Shooting scenes in different cities/countries spoiling continuity?

iamWZA

iamWZA

Active member
What if you find the perfect location, and you absolutely must shoot there or you will forever live in regret, but the location is not anywhere near where the rest of the film is shot - does it really matter?
Unless it's really obvious (foreign languages on signs, huge skyscrapers etc.) surely it wouldn't be noticeable unless you knew the location. Is it done often in films? Easy to get away with?

Will
 
Non issue. Unless its obvious, as you say.

Movies are shot all over the place, in studios, on locations etc. If you have the budget to travel abroad for a specific location then there is no reason not to.
 
They shoot films in Toronto with the New York City theme the whole time. They just bring cars in, buses and taxies from US, with US license plates - which is the main thing.
So, they do fake it a lot. And no one noticed it, nor would they really notice it, unless if that specific individual worked there or went by that building every day. But, that's no likely.

Also depends how the buildings look - what they are made from.
Like most of the time it wouldn't really matter, but there may be a case where a few buildings just dont like like they would belong. Or seeing like an alleyway in a city that shouldn't belong.
 
DDirector said:
Also depends how the buildings look - what they are made from.
Like most of the time it wouldn't really matter, but there may be a case where a few buildings just dont like like they would belong. Or seeing like an alleyway in a city that shouldn't belong.
Click to expand...

One of my 'favorite' shots of a building purported to be in one city, Pittsburgh, but in actually is located elsehwere, Downtown Los Anglees, is in the film "Stigmata"(1999), where there are shots of a large green art deco style building, which is the 'Eastern' Building. I'm pretty sure people from Pittsburgh were wondering 'where the hell is that building?'.

Easternstandard_cropped_by_mlsb.jpg


Then there's the ever 'rainy day/night' in So Cal... I think it only rains here on movie sets...

tumblr_m3hzyclBt71r6oftno1_1280.png


Buster Keaton "College"(1927)
 
You need to be able to judge if it matters. If you're shooting in a redwood forest and move to the desert people might notice. If the color palette is radically different people will notice. But it's an art decision, not geographic.
 
You will always have continuity problems, even when using different bits of the very same location.
 
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