Yeah, the first season actually filmed in Brooklyn. I don't know if they still used Brooklyn for the second season or if they moved over to Manhattan.
Filming in Toronto (Canada) and not set on the Enterprise....
- Thread starter Warped9
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One of the big giveaways for me that something is filmed in Vancouver is the use of the Telsu Studio Theater in the Chan Center for the Performing Arts.
It was the place where we saw the characters communicating with people from the future in The 440, Vanishing Point in Legends of Tomorow, and the site of a auction for something very personal in Lucifer. Those are the only three I saw on the movie maps site, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in other shows.
It was the place where we saw the characters communicating with people from the future in The 440, Vanishing Point in Legends of Tomorow, and the site of a auction for something very personal in Lucifer. Those are the only three I saw on the movie maps site, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in other shows.
My guess is that (a), the tax benefits were better in BC, and (b) the industry is much more established and therefore would have more at their disposal in terms of what to rent. That's purely a guess, though, but I do agree that Toronto in an aesthetic sense would have made more sense. But at the same time, producers have become very clever in disguising a city, so location doesn't likely matter as much as it once has.
Ahh, fair enough. I guess I was remembering the on-location shoots that Trek had done, both in the TV series and movies and assumed that there would eventually be scenes they'd have to shoot for either Earth or Alien planet.
Well, a show actually filmed in New York City has a quality that no show pretending to be in NYC can possibly match. I feel Fringe lost a lot when it moved to Vancouver. And it's actually kind of refreshing that Supergirl is actually filmed in LA and can use familiar locations like LA City Hall, even though it's supposedly in "National City." (But it's obviously a stand-in for LA in the same way that Christopher Reeve's Metropolis was for New York City, complete with Statue of Liberty.) So few shows shoot in LA anymore, and I kind of miss the locations that were so ubiquitous for so much of television history. I'm just disappointed they haven't shot at Vasquez Rocks yet. Or "Stately Wayne Manor." Weird that Agents of SHIELD would beat a DC show to using that location.
Really, any show can have problems when it changes filming locations in midstream. The Dead Zone shot in Vancouver (passing as Maine and various other places) for most of the series, but in the final season, to cut costs, they moved the production to Montreal, and though they rebuilt the interior sets for the lead's house and such, it was still pretty clear that they were no longer using the same locations, that something had materially changed about the look and feel of the show and it was now detached from its former self in some ways.
I guess that's true. There's a certain, I don't know, veneer? Flavour? Something that can't simply be replicated, try as we might. I think it has a lot to do with cultural cues, that when transplanted, are simply not there. Sometimes it can be more subtle, but sometimes glaringly obvious to the point of distraction. Interesting discussion.
At the same time, for similar reasons, a lot of Canadian shows made primarily for the Canadian market have often been criticized for being too Canadian, if you can imagine. There are some who claim to feel a difference in those due to reasons of quality. But it's getting better all the time.
Correct. The combined tax rebates from BC and the Canadian government is 49%. You're basically halving the cost of production for any funds spent in BC.
Agreed, but the way Fringe did it drove me crazy too. They filmed in NYC, but then set the show in Boston. It seemed like they were jumping back and forth between the cities with no time delay just because. Why not just base the show in NYC? Have Walter be a former professor at Columbia instead of Harvard. Then they could have filmed in NYC, used familiar NYC landmarks, and not jumped constantly between Boston and NYC for no good reason.
Well, it's partly just being able to use the familiar landmarks and streets of NYC. The way Person of Interest can have Reese and Finch do a walk-and-talk with Grand Central Station in the background, or Elementary can have Holmes interview a businesswoman whose office windows overlook Central Park, or just the characteristic bustle of the streets. White Collar often built its season finales around major NYC landmarks, like the one involving the cable car to Roosevelt Island or the one where they had to steal something from the Empire State Building.
Also, at least when shows choose to take advantage of it, there's the great ethnic and cultural diversity of New York City. It's the most cosmopolitan city in the country. Although I've seen plenty of productions, especially movies, fail to acknowledge this and fall back on telling stories that are set in NYC but have all-white casts.
Then again, TOS never visited 23rd century Earth during its entire run, and, as I recall, had pretty much no budget for location shooting during its entire third season. (I believe that "The Paradise Syndrome" was the only third-season episode to feature any location shooting.) Most of those those "alien worlds" were sound stages, studio back lots, and matte paintings.
And nowadays, of course, they have CGI and green screens . ...
Yup. They consciously wanted to avoid showing Earth, I believe, for the same reason they wanted to avoid pinning down an exact date. They didn't want to lock themselves into futuristic assumptions that would turn out to be dated or implausible (though of course they did anyway). ST:TMP was the first time we ever saw "present-day" Earth, and it set a precedent that later movies and series followed. Although TNG didn't visit Earth until "Family" in early season 4, I think.
Proper location shooting as in away from the studio grounds, yes, but there was one other bit of outdoors shooting, a backlot street scene in Kirk's visit to Sarpeidon's past in "All Our Yesterdays."
Most of those those "alien worlds" were sound stages, studio back lots, and matte paintings.
In the later shows, too. TNG's production crew coined the term "Planet Hell" for the soundstage with the fake planetscape and cave sets that they redressed for multiple episodes, and both the stage and its nickname were used in Voyager as well. They actually used the name in-story as an in-joke in Voyager's "Parturition."
Ahh yes, good point about the landmarks. Can't replicate that, for sure. That's one way of lending authenticity, and those parts of White Collar were among my favourite episodes. The bustle is also another very good point, which has a unique, ahem, footprint. And maybe there's the chatter, the language that we take for granted that's intrinsic to the location. There's a movie that was shot in town a few years ago starring Forrest Whittaker, and they had my city stand-in for a Nondescript Toronto location, although something felt definitely off about it. It didn't have a Toronto vibe to it. It had more of a small-town vibe to it, and that's something I felt each time they had scenes there. And what's weird is, they did shoot some scenes in Toronto, which made those other scenes stand out more. That movie was A Dark Truth, btw.
Yeah, I think the same could be said for a lot of locations. I do appreciate when they do make the effort to show off what's great and diversified. Just that difference can make it a bit more fun and show that they've paid attention to details. Which again is why I find it fun when Toronto is actually Toronto, or my hometown can play itself. And the latter hasn't happened much as of yet.
Then again, TOS never visited 23rd century Earth during its entire run, and, as I recall, had pretty much no budget for location shooting during its entire third season. (I believe that "The Paradise Syndrome" was the only third-season episode to feature any location shooting.) Most of those those "alien worlds" were sound stages, studio back lots, and matte paintings.
And nowadays, of course, they have CGI and green screens . ...
Ahh, point taken. I thought it had maybe been more than that, seeing as the Vasquez rocks became so iconic to the show. Although there's always some brave new world where local scenery could be used if it's alien looking enough. Actually, there are many parts of the world that would be unique settings for alien worlds, but heh, that would blow their budget most likely.
I visited Dinosaur National Monument a few years ago, and the rocks there struck me as very alien looking.
We did see Earth in TOS.
Mojave, California...
Re-mastered...
Re-mastered...
Season 2 of Daredevil shot in East Harlem.
We did see Earth in TOS.
Mojave, California...
Re-mastered...
But that was an illusion. No episode was actually set on "present-day" Earth.
That was nice of Luke Cage to let Daredevil hang out in his territory for a while.
No reason to think the Talosians wouldn't have made the illusion ACCURATE.
The first time TNG visited Earth was "Conspiracy," but only Starfleet command (matte painting courtesy of TVH). But we didn't get to see the civilian side of Earth until "Family".
As an aside, I liked that much-to-do was made about the Enterprise-D coming "back to the nest" in "Conspiracy," making it seem that the homecoming of a Galaxy-Class ship was a rare event.
Exactly. It was presented as an authentic depiction, as far as Pike could tell, of a place that he had been before. We as TV viewers wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between that scene and hypothetical footage of Pike actually picnicking there, as it were.
