Vancouver always feels like Cities Skyline or SimCity to me, in a good way. That point where you’ve maxed everything out and there’s all sorts going on. You turn a corner and you see a seaplane landing, people cycling, rowing, running, doing yoga in the park, boats going past, etc, etc. Then another corner and you see the mountains, ski resorts with the lights twinkling. In one direction there’s skyscrapers but in another, quaint colourful houses. I love it here.
Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
41–50 of 55 posts
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#42Nah, you can tell because they don’t have annoying people paint street numbers on the curbs. That said it’d be difficult to film the film Bullitt in Vancouver unless they cut out a lot of the street scenes, the marina, San Bruno mountain, the old freeways…
The painting address numbers on curbs was a widespread scam in San Francisco. Grifters scammed homeowners into doing it.
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Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#43Also Battlestar Galactica -multiple shots of homes in Vancouver- I remember watching the series and wondering what city was being used for Baltar's house and surroundings because it was so beautiful, futuristic and clean..then I went vistied Vancouver.. its truly a gorgeous city and area http://www.battlestarlocations.com/locations-guide/the-minis...
Every time I visit the library it feels like I'm in New Caprica.
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#44Nah, you can tell because they don’t have annoying people paint street numbers on the curbs. That said it’d be difficult to film the film Bullitt in Vancouver unless they cut out a lot of the street scenes, the marina, San Bruno mountain, the old freeways…
The painting address numbers on curbs was a widespread scam in San Francisco. Grifters scammed homeowners into doing it.
That's extortion, not a scam. Still bad, but different word.
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#45The alien planet is always a Canadian forest!
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#46Tax breaks for filming and it's not SF specific or even cities. Other planets too, like Stargate SG-1 being filmed around Squamish 1 hour away.
Having a street shut down for filming in New York or San Francisco is probably beyond the budget of most directors.
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#47Psych (the TV show) was set in Santa Barbara but filmed in Vancouver. They then did an episode where the plot was that characters all took a trip to British Columbia, which I recall being amusingly meta.
Wow. With all the beach, pier and flyby shots, as a non-American, I really thought it was all shot in Santa Barbara. Man. What editing can do.
It’s a great show. But yeah if look closely, those shoreline shots have rockier beaches and more evergreens lining the shore than should really be the case in Santa Barbara :)
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#48Tax breaks for filming and it's not SF specific or even cities. Other planets too, like Stargate SG-1 being filmed around Squamish 1 hour away.
I always got a chuckle when Stargate went meta. They had a planet called Kelowna (a real BC city) and a country called Langara (I was for a time a faculty member at Langara College). At one point, they visit an Oregon town called Steveston, with the location being the Steveston district of Richmond BC.
Of course, nothing can beat the thrill of waking up every morning and looking out my bedroom building at the office building that was taken over by an evil computer on X-Files.
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#49the non politically correct answer - Vancouver allows you to sell the dream of a wonderful city, clean streets etc.
Like SF, you can pick streets in Vancouver and sell whatever story you want about the city. You won't find many film cameras on East Hastings unless it's a documentary.
The utility poles in alleys are my signal that the video is shot in Vancouver. I haven't seen many other cities with such utility poles.
see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vancouver_BC_alley_a...
Re: Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
#50Vancouver always feels like Cities Skyline or SimCity to me, in a good way. That point where you’ve maxed everything out and there’s all sorts going on. You turn a corner and you see a seaplane landing, people cycling, rowing, running, doing yoga in the park, boats going past, etc, etc. Then another corner and you see the mountains, ski resorts with the lights twinkling. In one direction there’s skyscrapers but in an…
I agree! Vancouver has lots of stuff going on. It's a particularly great city to see different kinds of transport. Bikes, cars, trains, subways, float planes, yachts, sailboats, passenger jets.