Location location, location!
A recent DVD rental reminded me of one of the pitfalls of living in a city that is popular with film companies looking for a cheap Canadian location that they can turn into an expensive American one.
This wasn't a big issue growing up in the Maritimes. There were very few big US films shot there at the time and only a few Canadian ones. And mostly it seemed the films shot in Atlantic Canada took place in the Atlantic Canada. There was no real distraction when watching The Boys of St. Vincent for instance. Takes place in St. John's, shot in St. John's . Or New Waterford Girl. Same thing: takes place in Cape Breton etc.
The first time I noticed how distracting my new hometown Toronto is, vis-à-vis watching films, occurred within the first five minutes of the first X-Men picture. Professor Xavier has just spoken at some hearing. The location: Washington , D.C. Except that it isn't. Professor X has a conversation with a senator or someone (it's been a while) in Roy Thompson Hall. What the heck are they doing at Roy Thompson Hall? There is only one building in the world that looks like that; it's hard to miss. I knew that the movie was filmed in Toronto but seeing Roy Thompson (and then of course Union Station, oy!) kind of ruined the whole thing. I know it's make believe, but I hate being reminded that it's make believe.
Remember that this is my problem. I'm sure there are people all over the world who saw X-Men and thought that it was all really taking place in the US. My problem. I had just spent a year taking tickets at Roy Thompson Hall.
The next distraction was even more jolting. I rented a film called Boondock Saints staring Willem Dafoe. The film takes place in Boston, a city I have visited and was even born in. True, I'm not completely familiar with Boston and at the time I watched the film hadn't been back for a number of years.
I was enjoying the film and getting right into it when suddenly the picture on my screen looked distinctly like Dundas West. Right around the corner from my apartment as a matter of fact. One of the main characters is walking down Dundas West heading straight for the Lakeview Lunch. They didn't even change the name?! There's no lake in Boston worth having a view of! There's a frigging harbour -- the Harbourview Lunch even would have worked.Then he walks into the Lakeview and they shot the gawddam interiors there too. I even recognized the bartender! Can I get a sloppy Joe with a malted, please!
Needless to say the film wasn't the same after that. And this is the major problem with the whole living-near-locations thing: as soon as I know it's Toronto , the rest of the movie is spent location watching. “Ooh! Look, it's Osgoode Hall” or “I knew that was the Old Mill Inn.” It annoys others, too. I am reminded to keep my mouth shut when this happens lest I ruin the picture for everyone else.
At least in the Dawn of the Dead remake you couldn't tell it was filmed in Toronto, unlike Resident Evil Apocalypse (Racoon City looked like Toronto's evil twin) or Land of the Dead where everyone in the audience played look-at-the-location. “Hey, that's the Marche!”
Toronto City Hall doubles as Evil Toronto City Hall , or, rather, Raccoon City.
With the drought in recent years of US productions filming in Toronto it hasn't been so bad. A lot of productions have done a good job of disguising where they are. Good examples are Cinderella Man and 16 Blocks in which Toronto really does look like New York.
However, with a lot of productions moving to British Columbia there are still problems. Even though I have never visited Vancouver lots of friends have and they often fall victim to location spotting which reach new heights with almost the entire run of X-Files.
The problem extends beyond locations to product goofs. Products are starting to ruin film and television for me. Not the very obvious product placements, which I can put up with, no, it‘s the unintentional product placement of which I speak. This past spring an episode of Battlestar Galactica made me crazy.
Apparently one of the big banks in Caprica City is a Scotiabank.
Who knew?