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Hi my name is Tony[br]and this is Every Frame a Painting.

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The first time I ever felt like a movie[br]lied to me, I was eight years old

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and it was[br]Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco.

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Because this isn’t San Francisco.

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--"What’s this? I thought[br]we were going someplace cool."

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--"This is my favorite place[br]in the entire city."

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This is Vancouver, where I grew up.

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If you watch enough TV or blockbusters,[br]then chances are you’ve seen my city

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disguised as Santa Barbara

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or as Seattle

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and even one time[br]as the Bronx.

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--"Something’s always happening here."

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--"That’s New York for you. [br]You'll get used to it."

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But no matter how many[br]movies or TV shows are filmed here

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there’s always been one nagging problem.

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We never actually see the city. It’s[br]always pretending to be somewhere else.

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--"I'm in Vancouver downtown, Robson[br]Square on the set of The Interview..."

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--"This is where[br]Seth Rogen and James Franco..."

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--"...they’re supposed to be[br]in North Korea, so check it out."

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--"You are fucking stupid and[br]you are fucking ignorant, Dave."

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--"Mmgh!![br]--"Ugh!"

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Vancouver is actually the third[br]biggest film city in North America.

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But we’re so hidden we have movies about[br]how we’re not featured in the movies.

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--"My specialty is disguising Vancouver [br]so it looks like an American city."

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But how do you fake one city as[br]another without the audience noticing?

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Well first you need to know the city[br]and Vancouver is kind of a chameleon.

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In Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol,[br]it plays Seattle...

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and Eastern Europe…

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and even India, all within[br]a 15-minute drive of each other.

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Once you know the city, it’s actually[br]pretty simple to trick the audience.

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Most people don’t question[br]the establishing shot

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so you can just find the right building[br]and put a title card onscreen.

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The other option is to shoot 2nd unit[br]footage of another city and then cut

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to somewhere in Vancouver.

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This is especially common with Seattle[br]since a lot of the architecture there

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looks pretty similar to here.

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But to really convince the audience,[br]you're gonna need a lot of help.

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Which brings us to the art department[br]who control all the little details...

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Like decals on the sides of cars

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American flags in the background

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new signs in front of buildings

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and this one's my personal favorite

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--"I'm not gonna kiss them but[br]let's just say I might give em some--"

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USA Today vending machines

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Because nothing says America[br]like USA Today.

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--“I read it every day for[br]news around the U.S.A."

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The next step in faking a city is[br]deciding how to light and shoot it.

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One of the best ways to disguise Vancouver[br]is to film at night in shallow focus.

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This is to avoid pulling a[br]"Rumble in the Bronx"

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when they pointed the camera north[br]and you could clearly see the mountains.

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It’s kind of remarkable what[br]you can get from a location

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by changing the angle and the lighting

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This is the Orpheum Theatre,[br]on a tripod from a high angle.

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And here’s the exact same entryway[br]from a low-angle, handheld.

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Last, there’s the VFX team who[br]composite specific elements in the shot

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Sometimes it’s a landmark[br]like Alcatraz

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the TransAmerica Pyramid[br]or the Space Needle.

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But other times, they’ll change[br]almost the entire frame.

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This is Front Street, playing Japan.

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And here it is again[br]playing future Chicago.

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And it’s all these little details[br]that help us believe the illusion.

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So that a character can jump[br]out of a window in Vancouver…

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and in the space of one cut…

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end up in San Francisco.

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But what does it mean for a city[br]if it’s always playing somewhere else?

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Well for Vancouver, it means that[br]our onscreen image is kind of generic.

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What you’ve seen in the movies is[br]mostly downtown

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like the glass buildings[br]along Burrard Street.

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And the area around Gastown,[br]like this alley off of Cambie.

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The city is kind of like[br]one giant backlot

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a bunch of anonymous buildings[br]that can stand in for anywhere else.

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Even when the movies go somewhere unique[br]they have a way of typecasting it.

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For instance, BCIT’s Aerospace Campus[br]actually looks pretty cool.

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But it’s always turned into some[br]vaguely dystopian government facility.

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Everybody walks around[br]waving a special badge

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and they try to maintain order,[br]but of course they can't.

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Vancouver’s locations are like[br]weirdly familiar character actors.

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For instance, the city's[br]two biggest universities

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play opposite roles onscreen.

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SFU, with its concrete staircases,[br]never plays a university.

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It’s either a military base

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or some evil corporation.

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Meanwhile, UBC always plays a university

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that’s located everywhere else[br]but Canada.

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This year, it even played[br]Washington State University

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which means that Vancouver, B.C.[br]finally got to play…

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Vancouver, Washington

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For me, this is the single[br]worst moment in local film history.

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I will never forgive this.

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But if filmmaking today is global...

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why do so many of our stories[br]take place in the same four cities?

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Is it just so we can destroy[br]the same landmark over...

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and over...

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and over?

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By the way, take a guess where[br]all four of these films were shot.

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--"Who wants to go to Vancouver?"

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Sometimes, I wonder if local film crews[br]try to sneak the city into the shot

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As a form of protest.

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To Hollywood, Vancouver is[br]a location but not a setting.

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It’s a place with talent and scenery[br]and tax incentives

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but almost no film identity of its own.

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Just other identities it can borrow.

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But maybe there’s some hope.

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For 50 years, there’s been a[br]local movement of films and TV shows

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where Vancouver does play itself.

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--"We had no idea how to make a film."

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--"We had no idea. We just[br]went ahead and made the film."

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A lot of these films[br]aren’t widely distributed.

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But they offer[br]a completely different perspective.

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For me, they’re often a lot closer[br]to my own experiences…

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As a child of immigrants who[br]mostly explored the city on foot.

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--"Come on Dad!"

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--"Oh shit, my camera!"

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These movies treat Vancouver[br]not as a location but as a setting.

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And they capture the things[br]that are unique to us.

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So we need these images more than ever.

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Because films can preserve[br]a particular time and place.

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Not as a documentary but as[br]a fictional story about the real world.

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And the city deserves better than[br]the occasional joke about its weather

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--"Pack your winter coat.[br]We’re going to Canada’s warmest city."

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So this is Vancouver. The third biggest[br]filmmaking town in North America.

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Onscreen, it is ubiquitous[br]and it is invisible.

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But offscreen, there are[br]other angles just waiting to be filmed.

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And I think it’s time we made a push[br]to create new images of ourselves.

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Because honestly, it’s our city.

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Who else is going to do it?