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by petee 1707 days ago
It happens, but at the end of the day only America looks like America, and they want that look as much as patrons demand it.

Shows used to go to Canada until our tax breaks got better. Some things will always shoot here. Many projects are also tied to the whim or contract of the a big name star.

Once they get digital movies down pat, they'll likely eliminate all our jobs as fast as possible. Which is why we are slowly unionizing VFX workers!

2 comments

My home city of Edmonton recently stood in for Boston when the "The Last of Us" production came through last week.

Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary get quite a few more acting gigs playing various American cities in American productions than Edmonton does.

I've seen a few movies where they tried to pass off Vancouver as New York. No offense to Vancouver but who do they think they're fooling?
> It happens, but at the end of the day only America looks like America, and they want that look as much as patrons demand it.

Lots of films set in Seattle are or were filmed in Vancouver, and you might not know it unless you live around Seattle.

Plus many shows only have interior shots, with maybe an occasional establishing shot. Worst case they might have to send someone to where the show is set to film the establishing shots, which is likely a one time thing. Everything else can be filmed anywhere.

A good example was "Frasier". I don't think it even had establishing shots, so all we saw was interiors [1]. Even those of us who lived in Seattle when it was on couldn't tell it was filmed in Vancouver.

[1] Except for one episode where they did have significant outdoor action set at various well known Seattle locations, which they did come to Seattle to shoot.

They can build a replica of any part of the world in not much time at all in a back lot in Burbank.