the process

FINDING THE LOCATIONS

The first step is to find where the movie or TV show was filmed. Some locations are well known and are easy to find. Others require a lot more research, and may involve a lot of effort to go there.

The Twilight reveal scene was filmed behind a restaurant parking lot 15 minutes from my work so was a piece of cake. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly graveyard scene was the furthest afield, in Spain. By far the hardest to research (and get to) was the jump location from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

TAKING THE PHOTOS

Taking photos to precisely match the camera locations is MUCH harder than it looks. The slightest variation from the camera location changes the perspective between objects, especially with close-up scenes.

I take marked-up printouts of the scene that show where features overlap in order to triangulate the camera position.

Even then, it often takes hundreds of photos to precisely capture the correct camera position.

PRESENTING THE LOCATIONS

The main goal of most of the film projects was to create Location Videos. This involves using photo and video editing software to merge the photos with the film scenes.

A second way of presenting the locations is through Photo Sliders. These let you compare "before-and-after" views of the location using a swipe tool.

A third way of presenting the scene is through Storymaps, which let you tell a story of the location in interesting ways.