I went on a road trip up the West Coast last year and I don't know if either people are incredibly douchey there or they just seem that way because people are so nice in Portland and Seattle.

I stayed a winter in Vancouver and got totally dicked over by a navigation software company in Burnaby. Therefore, my opinion of the place will always be a little skewed. Also, beautiful scenery doesn't mean much if it never stops raining.

You got Kick-Ass, I got Twilight. It was filmed at my rival high school in Portland. I get why the Couve would be used for big movies with very generic buildings that blow up or whatever (not that it's true.. Vancouver's skyline is one of my favorites in the world) but I don't understand the smaller movies, or more recently, sitcoms and such that feature smaller towns like Portland or Seattle. Godzilla never said "hey take a left on Lombard Street" or anything like that, but shows like Backstrom (set in Portland but filmed in Vancouver) use street names all the time, and it's just kind of funny. I get that it's cheaper to film something like Godzilla up there, but is it more cost effective to film not-on-location when a show or movie is so location-oriented?

They filmed some of Indiana Jones around here. The newer one, with the nuked fridge.

Top that.

They filmed a big fight scene for the Incredible Hulk basically on my doorstep when I lived in Toronto. They filmed all night, every night, for about two weeks, and the actual scene is about a minute long and mostly CG, but it was kind of neat watching how they film stuff.

Hulk was Canadian? Seems like you guys never get upset about anything! That'd make sense with Indy.. didn't he teach at American Ivy League USA?

It's not my hometown but Madison Wisconsin got Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield, as Big Ten USA University. I'm not sure which one of us wins, but we all deserve cake and a party favor.

Toronto gets a bunch: I remember watching Boondock Saints and in the toilet scene I see a Henry's Camera sign and I realized I had used that alley to skateboard to work.

R.E.D. had some dead giveaways (I'd done photoshoots in a couple of the locations they used), the new Carrie was being filmed down the road from my old office, I had realized I'd walked into KA-2's shooting when I was walking down Yonge street and there was a hotdog stand where there never was one before. We got to be Raccoon City with zero effort to conceal it as well in RE-2. Suicide squad will be more Toronto scenery in action. X-Men, The Hulk, yeah, no shortage of films here. Toronto covers East Coast USA cities, Vancouver does more West Coast USA.

Our cinematic peak had to be when they shot some of the Police Academy movies here. Or short circuit 2. Big time, baby...

Everything I know about the Bronx comes from Rumble in the Bronx.

I have been there many times, but Rumble in the Bronx feels realer, more authentic.

RitB was my only context for when I actually went to the Bronx to check out Fordham University. I told the cab driver the name but he dropped me off at Fordham AND University, miles away from the schoool.

Oh yeah anyway it was snowing that day in late April and everyone was super friendly and got me on the right path to where I was supposed to be. No rumbling for this one.

My favorite "wasn't filmed there (but why) " was the horror film Dr. Giggles (starring the Bad Guy from Darkman), which was filmed in my childhood neighborhood in Portland, but was supposed to be in a small Twin Peaks style town, even though you can see the actual downtown which is like 2 miles away from most of the houses. The crew also filmed at my elementary school and needed bikes for a night shot and told us they'd pay us 5 dollars a piece if we left our bikes in the school's bike racks overnight. The crew realized how in the red they were and just got the school cafeteria to give us milk and those really shitty hot lunch cookies.

What are you on about today, baleen?

Scabs. Seattle lost so many fucking jobs to Vancouver. As a film student who wanted to work, I saw "shot in Seattle" productions go right to Vancouver. If the tides were turned, they'd say the same thing about us. I know, who cares, right.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_hollywood_economist/200 6/02/northern_expenditure.html

No, you're right. I give zero shits about this.

Heh.. I was up in the Couve not too long ago; it's gotten pretty cool since they legalized weed in Washington, and it's really not too far from hip spots Kenton and St Johns in Portland, which is like triple the rent these days.

I lived in Kenton.
Meh.

Yeah.. Kenton Club's good for punk rock shows, and I like Slim's for some reason, but last time I was up there I was nearly killed by two dogs I was dogsitting who decided it'd be fun to pull me right off the cliff at Cathedral Park.