hall posing as a post-modern location in the future. Or the library as a gleaming high tech centre for super heroes, or the mall as everything from super villain lair to intergalactic spaceport.
posted by mce at 2:03 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
That being said if one did have better data, and looked at tv filming locations in the last decade, and were able to get locations down to around a block..... I'd bet money that this block in Surrey (of all places) would rank very highly in Canadian filming locations.
With the Surrey Central Mall & Simon Fraser Surrey Campus at the south end and the Library & City Hall a block to the north you capture a surprisingly large number of filming locations.
An aside: given the... peculiar architecture matched with the.... neighborhoods reputation... it's always funny to see the city hall posing as a post-modern location in the future. Or the library as a gleaming high tech centre for super heroes, or the mall as everything from super villain lair to intergalactic spaceport.
posted by mce at 2:03 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Neat! I'm surprised by Central Park. I'm more surprised by Iguazú. Both are cool places, but I have a hard time thinking of even one film for each, compared to, say, Vasquez Rocks or central Buenos Aires. I'm not sure putting Central Park, a Hotel in Panama, and the Acropolis in the same category of places as the Atacama Desert, "The Brazillian Rainforest," and the Seirra Madres is entirely fair. Also, Guantanamo Bay? Really? Does the action have to happen *on* the Eiffel Tower to count?
posted by eotvos at 2:22 PM on March 11, 2021
posted by eotvos at 2:22 PM on March 11, 2021
And ... the most filmed location in Denmark is 🧜🏻♀️!!!The Little Mermaid 🧜🏻♀️!!! the airport.
This is what the airport looks like. That should tell you all you need to know about the experience of The Little Mermaid.
posted by rongorongo at 2:26 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
This is what the airport looks like. That should tell you all you need to know about the experience of The Little Mermaid.
posted by rongorongo at 2:26 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
Toronto and Vancouver are both stand-ins for many American cities, but most Canadians only seem to think one or the other is commonly used as such.
Also: Why on earth is Niagara falls somewhere in northern QC?
posted by Canageek at 2:37 PM on March 11, 2021
Also: Why on earth is Niagara falls somewhere in northern QC?
posted by Canageek at 2:37 PM on March 11, 2021
The map says TV series are included in the data set.
I believe that should put a couple of loading bays in NYC at the top of the list. This would be where they filmed the iconic scene of 'worker who won't stop unloading crates while being questioned by detectives'.
posted by theory at 2:52 PM on March 11, 2021 [5 favorites]
I believe that should put a couple of loading bays in NYC at the top of the list. This would be where they filmed the iconic scene of 'worker who won't stop unloading crates while being questioned by detectives'.
posted by theory at 2:52 PM on March 11, 2021 [5 favorites]
Reading that blog post I can see how their methodology would yield some very counterintuitive results. Looking at imdv's filming location data for things filmed in places I've lived is.... hi or miss. Certainly no regularized, normalized or geotagged. So named landmarks are going to be over represented in the source data.
Why would you think that an infographic from an online loan company about a topic wholly unrelated to their business would be anything less than meticulously produced?
The amazing thing is that SEO chum like this still works.
posted by me3dia at 2:59 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
Why would you think that an infographic from an online loan company about a topic wholly unrelated to their business would be anything less than meticulously produced?
The amazing thing is that SEO chum like this still works.
posted by me3dia at 2:59 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
I believe that should put a couple of loading bays in NYC at the top of the list.
I'm sure I picked up from somewhere that there are only about 4 of those alleyways they actually use for shooting all those different scenes NY alleyway scenes. So I looked it up and apparently Cortlandt Alley is filmed about 3-4 times a week.
posted by biffa at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm sure I picked up from somewhere that there are only about 4 of those alleyways they actually use for shooting all those different scenes NY alleyway scenes. So I looked it up and apparently Cortlandt Alley is filmed about 3-4 times a week.
posted by biffa at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Gitmo is the most filmed location in Cuba? Only if you count security cams.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:44 PM on March 11, 2021
posted by Thorzdad at 3:44 PM on March 11, 2021
Why would you think that an infographic from an online loan company about a topic wholly unrelated to their business would be anything less than meticulously produced?I don't have to like a thing, believe in a thing, trust in a thing to be interested enough to want to know a little more about it and where it fits in the world. Taking lazy potshots and/or shitting on stuff is certainly easier though.
More to the point we live in a world of detail wider & broader than the human capacity for understanding. In my day job I help analyze data from around the world, leverage the experience of world class leaders in our field and exercise taste & professional judgement earned through decades of study and practice.... all in an effort to help a few people move across a pool faster than anyone else has ever done so in the history of whenever. Rigorous and artful and I'm lucky to have the opportunity to invest so much in something I love so.
When I'm not working the same skill sets and perspective and outlook poke me to want to understand more of everything I see. It's not likely that I'll ever understand anything else as deeply as as the work I do but that's the great thing - I don't have to! There's so much stuff! And lots of it is interesting! Sometimes it's even valuable!
Regardless - lots of things are allowed to be fun, perhaps whimsical, without passing some arbitrary purity test. Context counts for a lot. Have you never wondered where a word came from? How an object came to be designed that way? Why that area is more active than this one over there? How to word a note a little cleaner, better, more effectively? It's hard to imagine.
I truly hope something in your day gave you more joy than dropping the trivial snark. It wasn't even clever snark. You can do better; I believe in you.
posted by mce at 3:53 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
And ... the most filmed location in Denmark is 🧜🏻♀️!!!The Little Mermaid 🧜🏻♀️!!! the airport.
Yeah, in Korea it is Incheon Airport. I feel kind of let down. Like...ok, I guess?
posted by Literaryhero at 4:12 PM on March 11, 2021
Yeah, in Korea it is Incheon Airport. I feel kind of let down. Like...ok, I guess?
posted by Literaryhero at 4:12 PM on March 11, 2021
Gitmo is probably the most filmed location in Cuba because American film crews had the ability to film there. Whereas the rest of the country would have been much more difficult to get the permits for.
posted by subdee at 5:49 PM on March 11, 2021
posted by subdee at 5:49 PM on March 11, 2021
They just scraped the "Filming Locations" part of IMDB, which is just user entered data that heavily, heavily skews towards whatever currently popular movies were also contemporaneously popular after the website launched, with some TV locations thrown in that are mostly garbage.
For example, the TV show Hunter had 152 episodes over 7 seasons and the IMDB "Filming Locations" list consists of "Los Angeles" and...that's it.
I picked a random Game of Thrones episode, and even that had 8 entries, but three of them were for the same location, with two of those literally being the same phrase, one just had misspellings.
Anyway, I wouldn't even trust the locations in this map even exist in the countries the map says they are in, let alone that the places were filmed "the most".
posted by sideshow at 8:17 PM on March 11, 2021
For example, the TV show Hunter had 152 episodes over 7 seasons and the IMDB "Filming Locations" list consists of "Los Angeles" and...that's it.
I picked a random Game of Thrones episode, and even that had 8 entries, but three of them were for the same location, with two of those literally being the same phrase, one just had misspellings.
Anyway, I wouldn't even trust the locations in this map even exist in the countries the map says they are in, let alone that the places were filmed "the most".
posted by sideshow at 8:17 PM on March 11, 2021
Regardless - lots of things are allowed to be fun, perhaps whimsical, without passing some arbitrary purity test.
Said things can start off by not being based on garbage data, then we can talk about them being whimsical and fun.
You can tell the difference; I also believe in you.
posted by sideshow at 8:20 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Said things can start off by not being based on garbage data, then we can talk about them being whimsical and fun.
You can tell the difference; I also believe in you.
posted by sideshow at 8:20 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
On the world map, they show NZ Waitakere Ranges as being in Wellington, and then in the blog post show it as being in Nelson.... Both wrong, its in Auckland!
posted by subbasshead at 8:36 PM on March 11, 2021
posted by subbasshead at 8:36 PM on March 11, 2021
Isn't Toronto the go-to city in Canada when Hollywood wants to film NYC/Chicago or other general US urban environment?
A few years ago in Toronto I walked down Church Street from just above Queen to Front -- a distance of maybe 500 metres -- and mused that I passed through two Bostons, at least two or three New Yorks, (News York?), a Detroit or two and a Raccoon City.
One street. Five minutes. I wasn't even looking. And I can think of a half dozen sites in the city that get more film shoots than that stretch.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:14 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
A few years ago in Toronto I walked down Church Street from just above Queen to Front -- a distance of maybe 500 metres -- and mused that I passed through two Bostons, at least two or three New Yorks, (News York?), a Detroit or two and a Raccoon City.
One street. Five minutes. I wasn't even looking. And I can think of a half dozen sites in the city that get more film shoots than that stretch.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:14 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
I remember having a surreal moment in Toronto walking from the subway station to my house and it not even registering in my brain for a few minutes that it was odd that I was walking through "Baltimore." I grew up in Baltimore. This was for Hairspray.
posted by transient at 10:03 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by transient at 10:03 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Since Papua New Guinea wasn’t included here I found a small but not insubstantial list of films made in PNG. It’s a beautiful country but between colonialism, mining, cannibal-obsessed tourists, missionaries and researchers hoping to catch their big break in exploiting this unique population I hope no more films are made there unless a local group produce and direct it.
posted by waving at 5:08 AM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by waving at 5:08 AM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Cortland Alley, former home to the Mudd Club. Made famous by the Talking Heads song Life During Wartime.
...This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C.B.G.B.
I ain't got time for that now...
posted by AugustWest at 7:24 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
...This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C.B.G.B.
I ain't got time for that now...
posted by AugustWest at 7:24 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil.
Well that nails it down, thanks.
Same with: Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, which is only, lesee, 932 mi (1,500 km) long and 150 mi (240 km) wide…
posted by Omon Ra at 8:06 AM on March 12, 2021
Well that nails it down, thanks.
Same with: Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, which is only, lesee, 932 mi (1,500 km) long and 150 mi (240 km) wide…
posted by Omon Ra at 8:06 AM on March 12, 2021
What if nitpicking the accuracy is the fun part for me?
Niagara Falls feels skewed by whether viewers are going to recognize it when they see it. Nobody's going to the trouble of filming at Niagara Falls and not show the falls, and lots of people who aren't from there still know it when they see it. While if Church Street is just supposed to be "generic downtown street," and only people from Toronto recognize it, that's not going to always get flagged on IMDB.
So I can see a lot of these others being skewed the same way. Eiffel Tower? Sydney Opera House? Taj Mahal? I've never been to those countries but I know them when I see them.
posted by RobotHero at 8:46 AM on March 12, 2021
Niagara Falls feels skewed by whether viewers are going to recognize it when they see it. Nobody's going to the trouble of filming at Niagara Falls and not show the falls, and lots of people who aren't from there still know it when they see it. While if Church Street is just supposed to be "generic downtown street," and only people from Toronto recognize it, that's not going to always get flagged on IMDB.
So I can see a lot of these others being skewed the same way. Eiffel Tower? Sydney Opera House? Taj Mahal? I've never been to those countries but I know them when I see them.
posted by RobotHero at 8:46 AM on March 12, 2021
SoberHighland: "Isn't Toronto the go-to city in Canada when Hollywood wants to film NYC/Chicago or other general US urban environment?"
Atlanta has largely taken over as a double for every city in the last 15 years.
posted by octothorpe at 8:50 AM on March 12, 2021
Atlanta has largely taken over as a double for every city in the last 15 years.
posted by octothorpe at 8:50 AM on March 12, 2021
The Copenhagen airport claim bothered me. I'm not clear on methodology here but looking through locations on IMDB, there are at least two sites in Denmark with more listings than Copenhagen Airport. The airport has 66 movies and TV shows listed, while Tivoli has 84 and Amalienborg has 69.
posted by biffa at 10:02 AM on March 12, 2021
posted by biffa at 10:02 AM on March 12, 2021
Along similar lines, for the UK, the Houses of Parliament are listed in IMDB for way more films and TV shows than Trafalgar Sq.
I went back and it says on the graphic that it is all based on IMDB so i guess they just tried to pick up on famous locations and searched for them, but perhaps lacked some imagination.
posted by biffa at 9:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
I went back and it says on the graphic that it is all based on IMDB so i guess they just tried to pick up on famous locations and searched for them, but perhaps lacked some imagination.
posted by biffa at 9:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
Nobody's going to the trouble of filming at Niagara Falls and not show the falls.That's a film I would go out of my way to see. Probably me and at least 20 other people.
(It looks like there's a short film festival there. In person, in May. And they charge people to submit entries. Hmm.)
posted by eotvos at 12:37 PM on March 14, 2021
I remember from the Royal Tenenbaums commentary, they shot in Battery Park but deliberately obscured the Statue of Liberty.
posted by RobotHero at 3:02 PM on March 14, 2021
posted by RobotHero at 3:02 PM on March 14, 2021
The Dutch location is a theatre where a number of stand up comedians shot their DVD.
posted by Akke at 8:32 AM on March 15, 2021
posted by Akke at 8:32 AM on March 15, 2021
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posted by jacquilynne at 10:39 AM on March 11, 2021 [31 favorites]