The weekend has gone and for most of us the working week has started again. Hope you had a great time and did fun things. Maybe you watched the Olympics or just enjoyed the wheather. Whatever you did, I’m happy you now tuned in to my blog and are ready to answer this week’s Monday question!
The locations where movies are shot can be very interesting, especially if it is a place you know or happen to go to. So this week’s question is:
Did you ever visit locations where a movie was shot?
I grew up in Rotterdam and still live very close to it and several movies have been shot in this city.
Who Am I?
Jackie Chan slid down the side of one of the buildings near the river in Who Am I? and also used other locations in the city.
The thing with movies is that it is possible to create your own version of a what a city looks like. If you actually live their it gets confusing very quickly, because you know your town is not like that. Who Am I? was guilty of that, but so are others.
Beautiful Life was another movie which has been partly shot in Rotterdam. It’s a kids movie where a grandfather robs a bank. The bank they use in the movie isn’t actually a bank in real life. I used to work very closely to it years ago. The movie also has a driving sequence in it, in which the car drives on the street city hall is located (and inexplicably ends up in the city of The Hague all of a sudden).
Years ago I made a trip to Japan (three weeks holiday) and when I was in Tokyo I happened to walk past the hotel where Lost in Translation was shot. Also visited the very busy intersection which appears in the movie (with the building that has video on it).
Those are the ones I can remember from the top my mind.
Did you ever visit locations where a movie was shot?
The biggest one for me has been Rocky. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and have practically revisited every place that Rocky went to in the first movie. I’ve been to the Italian Market many times, I’ve stood outside Mick’s gym, and I have run up the steps of the Art Museum countless number of times. My father, at one point, actually lived around the corner from the house where Rocky lived.
There have been others, but that’s the best one for me.
It’s nice if you live in a town where a movie has been shot as it makes it easy to visit. I guess tourists still visit the steps and reenact that scene š
Yep! Just last month I visited a number of locations in Paris used in “Midnight in Paris”. In fact I’m writing a post about it that’s almost finished.
Great question!
Cool, really looking forward to it…
Nice article Nostra.
I have been to many places seen in films on my travels, but the one that sticks in my mind is Alcatraz… amazing experience.
I forgot about that one. I have been on Alcatraz as well. Did you do the audio tour? It really made the place come alive. I remember also attending a bit about movies being shot there…
Not purposely. I once ate lunch at a restaurant where the scene between Dusting Hoffman and Meryl Streep having dinner/lunch took place. That was by accident, and I only knew because they had a photo on the wall.
That’s cool, was it from Kramer vs. Kramer?
Yes. I forgot to put that in the comment.
I’ve been to a lot of the locations in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (the “Port Royal” set is minutes away from my home in St. Vincent). I also studied in Cape Town, so I’ve been to movie locations in films like Invictus, Blood Diamond, Safe House. Safe House especially made me immensely nostalgic, I’ve been to practically all the locations in that film. I’m sure there some others that I’m forgetting, but these are the main ones.
Awesome! Just watched Safe House recently…cool to see they picked some pretty recognisable locations for that movie.
I haven’t actually been near anywhere a film was shot, I don’t think anyway haha š
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I attended the University of Oregon, so I’ve been to pretty much all the buildings on campus that were used in Animal House (at least, those still standing). It’s pretty much unavoidable, since many of them are where classes are held. The Delta House itself, sadly, was torn down long before I went there.
Never saw Animal House (I admit it) but something like that must give the place a familiar/special feeling….
Yeah, it’s kind of funny watching the film and saying “There’s Johnson Hall, there’s Carson Hall, there’s the fishbowl…”
Well, the closest thing I came to was when I was visiting Chicago and The Dark Knight was filmed that day. My friend’s husband also happened to work on Hotel 71 where they used the ballroom area at the top to be Bruce’s penthouse, so he took us upstairs and indeed the view was exactly like in the movie, but of course it’s much less dramatic, ahah. I even made a post of it a while ago: http://flixchatter.net/2010/10/06/random-question-what-movies-filmed-in-your-area/
Cool locations to have visited!
Not really, no.
I was just looking at a book about French new wave film locations so you could make your own tour of, say, Paris just based on those films. Neat idea but I’m really not sure if I would enjoy it.
It depends to me how iconic I think a movie is. If it’s one I really love I also enjoy seeing locations š
I’m from Glasgow in Scotland and witnessed them shooting some scenes for the forthcoming Brad Pitt movie, World War Z. Exciting stuff but the most beautiful was when I went to Thailand and saw the piece of paradise that featured in Leonardo DiCaprio and Danny Boyle’s The Beach. Simply stunning.
Wow, that sounds amazing…never been in either place!
the sawmill in Transformers that Shia runs into after being chased by that dog is right across the street and behind the park that I grew up next to in NM. I see it every week. http://www.flickr.com/photos/beall/179035278/
Along with the White Sands National Monument that is used as a Middle Eastern location in several films (including Transformers).
It’s cool to see something like that, probably makes you connect with a movie more.
I haven’t knowingly visited a site just because a film was shot there. Delh is used a lot in India films and also in some foreign films so since I am from there I know of the places. Also recently I saw an Indian film called TEZZ which was shot in Birmingham, UK just round the corner from where I live during my summer vacations. The funny part was that although it was clearly Birmingham, in the film they passed the location as London š
I do want to go to this place called Ramgarh where an indian film called Sholay was shot. It is the longest running Indian film ever based on The Seven Samurai.
Hahaha, well, that happens more often I think passing some cities as others š
How long is that movie if it’s the longest one? Or do you mean it’s still in the cinema after a long time?
Also, almost forgot. I visited Greece in 2004 and to an island called Amorgos. Later on I found out that this is where one of my favourite films The Big Blue by Luc Besson was filmed.
Besson makes entertaining movies, although I don’t think I have seen The Big Blue