Can you tell when it’s not ‘America’?

[somerset fox]

I’m interested in film production and also work as a background extra here in the UK. Often to recreate London, when filming in another English town, they ship in a red double decker bus and a couple of black cabs and bingo, it’s London. They also often film New York and other US cities on UK backlots with appropriate props and costumes. Ship in a couple of yellow cabs and a free standing mail box and you’re there. But to American eyes, can you tell? Do they get it right, or are there telltale signs that it’s not the actual US?

 

[Darth Lars]

I'm from Europe, not 'merrica, but I've learned to recognise when the nature matches that of Vancouver, Canada — where a lot of TV-series set in the US have been filmed.

 

[AJK001]

I lived and worked in New York City for over 40 years and can usually tell when something set there was filmed elsewhere. Other places not so much because I don't know them. Other than a handful of productions most are not shot where they are depicted to be.

 

[dascoyne]

Often it Is the width of streets and sidewalks that give it away.

 

[division 6]

A lot of movies and shows also CG in extra details and backgrounds.

 

[greenmachines]

Larger buildings, completely square and smooth, especially run down, are nearly impossible to tell especially when raining, if it isn't second and third world construction tech. The lack of Ibeam will give it away. However, the shapes of concrete curbs, types of road surface and color of road surface seems to vary greatly around the world, street sign shapes and such which are always noticeable. The more difficult is when they hop from location to location within blocks in the film. Like turning a corner and it is actually hundreds of miles away.... Labyrinth's walk from the park scene in the rain. Nearly every small town in the US has a beautiful English style home, maybe only the one home, but it is enough to fool the eye if you didn't show the entire block of homes. I hate to say it but just like regional dialects, you are asking about regional recognition and you would be best served to have a local look over your scenes for final looks just like you would ask a native speaker instead of trusting Google translate to be accurate.... which it isn't.

 

[cboath]

There's a lot of US shows that say they're on the east coast, usually around NYC/Boston/DC/etc...they go to a park or outside of town and it's clearly the rolling hills of southern california.

 

[dascoyne]

The shrubbery and trees sometimes breaks the illusion.

 

[batguy]

Yeah, the narrow streets sometimes give away foreign locations subbing in for the USA. Not as much anymore (as everybody's streets around the world are widening) but it was more obvious in the past.

Sometimes the age of things is a giveaway. Old sidewalks, rock walls, buildings, etc. The USA is a very car-centric and the civilization all looks very recent. In some US cities there are protected "historic" buildings & streets from the late-1800s. That probably sounds weird by European standards, but the USA was still the wild west in the 1800s. There are a few areas that go back to the 1600s-1700s (mostly on the northeast coast), but not much. The vast majority of the streets & buildings here were built in the 1900s.

US building & street construction is also pretty friendly to disabled people. There is good wheelchair access. That affects the look of the public places in some ways. The storefronts, sidewalks, etc. There are fewer steps and more slanted ramps. Wider passages & doorways. Etc.



Even when the shoot is being done in America, it doesn't necessarily look like America. Hollywood disproportionaly portrays New York & Los Angeles.

When the script calls the location "a generic suburb" they will probably film it in a generic suburb of Los Angeles. That has its own look, and it's different from a suburb in the midwest or eastern states. The bright sunlight, the southwestern landscape, tanned skin, bright/light colors on clothing & decorations, more classic cars than average, etc.

The rest of the world probably sees this as an "American look" but it's really a Los Angeles look. The eastern US states are a bit different. More forested & wetter climate, the paint colors are more subdued, the vehicles rust out faster, etc.


Hollywood makes heavy use of Canada and US cities/states that offer big tax breaks. In the last 20 years they have done a lot of shooting in Louisiana and and New Mexico, especially when the script calls for a rural setting (in any state).

New York is a popular setting in fiction, but a lot of NY city scenes get filmed in nearby Toronto (Canada). Sometimes one of the other rust-belt cities like Cleveland, Ohio. Those are usually pretty seamless swaps. The New York City natives may spot it, but most other viewers don't know the difference. The weather & landscape is similar and the cities were constructed in the same eras.

 

[HMSwolfe]

I remember watching The Office, which is set in Scranton, PA. I grew up on the east coast, I think I have a good feel for what it looks like. So when Michael and Jim are driving to “NYC” to go to the website launch, and I see the scrubby mountains and rest stops of California, I can tell. Although they did use some east coast-specific brands in the earlier seasons, like Herr’s chips (which by the way are awful, I’ve taken their factory tour and the only time they’re good is the sample they give you at the end that’s hot off the line). Sometimes it’s a little harder to tell—another American show, Psych, was shot primarily in Vancouver but takes place in Santa Barbara. Now, if you hadn’t personally been to Santa Barbara, it totally reads as a coastal, Southern California city. But Santa Barbara has these distinctive brown street signs with a unique font that aren’t present in the show. Santa Barbara also has a lot more cobblestone/tiled areas. And finally, there’s a shot in one of the earlier seasons where you catch a stoplight flashing green, which I believe is (or was at the time) a Canadian feature.

 

[Riceball]

One giveaway is the terrain, somebody here once mentioned how some movie or the other was supposed to have been set in Florida, which is a pretty flat state, yet you could see rolling hills or low mountains in the background. In another case, in ID4, they showed MCAS El Toro with nothing but open scrubland or desert nest to the runways, but El Toro is in the middle of a suburb and low hills, so in the background, there should have been houses and maybe some hills with bits of green, depending on the season.

I also find that there's just something about backlots that just scream backlot to me. It's not necessarily the architecture but I think it's something to do with the lighting. It just looks different from both a soundstage and an actual on-location shoot. My guess would be the combination of both natural and artificial lighting that makes it stand out to me.

 

[swgeek]

Usually, unless I know the city/area where they are supposed to be, I can't tell. Unless it's something really obvious like the California mountains I see everyday around me.

 

[3Dsf]

The Sandman TV series, otherwise magnificent, had some clearly UK based locations that were quite unconvincingly presented as the US. The Florida suburb was quite noticeable. The houses had English tile roofs and front door letter slots. The shots of generic skyscrapers in the Docklands subbed in for Buffalo, and those scenes were tightly shot enough to be fine.

On the other hand, the Man Who Fell to Earth did an amazing job of portraying the western US with English actors, and filming in Spain. (note: edited my initial post; I got the country wrong!) Depends a lot on what look you're going for.

 

[somerset fox]

The Sandman TV series, otherwise magnificent, had some clearly UK based locations that were quite unconvincingly presented as the US. The Florida suburb was quite noticeable.

On the other hand, the Man Who Fell to Earth did an amazing job of portraying the western US with English actors, and filming in South Africa.

I was on the day when we filmed ‘Florida beach’ at Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset. Never saw the sun all day. Wondered how they’d cheat the lack of sun. Felt sorry for the volleyball players who were in swimwear on the beach. It was so cold!

 

[3Dsf]

I was on the day when we filmed ‘Florida beach’ at Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset. Never saw the sun all day. Wondered how they’d cheat the lack of sun. Felt sorry for the volleyball players who were in swimwear on the beach. It was so cold!

Yeah, you can do digital sky replacement easily, but location lighting is tough. They were clearly limited by shooting during the pandemic. Some stuff obviously worked - moving the The Sound of Her Wings from NYC to London was fine. But Florida was difficult!

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Well I can often tell when a film set in “America” is filmed elsewhere by how the director (if not an American) portrays American people. Sometimes, the portrayal just seems a bit “off”.

To give you an example, director Richard Lester’s version of Americans appears to have been that Americans were somewhat of a backward people…case in point, Superman II, which was filmed in England…

His version of “small town America” came complete with a “Smokey and the Bandit” version of reality with ignorant and bumbling law enforcement personnel, dirt roads, towns people that all looked, spoke, and behaved like bikers or truckers, and even a kid with dirt smeared all over his face looking like a refuge from a Mad Max film for good measure…

(You will even hear the kid speaking with a British accent, before an American voice was later looped in)

Urban Americans fared no better, being portrayed as loud-mouthed, garish, and generally dumb.

It’s a pretty stark contrast to director Richard Donner’s vision.

 

[Master Boda]

I have noticed in a few movies set in the “US” that the car license plates were small and rectangle which is not what we use or the car models.

 

[Tommy]

I worked all around Alaska for about six years, and most films set there are so obviously not Alaska as to be laughable. Half of the comedy for me in 2009's The Proposal came from knowing what the actual town of Sitka looks like - sorry, but Massachusetts is not remotely close.

It's really sad, because Alaska has an incredible diversity of stunning landscapes and unique communities. The southeast, central Gulf, peninsula, Aleutians, Bering Sea and interior are all wildly different. Portions of BC can stand in suitably in some cases like the southeast or interior (though as with the aforementioned "Sitka," they often don't even bother with that). But further west... practically the only time viewers get any glimpse is in nature documentaries and overly-sensationalized "reality" TV. It presumably comes down to a combination of the transportation cost, limited infrastructure outside of Anchorage, and lack of weather predictability, but I swear - for all the attention that places like Iceland have received lately, Hollywood is seriously missing out on some amazing cinematic potential closer to home.

In the meantime, those familiar with the state will go on rolling their eyes and chuckling.

 

[swgeek]

To give you an example, British Director Richard Lester’s version of Americans appears to have been that Americans are a nation of somewhat backward people…

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

I think it really comes down to how well one knows a place that either kills or sells the illusion. Generally, all big cities look alike so they're constantly used to stand-in for one another. It's always the little details that give it away as some others have already mentioned (street signs, license plates, street and sidewalk width, etc). One uncanny example that I'm keenly aware of is anything standing in for the "mid-west" should the rare occurrence happen. Homes/Neighborhoods here are typically not very big, closer together, and typically lack any fencing for the yards (except for pets).

I also find that there's just something about backlots that just scream backlot to me. It's not necessarily the architecture but I think it's something to do with the lighting. It just looks different from both a soundstage and an actual on-location shoot. My guess would be the combination of both natural and artificial lighting that makes it stand out to me.

I love the look of generic backlots exactly for this! It's like a thumbprint on clay-mation models for me; you know it's a movie. I think it has more to do with the utility of them more than anything else, having to satisfy a lot of different productions means that all the buildings are "generalized" and made fairly flat and uninteresting without the minutiae of real places that sell a "lived in" look.