This one's for all those cities who have a reasonable amount of film locations in their history (or at least one great one - The Great Santini in what southern city???)
I shared about the Capitol of Punk tour. Now Random Culture reports on the interactive map from the NYC Mayor's Office of Film and Television celebrating 40 years of movie location shooting in NYC. The map is pretty cool. In mashup-style, you can click on a push pin and get a movie title, links to IMDB and possibly a thumbnail. It's also nowhere near any of the tourism resources for the city so it remains an insider's resource.
Ok, compare it Ironic Sans interactive map of Ghostbusters. Click on one of the two logos (he covers Ghostbusters I & II) and you get pop-ups with pictures and great descriptions like this one for the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church:
"The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man steps
on this church. Mother puss bucket!
Nobody steps on a church in my town!"
I lived in NYC when that was being filmed and was in fact shooting another movie across the street near city hall when they shot that scene of the army being deployed (cue Ghostbusters theme). Suddenly we are hearing an enthusiast's voice which is ten time more interesting.
The Idea already:
These are great places to start but let's get people invoved. Let's invite citizens and travelers to shoot photos of key movie locations in their city. Local newspapers do this from time to time. But I am talking about creating a living database of images. Encourage people to capture the Excorcist steps (DC) at just the angles used in the movie (and not just that one angle that is always reproduced). How many times was the bar at 7th & B in NYC used as a location? What are the angles on that famous horshoe-shaped bar?
Pictures would pour in. People would become prolific contributors and given "WeeGee" status with special perks - movie tickets? We would encourage a cadre of enthusiasts in cities all across the country (globe?).
If I were traveling to Atlanta, I could download the tour for Manhunter or Freejack (I was in the city for that one. Mick Jagger was renting a mansion in Buckhead) or a mix of different films. I could then capture my own images of those locations in a kind of scavenger hunt and upload them.
What happens next? The inevitable. People start creating their own videocast re-creations of famous scenes. Think about how that is already a phenomena from Lego-enacted Star Wars to that whole ridiculous, shot-by-shot remake of Psycho.
Then we add location-specific mobile phone tours. Text a number and hear the dialogue between Robert Deniro and Jody Foster on her stoop in Taxi Driver as you stand in the exact spot it was shot .
Did you notice all me personal anecdotes about where I was when a film was shot? (I have a pretty funny one about the Toxic Avenger) Encourage people to post those personal stories within the virtual tours.
Clearly this idea will work best in a city where either a lot of films have been shot or some real humdingers were shot. There is a site currently that tries to list worldwide movie locations but it lacks any social element (and no great photography).
The movie business has fans. Specific movies have fans. I've been to the building that served as the front of the hotel in Kubrick's The Shining. I am a huge Kubrick fan but that would be a global romp.
Came across your posting...
Thought you might be interested in this:
http://ghostbustour.net/
Cheers,
Jamie
Posted by: Jamie Allen | December 02, 2006 at 03:47 PM