So Vancouver is like a stunt double: does all the hard work but never gets the glory.

I want a movie to be set in Vancouver and shot in Chicago .

LOL, my husband is always calling out "Hey, that's Vancouver" whenever we watch these movies.

Where are all my Vancouverites at??

When I made my movie NO CLUE, the crew asked me "What city is this going to be?" and I said "Vancouver". They said "Yeah, but what city is it pretending to be for the film?" and I said "No... it plays Vancouver." They were floored (and super happy) that we weren't pretending it was somewhere else.

Vancouver got to play itself during the Winter Olympics.

I've always admired Vince Gilligan for setting Breaking Bad in Albuquerque. Apparently it was written to take place in Riverside, CA, but the studio said they had to shoot it in New Mexico for tax purposes, but they could just call it Riverside. And Vince said, no, if we're going to shoot it in Albuquerque, that's where it's going to be set. And so he was able to give that show a really strong sense of place by featuring real Albuquerque landmarks and distinctive Southwestern scenery.

Dead pool was pretty much Vancouver based, they didn’t hide anything that pointed to our home city!

I'm from Vancouver and always telling my American friends, "this is Vancouver!" when we watch movie. And now it's kinda a joke with them. But I swear so many of the movies I watch I feel like I'm back home. And I feel almost personally hurt that beautiful Vancouver (and the surrounding areas) are always giving credit to other cities, and not our own.

Don't feel bad, Vancouverians. As an American (who doesn't live on the West Coast) I didn't even know there was a Vancouver, Washington until the video mentioned it.

*looks at the film industry* "its all Vancouver?" every frame a painting "always has been."

When Vancouver was a child, someone said to it "Vancouver, when you grow up, you're gonna be some kinda city!" Sadly, as Vancouver got a little older, it was found that it would not be SOME kind of city...but EVERY kind of city!

Iceland plays alien planets, post-apocalyptic wastelands, pre-historic Earth and Tibet a lot but very seldom does it play itself.

Imagine the amount of work it took to do this..goddamn..also the Ghost Protocol one completely fooled me

Toronto has exactly the same trouble. I lived for awhile on a street that was variously filmed as 1) Brooklyn, 2) rural Wisconsin, 3) Chicago, 4) a post-apocalyptic future, and 5) Morocco! And the street is only four blocks long. Most Torontonians were delighted by Scott Pilgrim vs. the World because it was a mainstream film actually set in Toronto.

My favorite things about Vancouver 3) Very slow paced 2) The air and water 1) Its my home

As a guy from Vancouver too, this video made me proud and sad at the same time. Never knew all these movies were filmed in Vancouver.

And they go to Montreal for dystopian hellscapes because you don't need to add too much FX. :P

Kind of sad considering Vancouver is nicer than all the places it “plays”.

Cool video! The last X Files episode (of the original series) shot in Vancouver before they moved to LA paid tribute to Vancouver by finally letting the city play itself: The opening scene was a chess match at GM Place (as Rogers Arena was then called). Local fans of the show were invited to fill the arena as extras.

I'm watching this video from Vancouver, Washington, USA. I live in the 2nd most famous Vancouver in the 2nd most famous Washington (1st is Washington DC). sigh...

It might be just as well that Vancouver is usually anonymous, considering the number of Uwe Boll films that are shot here. ( Not to mention 50 Shades of Grey -- and 50 Shades II coming soon!) One thing you didn't mention is the way the population is disguised for foreign consumption. I was at UBC when a U.S. show was shooting a crowd of "students" eating lunch on a large flight of steps, and the real students were watching on the other side. The TV students were taller, prettier, thinner, impeccably groomed, fashionably dressed down, and older-looking than the schlumpy, fresh-faced real students. The racial differences were startling. Half of the real students were white, about 1/4 to 1/3 were East Asian, and the rest were South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), with a few Native and Middle Eastern kids, which is pretty representative of the city. The TV students were about two-thirds white, one-third black, with exactly one each East Asian and Hispanic kids.

Haha this is great! I was a UBC student and I've seen so many movies being filmed on the way to class. Funny how SFU is portrayed as a military base and never a university 😂

Video is nearly 9 years old but the trend of filming in Vancouver has just been growing, everything is filmed here now

FYI ..the shot of Seattle at 2:22 was actually a matte painting super imposed over downtown Vancouver. The foreground greenery is Pacific Sprint park, and Mount Ranier was added, as well as the north shore mountains, painted out. We did the shot for Breaking Dawn 2 right here in Vancouver. :)

They never actually say it but they imply that Deadpool takes place in Vancouver I mean the main characters Canadian

I was in Vancouver for about 3 days a few years ago and even I can work out where half these shots are (Stanley Park, Gastown etc). Having been there its amazing that everyone just sort of glosses over the fact that the City does have quite a distinct visual identity.

Well, I'm glad you used _1_ clip from Continuum. That show ran 3 seasons, based in Vancouver, itself. I did 2 seasons on the show and it made it SO much easier because we could SEE the lisence plates, flags, post boxes, and the damn mountains!

for someone who lives in Vancouver, this was very interesting to me

Simon Fraser University is a depressing building to go to school in. Especially since Vancouver is so often cloudy. No wonder its always an evil base.

As a Vancouverite myself, this was extremely interesting! I love this city. Pointing out the streets and alleys in film of Vancouver is one of my favourite things to do. I have tattoos from the parlour shown in 2:31 lol

As someone from Vancouver, it's really funny when you can recognize your city in a movie but it's disguised as another one lolol

Wow, I absolutely loved this one! Admittedly, I was ignorant to the fact that Vancouver is used so widely in films and disguised as other cities. This really opened my eyes and raised a lot of valuable questions. Right now, I'm based in the Emirates and our deserts are being offered as great locations to film in for a 30% rebate, and I see all these ads to film 'exotic' locations. What is disappointing though is the fact that our locations don't mean more than some sci-fi landscape of a barren planet or something with a purely orientalist view. For example: 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' showed a wildly distorted view of Dubai. It showed our massive Burj Khalifa set in a desert market. Things wrong with this idea: 1) The Burj is actually set in one of the most technological advanced architectural cities in the world, 2) We don't have markets set in the desert, 3) We don't have traditional style, run-down buildings you can squat in to avoid sandstorms (these are valued, maintained heritage sites). It super irked me to see how Dubai was used to be so unrecognizable to people who actually live here, and it really showed how devalued others view our city. Your comment about how Vancouver is used as a setting and not a location really resonated with me. As usual, thank you for this video; I will definitely keep these concepts in mind while writing new films.

I always liked how Psych would slyly acknowledge that it was filmed in Vancouver, not Santa Barbara. The most obvious example was the episode where they 'went to England', but at the end of the episode one of the characters comments that they never saw much outside of a government building and a pub. The pub in question has an over abundance of Union Jack flyers, and the character then says something like, "Were it not for all these Union Jacks, we could have been in British Columbia the whole time."

As a 25yr Vancouver film vet, I give this video a 5⭐️ rating. Well done Tony and crew.

"there's only been one nagging problem..... the housing market."

The editing on this channel is dope.

They also filmed Fear the Walking Dead in Vancity and disguised it as L.A. My high school was turned into a high school (Paul R. Williams) in L.A.

I grew up skateboarding Downtown Vancouver and had friends working on the catering trucks. So much love for these productions and the endless chocolate milk and awesome buffets that would fill us up and keep us going. These productions are a part of our everyday life and as much as it is a shame that Vancouver never plays itself, they are a welcome mobile landmark of our city.

I’ve lived in Vancouver my whole life and I never knew we where in so many movies

I just about had to give a round of applause for the edit at 4:02. It's such an amazing find: Two different movies shot 10 years apart, yet shot at the same location, at the same camera angle, with even the same lens length. Out of all the doubtless hundreds of movies you went through to make this video to be able to find a match cut like that is astounding. How on Earth did you do that?

I could see Vancouver using this as promotional video for tourism. Great work.

One of my favourites of recent memory was the TV show Once Upon a Time, which takes place in "Storybrooke, Maine" but has Parks Canada signs clearly visible in the background.

I love it when some of the details are goofed. I recently saw a tv show where they were supposed to be in Boston. The goof? A Canada Post mailbox.

I was waiting for you to mention Scott Pilgrim but then I realised. Toronto. There's more than one city in Canada. Shit.

This gets more appropriate as the days go on. Most, if not all of the CW television shows seem to be shot in Vancouver. It's come to the point I'm starting to notice the sets lol

I remember re-watching Caprica right after visiting Vancouver and instantly recognizing all these places I had seen in the show.

Vancouver deserves more respect, it's a beautiful city. This is coming from someone from the other side of the world - Melbourne.

"I will never forgive this" lol

"I will never forgive this"

if Vancouver can play the setting of all these locations, then I can't imagine how beautiful, diverse and huge it is. Amazing Vancouver

Hey man I just found your channel. I'm a Vancouverite and I started doing film work; I've "been" in Colorado, New York, Gotham, Texas and more, all within a 30 minute drive. I love this city

Someday, someone will make a movie set in Vancouver, but shot in Toronto.

I lived in Vancouver for 6 years, and went to college there (not at either of the two big colleges shown in this video, but at Emily Carr, which is the city's art college). I ran into this phenomenon all the time-- not just while watching movies, but while actually being out in the city. I remember very distinctly one afternoon when I was driving to Granville Island to get to class (because at the time, Emily Carr's campus was on the island), and I found myself driving past a long line of yellow taxis. Imagine my confusion when I noticed they all had 'New York Cab Co.' decals on the side! It wasn't until a bit later that I realized I had inadvertently driven through a film set in the course of my daily routine. Over the years, I can also recall seeing several notices from time to time, posted in the mailroom of my apartment building, notifying everyone that film crews would be in the area for shooting, and roads in the neighborhood would be blocked off. And of course, having lived there, I also love being able to watch movies shot in Vancouver and keep my eyes open for locations that are familiar to me-- my favorite one is the Schwarzenegger movie The 6th Day. Not a great movie, but it's always hilarious for me to see the Vancouver Public Library used as the headquarters of an evil cloning corporation. And Harbour Centre being clearly visible in the background during Falkor's flight over the city in The NeverEnding Story is pretty fun for me, too. To this day, I think the only movie I've ever seen where Vancouver EXPLICITLY plays itself is the Canadian indie film "Everything's Gone Green" (clips of which are shown in this video). And, as mentioned, the big running gag of the movie is about how movies always use it to play other locations.

That Vancouver Washington bit is quite hilarious to me.

For working in the film industry here, I am very glad you made this video. Canada makes some great films, but most of our bigger and better known "Canadian" films are from Quebec. Most people are surprised when I tell them what has been filmed here in Vancouver. It would be great to be able to feature our city as our city and to grow Canadian Film in general. I'm glad Continuum was shot and set in Vancouver! Thanks!

“Wait, they make movies in Toronto?” - Scott Pilgrim Toronto has a similar burden of being every other city. I had a "THEY LIED TO ME" moment as a child with Short Circuit 2, where Johnny 5 is getting sworn in as an American citizen in front of Queen's Park, mid-Toronto. My favourite "hey I recognize that spot" moment, apart from a stock photo of City Hall being one of the alien destinations in an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation, was watching the movie, Kick Ass. Supposedly set in New York, the characters walk out of the Scotiabank Theater, which is exactly where I was watching that film. Toronto's been getting a little more play as a city that movies can actually be set in, and thus play itself, but it's taken a while for it to be and feel genuine. I remember the 90's show 'Forever Knight' featuring a vampire as a homicide cop in Toronto. Never mind that I couldn't take serious a vampire investigating a death on Queen St. out front of where Bakka Books used to be located, but the city only has maybe 50-60 homicides per year... tops. How the hell were vampires supposed to keep a low profile among that?

Kinda funny that I am in the middle of reporting all these productions filming here, and somehow never heard about this video organically. Had to learn about it from a geography discord group. Great job.

"the next station is , MetroTown." Ahhhhh my pre-teen years wrapped into one single skytrain announcement.

DUDE! Vancouver is the best! I live there too!

Toronto gets a similar deal too doesn't it? I remember Edgar Wright talking about how Scott Pilgrim was one of the rare films filmed in Toronto and actually set there. Also, really bugs me on The Flash and Arrow how they keep using the same buildings and streets for different cities in the show. I think there was even one week where one location was used on both shows in the same week for different purposes.

👊 A great little show called Continuum let Vancouver play Vancouver a few years back. But I agreed, it would be nice to see us be us a little more often!

I'd be bothered by SFU being portrayed like that, if it wasn't really accurate..

"Okay, we're going to shoot the movie in Vancouver." "Ah, alright. So the movie is set in San Francisco or something?" "... no it's set in Vancouver." "... what?"

Vancouver is a beautiful place :) From a fan in New Zealand.

The show Continuum is actually set in Vancouver. I highly recommend it.

Really appreciate the message in this! I'm a film composer and sound designer living in Vancouver, and am LOVING all the local filmmaking output these days. We still need much more but there are many talented filmmakers living and working here. Love it.

This video essay is way better than Los Angeles Plays Itself.

As a Seattlite, It's frustrating how misrepresented our City is. My favorite example is near the end of Chronicle, where there is a statue that is holding a javelin that plays a central part of the final few scenes. That statue does not exist in Seattle, and it made me incredibly frustrated. Very often they also include train stations and subways (looking at you, Deadlight), which don't exist in Seattle, all we have is the monorail.

I love that Vancouver can play so many parts of the world, to me it shows how so many people from around the world made Canada its home. Its also pretty cool to see the city you grew up in pop up in movies.

Intersection with Richard Gere was one of the only mainstream movies that took place in Vancouver for the whole thing. I was really surprised when I saw it.

I love this one! I watched all of LA Plays Itself in one sitting (something I'll probably never do again) and this was just as fascinating, if not more. Tony, I love your channel - I am hard of hearing and it can be very hard for me to enjoy KZfaq Channels like this because they aren't captioned. Thank you SO much for captioning ALL of your videos. I watched half already, and I look forward to watching more. It means so much of you to make your videos accessible to deaf people like me.

I have done a lot of extras work in Vancouver. Shows like Lucifer Motive The Flash Wayward Pines and like 100 indy or hallmark cheesy films It's neat to see how they transform one location into a generic set piece. My favourite is Coquitlam's old riverview mental hospital as it is heavily used in horror-type genres

I love the Vancouver film industry, It employs my parents, so intern keeps a roof over my head, it employs my sister and many others. I also love that I can recognize the location of a lot of shots, especially when there are films on the Burrard bridge.

I live in Vancouver as well and I saw Ryan Reynolds on the bridge near Rogers arena and it was awsome

A similar thing kind of happened over in Glasgow. In the last few years it stood in for San Francisco, London, Philadelphia and a few other places as well.

0:50 R.I.P Lions Gate 6:46 Metrotown 8:13 Lol I guess that's true XD

Calling it: A major movie will be set in Vancouver, but not shot in the city.

It's sooo hard to say goodbye.....to this channel. I love it and hate that it's gone.

As always, press CC to see the movie titles and (this time) locations! If you spot a location that I got incorrect, leave a comment and let me know!

Love that all the music you used is from Vancouverite bands! Nice subtle touch. And this video itself is incredibly important, not just because of what it says about Vancouver, but for what it says about carving out a film community where you live regardless of how your town is depicted in the media otherwise. Having lived most of my life in Tampa, one of the least photogenic cities in Florida, if not the whole US, I was always hardpressed to find a real film community there. But sometimes, it just takes getting out there and doing it.

I work at canada post and I can't tell you how many of our vehicles ive seen in movies that are supposed to be set in the states haha.

My favorite Vancouver film moment is on a show it actually displayed itself as Vancouver, Continuum. A buddy I know that goes to sets like myself, one day caught them filming in Burnaby, pretending to be Vancouver.... then several hours later, they moved about 5 minutes away, to Vancouver, and that scene was taking place in, you guessed it, Burnaby. Like WHY?

Wait your city was disguised to be Detroit? Now that is a slap to the face.

Great video as usual. Good Canadian music choices, particularly Destroyer in the opening and then coming full circle with the New Pornogrophers. Sometimes the subtleties can go unnoticed, but I'd thought I'd let you know someone appreciates them. Keep up the good work!

Dang. I never knew how special Vancouver was. Though I live there, I never noticed the background of flims were the beautiful mountains we have.

While Psych does usually try to pass Vancouver off as Santa Barbara, there have actually been two episodes where Vancouver does in fact play itself! 4x01 and 5x10 both involved the characters traveling to Vancouver and they fit in as many landmarks as they could lol

Thanks for bringing me here, YMS! This is pretty darn cool :D

This video sits in my recommendation for couple weeks now, finally watched, I am not regret. Never realized Vancouver has appeared in so many films.

This video needs to be preserved...

Vancouver is such a beautiful city, it needs more film recognition. Vancouver forever!!

Man, this video is super well done. As an Spaniard that lived in Vancouver for a while, I recognize so much of my personal experience in your short documentary. Congrats!

Incoming views from YMS

I don't think the point is that Vancouver's buildings are generic. I think they have a range of buildings from different ages, they have mountains and ocean, all within a few km of each other. I really liked how you slipped the D.O.A. song in there - a sneaky little tribute. I was wondering if you'd mentioned Hard Core Logo at the end - a great movie set, in part, in Vancouver.

The diverse surrounding landscapes help in filmmaking, too. You can get mountains, the ocean, forest, and other landscapes in a short distance. Sometimes they have to go to Southern Alberta to get prairie and such, but not a lot of people want to see prairie on film for some reason... so that's not really an issue.

Great sign: "Come for the tax breaks stay for the marijuana." LOL! From one Vancouverite to another...I tip my hat to you sir. Excellent job.

Do Roger Deakins cinematography!

My dad was a DoP. One time when he was shooting, he noticed that all the taxis passing by still had their Vancouver identification on it. He pointed it out to the set department…only to be told that the film *actually took place in Vancouver*

I live in Vancouver and honestly it is very beautiful its very under appreciated

Thank you for making this! As a Vancouverite who absolutely loves this beautiful city, I say it's about time we had some movies that were set here.