This is actually one of the main reasons why Hollywood and the Los Angeles area became the capital of American filmmaking. Oh, and from time to time the script might call for a beach. One of the most famous examples of this is in Star Trek (and all subsequent series note at least until the Alex Kurtzman era in the late 2010s/2020s by which point TV budgets had increased and CGI technology advanced enough to either film in other locals or edit things in post to look more alien), in which every planet they land on looks exactly like the deserts of southern California, the redwood forests of Northern California, or the mountains of Central California (assuming it isn't a studio cyclorama instead). For British sci-fi shows, it's "Quarry Doubling" - any desolate alien planet is usually a quarry (usually the BBC Quarry) within a couple of hours' drive from London - or Doubling for London. Conversely, filming in a story set 20 Minutes in the Future will have its own problems because to make a location seem futuristic would require a lot of construction and visual effects anyway.Īny exotic foreign locale in a TV series or film will find some local environment that feels slightly different to give an appropriate look, such as Kirk's Rock. It probably was done, but nowhere near as widely as people thought. It was additionally one of the few ways to (legally) get behind the Iron Curtain for smugglers, spies, and defectors, though the extent to which Hollywood-affiliated people took advantage of this is grossly exaggerated by both fiction and the documents produced by the House Un-American Activities Commission at the time. Unlike the actual capital of France, Prague still had its medieval and renaissance era buildings (in varying states of disrepair) and it was cheaper too. Even more famously, Prague in the modern day Czech Republic was the stand-in for pre-war Paris. This makes some doubling in another city more valuable simply because that location actually looks more period-accurate note Görlitz, a city of less than 100,000 at the easternmost border of Saxony with Poland, has stood in for numerous other cities, because it was left nearly unscathed by the war and has seen few urban planners trying to rebuild the whole thing according to their vision since. While obviously it might be a bit difficult filming an ancient Rome in Rome itself, as the city resembles Caesar's city in name only, even the London of today is quite different from the London of Victorian times through the early part of the twentieth century (thanks in no small part to the Luftwaffe). Averting this can also be something of a Bragging Rights Reward, letting audiences know they had the money to block off an entire metropolitan downtown district and have Stuff Blowing Up.Īnother time that this may be necessary is if the original location (and this is true especially for period pieces) no longer looks like what it did in story. ![]() Even in the most general sense, many cities are averse to blocking off the entire downtown for weeks on end or offering unlimited access to important landmarks, and so some sequences are filmed piecemeal, getting a couple vintage shots of actors near scenic imagery and then finding a more practical location to film the rest. Other times, the actual location is not an option for security, political, and/or cultural reasons. Moving everyone, especially on a weekly television budget, is sometimes implausible even if the location is willing to permit filming. There are usually at least two or three dozen people working on prepping a location, providing the appropriate light, and transporting the equipment to film a scene. The main reason this happens is that a production crew is much more than a cameraman, director, and actors. How convincing it may be varies, especially to those familiar with the area and may spot unique signage or a Local Hangout that gives it away. Add some graffiti to the walls, trash on the ground and fake snow drizzling on the actors and what was filmed in an 80 degree palm tree environment can give the feel of a cold New England winter. While you would think there is an advantage to actually filming on location, a decision is made to find a generic alleyway or studio backlot and simply have the characters say they are in New York City when they are really in California. The nature of film and television production means that you don't have to actually be in the exact location where the action is taking place.
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