Where the **** is this supposed to be set?

[George White]

Was rewatching Hellraiser and its first 3 sequels, and love how cos New World dubbed a few of the British actors with US accents, it's set in a weird Nowhereland, by the second film, it's sort of fauxmerica, and by 3, it's New York but filmed in North Carolina.

And it reminded me of the weird joy of being like, 'where is this film set?'

The new Wonka film has like previous adaptations, se it in a deliberately vague place with mixed US, British and European influences (though the 1971 film is so obviously shot in Munich down to German language signs in the background).

There was a trend in the 90s of this in kids' films - Babe and Babe - Pig in the City, The Borrowers, Mousehunt to an extent.
More recent films seem to go for it too, maybe as so much is made for an international market, e.g. Sex Education.
Richard Ayoade's the Double is set in a dystopia that's simultaneously British and American.
The Karen Gillan film Dual is set in a nowhereland.

Soviet films set in a generic West often have this. Dead Man's Letters and the Silence of Dr. Evans.

Any favourite examples of this?

The 1970 Jon Voight film The Revolutionary.  All the characters are American 60s radicals, but shot on undisguised London locations (with various North Americans based in the UK) And it also might be the 30s.  Pawn shops, corner shops, greasy spoons, terraced streets with UK postboxes, strange workhouses, but US cops, soldiers, a mostly UK-based cast of Americans/Canadians/semi-US-based Brits and a strange mix of fashions, fascist guards and jazz/marching band music.

[13 schoolyards]

Full Metal Jacket

[Mister Six]

Haven't seen the shows, but I instantly thought of the thread on here about one of those Netflix Harlan Coven adaptations (Safe, with the bloke from Six Feet Under, I think) which are apparently adapted from US books but shot in the UK, so everyone has big houses and many cars and sometimes guns, but they all live in Stockport.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Haven't seen the shows, but I instantly thought of the thread on here about one of those Netflix Harlan Coven adaptations

Netflix's Harlan Coben's The Stranger was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.

I remember the halcyon days when that was the worst thing that had happened in 2020.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 is simultaneously in Germany, France and a very sitcomland looking UK. Wish we had those monorail things here in the 70s.

[Keebleman]

Babe and The Frighteners are two good examples of movies going to great lengths to pretend they aren't set where they're shot.

Another is Kubrick's Lolita.

[13 schoolyards]

Pretty much every big budget US movie filmed in Australia isn't set in Australia (I guess the generic no-place approach works for The Matrix).

One of the many movies Nicolas Cage filmed here went so far as to CGI in a bunch more skyscrapers into the Melbourne skyline to make it look more generically American, even though Melbourne is already a fair bit larger than many mid-level US cities

[George White]

Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 is simultaneously in Germany, France and a very sitcomland looking UK. Wish we had those monorail things here in the 70s.

There's a Night Gallery which  in the syndication version, to pad it out to a full half hour, cuts in footage from Fahrenheit, and the rest of the story is set in the US, but when they go outside, it's that UK sitcomland.

[The Late Satoru Iwata]

Choose or Die on Netflix. Filmed in England with a cast made primarily of British actors but which pretends throughout to be set in America for no apparent reason.

[buzby]

Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 is simultaneously in Germany, France and a very sitcomland looking UK. Wish we had those monorail things here in the 70s.

Although the only exterior location that was not in the UK was the shots of the SAFEGE monorail test track in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in France.

The firemen's costumes wre later reused for the Imperial Officers on the Death Star in the original Star Wars film.

Liverpool has been used by many UK-based productions to double for New York and other US cities (and also occasionally Moscow and London).

[A Hat Like That]

Ready Player One spends a huge amount of time driving around the same four streets in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.

[El Unicornio, mang]

There's always an uncanny valley aspect when they try to set films in places they aren't filmed. Too many subtle nuances which give it away. I remember reading an interview with someone who met Princess Di when she visited Harlem in 1989. The Crown spent a fortune recreating a part of Manchester to look like this neighbourhood of New York for the scene, got people to match the ethnicities (black, hispanic), period clothing and such. This woman saw the episode and instantly said "this looks nothing like the real place. Nobody here looks like that or would be dressed like that"

Kind of like if they tried to recreate Newcastle in Pittsburgh or somewhere. I'd notice instantly that none of the people looked like they were from Newcastle, the pavements and windows were the wrong size etc. Most people wouldn't notice, but obviously if it's somewhere we're all familiar with like NYC or London we have a frame of reference.

[George White]

There's always an uncanny valley aspect when they try to set films in places they aren't filmed. Too many subtle nuances which give it away. I remember reading an interview with someone who met Princess Di when she visited Harlem in 1989. The Crown spent a fortune recreating a part of Manchester to look like this neighbourhood of New York for the scene, got people to match the ethnicities (black, hispanic), period clothing and such. This woman saw the episode and instantly said "this looks nothing like the real place. Nobody here looks like that or would be dressed like that"

Kind of like if they tried to recreate Newcastle in Pittsburgh or somewhere. I'd notice instantly that none of the people looked like they were from Newcastle, the pavements and windows were the wrong size etc. Most people wouldn't notice, but obviously if it's somewhere we're all familiar with like NYC or London we have a frame of reference.

Reminded of the amount of effort Body of Lies put in the opening to turn Baltimore into a Greater Manchester suburb, and it still looked off.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Reminded of the amount of effort Body of Lies put in the opening to turn Baltimore into a Greater Manchester suburb, and it still looked off.

Yeah, they did as good a job as they could with the location but it's clearly America

[Icehaven]

More recent films seem to go for it too, maybe as so much is made for an international market, e.g. Sex Education.

I haven't seen it myself but Mr. Haven's been watching this and is utterly confused by the fact it seems to be set in the 80s but they've got smartphones.

[notjosh]

There's always an uncanny valley aspect when they try to set films in places they aren't filmed. Too many subtle nuances which give it away. I remember reading an interview with someone who met Princess Di when she visited Harlem in 1989. The Crown spent a fortune recreating a part of Manchester to look like this neighbourhood of New York for the scene, got people to match the ethnicities (black, hispanic), period clothing and such. This woman saw the episode and instantly said "this looks nothing like the real place. Nobody here looks like that or would be dressed like that"

Kind of like if they tried to recreate Newcastle in Pittsburgh or somewhere. I'd notice instantly that none of the people looked like they were from Newcastle, the pavements and windows were the wrong size etc. Most people wouldn't notice, but obviously if it's somewhere we're all familiar with like NYC or London we have a frame of reference.

Yes, this is very noticeable when it happens.

Another thing that is very noticeable is the lack of affordable housing in this country - people are always going on about it.

So how about we kill two birds with one stone? The movie studios build a load of social housing in specially stylised neighbourhoods - Little New York, Little Mexico, Little 1930s Berlin etc - and people can live there at a subsidised rate, with the minor annoyance/exciting benefit of having film crews constantly operating outside your door.

I guess sometimes you'll have to pop a pinata on your porch or hang a swastika out your bathroom window. But it's all good fun and anyway it's bills included, so what you gonna do?

[frajer]

I was recently watching The Flash (it's not a great film but it's a weird film and I did enjoy it - FIGHT ME) and it is bizarre to see Batfleck bombing around what is recognisably Glasgow.

But I suppose that's only if you know Glasgow. And there's no reason Gotham City shouldn't have a George Square in it.

[A Hat Like That]

Yes, this is very noticeable when it happens.

Another thing that is very noticeable is the lack of affordable housing in this country - people are always going on about it.

So how about we kill two birds with one stone? The movie studios build a load of social housing in specially stylised neighbourhoods - Little New York, Little Mexico, Little 1930s Berlin etc - and people can live there at a subsidised rate, with the minor annoyance/exciting benefit of having film crews constantly operating outside your door.

I guess sometimes you'll have to pop a pinata on your porch or hang a swastika out your bathroom window. But it's all good fun and anyway it's bills included, so what you gonna do?

One of my colleagues rents her house out to Doctors.

[non capisco]

non capisco mentions the episode of MacGyver where the caption says 'The Balkan Peninsula' and it's Battersea Power Station.

[curiousoranges]

I wish the BBC would film something in Cardiff that's actually set here.

[Peabo Bryson Is Not Dead]

I always look for the electrical plug points, to the point of distraction.

The greatest inversion is Behind The Music: Def Leppard. It's supposed to be Sheffield but I think it's Toronto, maybe Vancouver. It's wonderfully shite.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I always look for the electrical plug points, to the point of distraction.

I'm guilty of this. The recent Always Sunny's in Ireland did a pretty good job of making things look right, including shooting somewhere in the US when it was a bit foggy since daylight just seems different and more saturated in the US to Ireland and the UK but the ballsed it up with the hospital scenes.

Although actually set in the UK I think, the episode of Columbo where he goes to the UK feels like a UK that doesn't really exist, and all the over-emphasis on british turns of phrase like LEFTTENANT Columbo.

I thought the over-the-top squalid London in the Barry McKenzie films was quite good. I remember watching a documentary about Australian film that touched on it, and Barry Humphries saying "it was very important that the London scenes had lots of dog shit everywhere".

[Sebastian Cobb]

One of my colleagues rents her house out to Doctors.

Someone I know let a crew use his gaff as a green and production room for an upcoming drama film on Sixteen Films while they shot on location nearby.

[Glebe]

A recent one is Evil Dead Rise, set mainly in an LA apartment block, filmed in New Zealand.

[jamiefairlie]

On a related note, I was in Central Park in NY in 2001 and they were filming a scene for a movie. The main thing that struck me was how vividly coloured the clothing of the extras was, all yellows, oranges, reds and greens. It was a contemporary setting but looked really cArtoonish when viewed in real life.

[George White]

I always look for the electrical plug points, to the point of distraction.

The greatest inversion is Behind The Music: Def Leppard. It's supposed to be Sheffield but I think it's Toronto, maybe Vancouver. It's wonderfully shite.

Montreal.
Montreal has doubled for Britain a lot, mostly with more convincing results. There is a very od CBS TVM from the 80s called Illusions, with a cameo from a voice actor from Mysterious Cities of Gold doing SHAKIN' INMAN.

[The Late Satoru Iwata]

I always look for the electrical plug points, to the point of distraction.

Even someone with a supernatural reputation for film perfection like Kubrick allowed UK electrical outlets into Eyes Wide Shut.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is these:

[Rev+]

Any Italian horror film from the 70s set in 'New York', obviously.  Can't remember which one was brazen enough to have the cops show up in cars with 'Polizia' on the side, but there was probably more than one now I think about it.

[Mister Six]

On a related note, I was in Central Park in NY in 2001 and they were filming a scene for a movie. The main thing that struck me was how vividly coloured the clothing of the extras was, all yellows, oranges, reds and greens. It was a contemporary setting but looked really cArtoonish when viewed in real life.

They'll colour-correct everything in post. Guessing the vivid colours were chosen for some kind of post-production reason.

[Terry Torpid]

I don't think they ever mention where Seven takes place in. America obviously, but which city? Somewhere you can drive to the desert from I suppose. I think Fight Club was similarly vague.

Shallow Grave opens with "This could be any city", but it's quite clearly Edinburgh.

Cronenberg films are always shot in Toronto, but they don't always admit it. There's a bit in The Fly when he bets on arm wrestling, and they had to decide whether he should use American or Canadian money. I think they went for American in the end.

Even someone with a supernatural reputation for film perfection like Kubrick allowed UK electrical outlets into Eyes Wide Shut.

Full Metal Jacket

It's the road markings when the recruits are running around boot camp that give it away.



The dotted "give way" lines are on the left hand side. What a wally!