Film / Movie Locations Portals for Location Scout Research
Below is a list in no specific order of historical film / movie locations portals on the internet. Not only are these types of sites entertaining for movie buffs, but they can be extremely useful to location scouts, producers, art directors and many other production personnel for many reference purposes.
Locations are typically indexed by film name, city or location
and might also include:
- actual frames from the film or a photo of the way the scene currently appears
- DVD / VHS box cover or poster thumbnail
- map, address, gps coordinates, cross streets or block where the filming occurred
- an informative anecdote or fact and additional info about the film or location
IMDB, although not complete, is likely the most comprehensive, as info is often added by location scouts or other production personnel that actually worked on the film(s) (or tv shows…) but I have not seen very many movie stills / photos of locations i.d’d specifically for location reference on IMDB. Elsewhere, on other portals, different films appear to be listed on different sites or may be duplicated and coverage varies from site to site, sometimes focusing on a specific genre or geographic area.
Open Movie Datababase (TMDB)
Another vast resource of movie data is The Open Movie Datababase (TMDB).
Wouldn’t it be *really grand* if *all* this data were aggregated to one central, user-friendly, non-proprietary website?
General / Worldwide Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
- Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
- Open Movie Database (TMDB)
- BoxOfficeQuant – 100 Years of Film Set Locations *** on a Google Map! 🙂
- Filmaps
- Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations
- Film Locations – The Movie Map
- Movie Locations Guide
- Filming Locations Detectives
- Location Scout – iPhone / Android mobile app
- Film Locations Blogger Herve Attia
- Webshots: mrlocation
- Before the Trailer
- Movie Insider
U.S. Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
US / CA / Hollywood – LA Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
US / Michigan Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
US / NY / New York Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
- MOFTB: Scenes From the City Interactive Map
- Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters
- New York on Film: Great TV and Movie Locations in Manhattan
UK Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
UK / London Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
- FilmCrawl – London pubs used as film locations
- World Film Locations – New book series – UK based, but books about movie locations world-wide
Spain Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
Germany / Berlin Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
- Kino inm Kopf (“Cinema in the Head”) – “then and now” comparison photos of different iconic Berlin movie locations by Thomas Duchnicki
Misc / Related Location Scout Movie Locations Portals
Google Search: film locations*
Google Search: movie locations*
*Results are broad and will include location agencies with location libraries and location scouts for hire for new film projects
Google Maps Mania Search – Movies
An unofficial Google Maps blog tracking the websites, mashups and tools being influenced by Google Maps.
If anyone knows of any additional historical film / tv / movie locations portals, I would be interested to hear about them; please leave a comment or ping me. Thanks 🙂
Location Scout Resource: New York City Movie Mapper
Metaphilm Movie Mapper
…via Deisel Powered Nuns:
Movie Mapper is an online database of film locations in New York City (Part of the Metaphilm website)
About the Mapper | Manhattan on Film
New York City is Hollywood’s most famous front lot, and is filmed entertainment’s number one location for film on the planet. When you travel to New York City you will constantly find yourself saying, “Wait, I know this place” or, “Hey, I’ve seen that somewhere”—it’ll get to the point of déjà vu where you’ll start to wonder if you once lived here. You have. You do. By spending 5000-plus hours watching film and television growing up, chances are good you’ve already spent several weeks in New York City without even being here.
metaphilm feed
Location Scout Resource: Film locations | Movie locations – Filmaps.com
Filmaps, share and discover film and TV movie locations around the world. You can search by movie or locations and see the results in Google Maps and Panoramio photos
As a film and video location scout, I am often given movie references to use in new location searches, i.e., “we want it to look like the club in Casablanca!” so a website such as Filmaps can come in very handy for production work at times; plus, I just plain like movies and movie trivia 🙂
If you follow the link below, “New York Tour”, you will see that Filmaps makes a gorgeous Google Maps presentation. There is an api (application programming interface), but I personally have not yet been able to get far using it.
Filmaps on YouTube
Filmaps New York Tour
Movie Locations Blogger Hervé Attia – Blogger: User Profile: Hervé Attia
Herve Attia is an enthusiastic videoblogger of interesting film locations from well known movies. Herve has traveled far and wide to document a considerable number of locations. In most cases, Mr. Attia has provided short video clip excerpts of the locations as depicted in the movie(s) against video footage and / or photos of the locations as they existed when he visited them many years after production had finished.
I have found it fun to visit Herve Attia’s Blogger blogs (some are listed below) to read his notes and watch his videos from there or just visit Hervé Attia on YouTube.
Unfortunately, in some cases, concerned parties at YouTube have evidently felt that Mr. Attia created a copyright infringement, so Mr. Attia has moved some his videos to Vimeo.
Location: Sunnyvale, CA, United States
Quest:
-
Visiting the filming locations of my favorite movies
Blogs:
- Sergio Leone – Duck, You Sucker – The Bridge
- On The Set of BLADE RUNNER
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- On the Set of Superman
- On the Set of E.T
- On The Set Of Inspector Harry
- The Shawshank Redemption
- On The Set of High Plains Drifter
- Rebel Without A Cause
- On The Set Of TERMINATOR
- OnThe Set Of Conan the Barbarian
- On The Set of The Howling
- On the Set of DIE HARD
- On the Set of SHINING
- On The Set Of First Blood
Hervé Attia on YouTube
Herve Attia at Vimeo
Location Scout Resource: The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations | Film Locations Travel Guide
Welcome to the ultimate travel guide to film locations around the world, with original location photographs, trivia, links and travel details. If you ever wondered ‘Where did they film that?’, or you want to visit the filming locations of your favourite movie, simply navigate by film title or browse the name of your favourite actor or director. To check out locations, use the world map.
This site is run in association with the books The Worldwide Guide To Movie Locations and Movie London. Titles listed in bold have full entries on the site. All other titles listed can be found in the books. All the titles will eventually have full entries, so check back often.
Location Scout Resource: Movie – TV Locations Nationwide
The movie and TV shooting locations near you – Entertainment Weekly
USA Today has a fun list of which movies and TV shows have been shot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It’s a good reminder that you don’t necessarily have to live in Los Angeles or Manhattan to wake up and find a film crew shooting outside your front door. Nor do you have to live near a famous landmark, like Mount Rushmore (pictured, in North by Northwest).
50 Nifty Filmmaking States – USA Today
