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March 28, 2024, 11:09:39 AM

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Most unconvincing Location doubling

Started by George White, April 16, 2017, 11:59:23 AM

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George White

SUperman II/Superman IV - Hertfordshire/Surrey as East Houston and Milton Keynes as Metropolis...
Watching recently Whoops Apocalypse, which brilliant/terribly recreates USA and France in various LWT-region locales, and in the studio.
That He-Man ad is clearly filmed in South Africa. The city looks very un-English. You can tell when most ads are set in a strange Mid-Atlantic suburbia. That's SA.

80s Irwin Allen miniseries the Memory of Eva Ryker uses the Queen Mary at Long Beach to simulate Southampton (motorcyclists Ernie Vigil and Nick "the revolution" Brocha did too Queen Marysploitation short the Stowaways) and like the Thorn Birds, features a very Californian, very rocky, mountaineous Outback - which should be flat as a pancake, and has a terrible Afrikaner-Cockney accent from John Alderson (Wyatt Earp in Doctorr Who and the Gunfighters)

GReen Street 2 - set in a desert prison supposedly in England, with a few Aussie and English actors, eg Martina Sirtis, Treva Etienne, and Aussie Vernon "Wez from MadMax II" Wells.
Killer Elite with Jason Statham has a scene set in the Thames with a sign warning of sharks. It was filmed down under.
Various things have shot in Vancouver - not just doubling for US but UK - that JK Rowling biopic, Stonehenge Apocalypse, movie the Miracle of the Cards which badly uses Gastown as London, though the Magician's House- a Welsh-Canadian coproduction actually did its best to turn BC into Wales. Some films can be less obviously filmed places, thus convincingly. For example, recently UK-Canadian coproductions have returned, eg the BFG, Hector and the Search for Happiness, London exteriors yes, but a lot of less obvious Vancouver exterior/studio interiors doubling as UK, and also the partly BC-shot Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
NIghtmares and Dreamscapes - Crouch End - a Ramsay Street Melbourne suburb badly plays London - complete with ozpost vans and Cockaussie kids.

And the good old Universal backlot has been used as Ireland (Heroes' Cork, Star Trek Voyager's Fair Haven, the 80s Twilight Zone's Killany (sic), Belfast in JAG), Wales (the Wolf Man), London in everything from Basil Rathbone's Holmes to Columbo to that recent EE Kevin Bacon ad and East Germany in every 80s action series...


Glebe

Quote from: George White on April 16, 2017, 11:59:23 AMAnd the good old Universal backlot has been used as Ireland (Heroes' Cork, Star Trek Voyager's Fair Haven, the 80s Twilight Zone's Killany (sic), Belfast in JAG), Wales (the Wolf Man), London in everything from Basil Rathbone's Holmes to Columbo to that recent EE Kevin Bacon ad and East Germany in every 80s action series...

Weirdly, Dublin doubled for London in Educating Rita.


Blue Jam

My favourite is the Fast Show sketch "Shore Leave", in which Newcastle doubles for New York:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zdhuo

With the Tyne Bridge in the background they're not fooling anyone, but I think it's deliberate- and it's hilarious.

Gulftastic

Not London, but Sons Of Anarchy had a load of episodes supposedly in Belfast. They filmed some stunt men on bikes from a disatance riding round the genuine Irish country roads, then all the main actors were filmed in a brick street that looked vaguely OK.

They also decided to 'oirish up' the theme tune for those episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Tke7OA27k

Brundle-Fly

It made me laugh when in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Tom Cruise's character enters a jazz club, Sonata off a New York back street and descends a staircase where he arrives in Madame JoJos off Brewer Street, London Soho. That's a 3,459 mile long staircase that has been constructed under the North Atlantic Ocean. Dr Harford must really like jazz.

neveragain

Cloud Atlas was filmed all over the place (Spain, Germany etc.) but they still decided to use Glasgow for LA in some unconvincing Luisa Rey street scenes.

George White

#6
Quote from: Gulftastic on April 16, 2017, 04:30:01 PM
Not London, but Sons Of Anarchy had a load of episodes supposedly in Belfast. They filmed some stunt men on bikes from a disatance riding round the genuine Irish country roads, then all the main actors were filmed in a brick street that looked vaguely OK.

They also decided to 'oirish up' the theme tune for those episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Tke7OA27k
Oh god, the accents! The fact they still thought the troubles were on, the shop that'd surely be a Centra or Spar by now...


Educating Rita, they barely dressed Dublin. The buses all have Beaumont as the destination, which is the only Dublin suburb they could find that sounded vaguely Mersey-ish. And you can see on the buses the ads for the Ilac centre.

Clive Langham

A lot of the early slasher films are shot in Canada but set in the U.S.A. - Black Christmas (1974), Terror Train (1980), Happy Birthday To Me and My Bloody Valentine (both 1981). This is spoofed in Saturday 14th (1981) which is supposedly set in the states but in which the crimes are investigated by a mountie on horseback.

Mr Banlon

Rumble In The Bronx : Mountains in the background of some of the shots.
Kojak : Set in New York, but palm trees often seen in the background in exterior shots.
Mesrine : Definitely not London. 
https://youtu.be/MC-cXkJYazU?t=4370

Glebe

How about the Trotters on a 'Spanish' beach?[nb]Apparently they had intended to film over there, but ran out of cash and had to settle for Dorset.[/nb]


George White

Quote from: Mr Banlon on April 16, 2017, 07:27:35 PM
Mesrine : Definitely not London. 
https://youtu.be/MC-cXkJYazU?t=4370
No, Montreal.

The Canadian slashers, that sort of "No, it's America really, or is it?" is what is known as Canada Does Not Exist, a trope which continues today in the likes of Orphan Black and CBBC's The Next Step, i.e. generic North Americana, not showing the CN Tower, etc. E.g. My Bloody Valentine features Moosehead beer, Nova Scotian accents and thinly-disguised locales, and a "police officer" rather than a sheriff.
It's Pandemonium from 1982 that has Tom Smothers as the Mountie, not Saturday the 14th.

Toronto's also doubled the UK in Equus, due to Burton being a tax exile, this being the era of UK-Canadian coproductions e.g. the slow Bear Island, the epic Murder by Decree and so on.

Clive Langham

Quote from: George White on April 16, 2017, 09:16:40 PM

It's Pandemonium from 1982 that has Tom Smothers as the Mountie, not Saturday the 14th.


So it is!

Camber Sands doubling for the Sahara in Follow That Camel of course.

Dr Rock

Not sure if they count as 'locations' but I had to laugh at many of the attempts at locations/scenes/props in the movie reviewed here by Ralphthemoviemaker. Just bizarre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj9XaKRhtmQ

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 16, 2017, 04:53:42 PM
It made me laugh when in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Tom Cruise's character enters a jazz club, Sonata off a New York back street and descends a staircase where he arrives in Madame JoJos off Brewer Street, London Soho. That's a 3,459 mile long staircase that has been constructed under the North Atlantic Ocean. Dr Harford must really like jazz.

Not New York, the backlot at Pinewood.

Mr Banlon

Death Wish 3 was set in Brooklyn, but some of it was filmed in Lewisham. Michael Winner got visiting NY graffiti writer Brim to graff the UK set to make it look authentic.
Here's a clip from a documentary about Brim from 1985. https://youtu.be/uEbh97UbIgM?t=1151 There are clips from the film shown. The UK filmed bits are obvious.

Norton Canes

All the scenes in The Sandbaggers supposedly set in Eastern Bloc countries, mostly filmed around Leeds and Bradford. 

Trojan_Jockey

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on April 16, 2017, 11:19:11 PM
Not New York, the backlot at Pinewood.

Yes, the result of Stanley Kubrick's fear of flying. I immediately thought of "Full Metal Jacket" when I saw the thread title. Because there was no way that Stanley was flying out to the far-east, they used the Norfolk broads to double for Vietnam, which to be fair didn't look too bad. They then used somewhere in the Docklands to stand in for urban Vietnam. The strategic placement of half a dozen palm trees didn't really convince and all the way through I was thinking that it looked more like Barnsley than Vietnam. To be fair, some people say you don't even need the second half of the movie anyway.

Dr Rock

The scenes in Avengers 2 in fictional eastern european country Serkovia, are in fact Hendon in North London, where I was living at the time, Specifically the Police Training College plus some cgi. Not unconvincing though.

mr beepbap

Carry on Abroad used Pinewod Studio's  carpark covered in sand instead of a Spanish beach much to the disappointment of the cast who were hoping for an overseas jolly.

HappyTree

The Clangers were supposed to be living on the moon but it was obviously the Kubrick set for 2001.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on April 16, 2017, 11:19:11 PM
Not New York, the backlot at Pinewood.

Yeah, I remember that. Still a long staircase from Buckinghamshire.

Attila

Willy Wonka never says so, but the implication is that the setting is England -- and its more or less London setting looks awfully German (cos it was shot in Munich)

The 1996 Doctor Who film ostensibly takes place in San Francisco, but was filmed in the not-looking-like San-Francisco-at-all Vancouver.

Chriddof

Quote from: Dr Rock on April 16, 2017, 10:06:37 PM
Not sure if they count as 'locations' but I had to laugh at many of the attempts at locations/scenes/props in the movie reviewed here by Ralphthemoviemaker. Just bizarre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj9XaKRhtmQ

I had a weird feeling you were talking about "After Last Season" before I clicked the link! An absolutely bewildering thing that one day I'm going to have to track down a DVD of.

Jake Thingray

Quote from: George White on April 16, 2017, 11:59:23 AM
And the good old Universal backlot has been used as Ireland (Heroes' Cork, Star Trek Voyager's Fair Haven, the 80s Twilight Zone's Killany (sic), Belfast in JAG), Wales (the Wolf Man), London in everything from Basil Rathbone's Holmes to Columbo

Only certain scenes in that Columbo ep though, exteriors of him outside Buckingham Palace, New Scotland Yard, the Royal Court Theatre, Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall and, playing the part of the "London Wax Museum", the Royal College of Music were all genuine.

Captain Poodle Basher

Quote from: George White on April 16, 2017, 06:56:44 PM
Oh god, the accents! The fact they still thought the troubles were on, the shop that'd surely be a Centra or Spar by now...


Educating Rita, they barely dressed Dublin. The buses all have Beaumont as the destination, which is the only Dublin suburb they could find that sounded vaguely Mersey-ish. And you can see on the buses the ads for the Ilac centre.


Flight Of The Doves. The Liverpool docks look exactly the same as the Dublin docks on the other side of the Irish Sea, complete with CIE black and amber trains masquerading as British Rail.

George White

Quote from: Captain Poodle Basher on April 17, 2017, 09:52:42 AM

Flight Of The Doves. The Liverpool docks look exactly the same as the Dublin docks on the other side of the Irish Sea, complete with CIE black and amber trains masquerading as British Rail.
Yes, and the "Liverpool kid" about to visit his Irish relatives Wild bumps into has a really strong Dublin accent.
Then again,  Wild and his sister are very Cockney for supposed Scousers.


Columbo - yes, all the touristy shots were London, but all Hyde-White's scenes were shot in LA, as he and a lot of the support cast e.g. John Williams were tax exiles.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: George White on April 16, 2017, 09:16:40 PM
No, Montreal.

The Canadian slashers, that sort of "No, it's America really, or is it?" is what is known as Canada Does Not Exist, a trope which continues today in the likes of Orphan Black and CBBC's The Next Step, i.e. generic North Americana, not showing the CN Tower, etc. E.g. My Bloody Valentine features Moosehead beer, Nova Scotian accents and thinly-disguised locales, and a "police officer" rather than a sheriff.
It's Pandemonium from 1982 that has Tom Smothers as the Mountie, not Saturday the 14th.

Toronto's also doubled the UK in Equus, due to Burton being a tax exile, this being the era of UK-Canadian coproductions e.g. the slow Bear Island, the epic Murder by Decree and so on.

I always remember being able to play 'spot the CN tower' in loads of Due South's Chicago scenes.

Glebe

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 16, 2017, 04:53:42 PMIt made me laugh when in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Tom Cruise's character enters a jazz club, Sonata off a New York back street and descends a staircase where he arrives in Madame JoJos off Brewer Street, London Soho. That's a 3,459 mile long staircase that has been constructed under the North Atlantic Ocean. Dr Harford must really like jazz.

Maybe it's supposed to be magic.

Quote from: Mr Banlon on April 16, 2017, 11:28:10 PMDeath Wish 3 was set in Brooklyn, but some of it was filmed in Lewisham. Michael Winner got visiting NY graffiti writer Brim to graff the UK set to make it look authentic.
Here's a clip from a documentary about Brim from 1985. https://youtu.be/uEbh97UbIgM?t=1151 There are clips from the film shown. The UK filmed bits are obvious.

"Have you seen Death Wish? Charles Bronson gets a grip and places himself in the lap of the governor, with a smile as he leaves."

Quote from: Trojan_Jockey on April 16, 2017, 11:34:34 PMYes, the result of Stanley Kubrick's fear of flying.

Apparently he just made that up so he didn't have to go to LA to meet with Hollywood execs and that.

Quote from: mr beepbap on April 17, 2017, 12:27:40 AMCarry on Abroad used Pinewod Studio's  carpark covered in sand instead of a Spanish beach much to the disappointment of the cast who were hoping for an overseas jolly.

At least they got to go to Brighton for real in At Your Convenience!

Quote from: HappyTree on April 17, 2017, 12:40:04 AMThe Clangers were supposed to be living on the moon but it was obviously the Kubrick set for 2001.

Ironically, the sets from 2001 were recycled from Button Moon (an er, early, unseen version of Button Moon).

Quote from: Attila on April 17, 2017, 01:32:51 AMWilly Wonka never says so, but the implication is that the setting is England -- and its more or less London setting looks awfully German (cos it was shot in Munich)

Never liked the grim, Euro-'70s atmosphere of the urban locations in Wonka. If that makes any sense to you.

Quote from: Captain Poodle Basher on April 17, 2017, 09:52:42 AMFlight Of The Doves.

That's another film that gives me bad vibes.

Clive Langham

The BBC film of Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad had Dundee standing in for Moscow (quite convincingly.)

Clive Langham

I'm never sure where Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is supposed to be set - as someone noted above it was filmed in Germany, but David Battley's teacher is English, and most of the kids are American. I guess I always think of it as being in some weird Dahl land.