Cinematical city.
As I was watching Sherlock Holmes again just now --in which there are many shots of London, with one in particular that caught my eye depicting Victorian era traffic crossing in front of the Big Ben (see here)-- I came to a realisation.
New York City does not actually exist.
I know. It's a shock. But hear me out.
As I witnessed the shot described above I realised how it must have been a logistical nightmare to achieve, closing off Westminster Bridge Road, emptying it of all traffic and tourists for the duration of that shot, moving in the era-appropriate props and actors, shooting the scene over several takes; a daunting task, surely, even with the aid of digital wizardry.
Now consider New York City, a city we've all seen a million times in a million films; every street, building, alley, skyscraper, intersection, shopping mall has been filmed and documented from every possible angle in films big and small. Now, every single scene in every film that depicts a location in NYC requires a similar type of preparation as described above.
Which would mean that the entire city would be closed down pretty much all the time. And since this is a clear impossibility, I have come to the conclusion that New York City is not an actual city but a place built for cinematic purposes only, like the backlot of a film studio, only larger.
I'm quite sure of it.
New York City does not actually exist.
I know. It's a shock. But hear me out.
As I witnessed the shot described above I realised how it must have been a logistical nightmare to achieve, closing off Westminster Bridge Road, emptying it of all traffic and tourists for the duration of that shot, moving in the era-appropriate props and actors, shooting the scene over several takes; a daunting task, surely, even with the aid of digital wizardry.
Now consider New York City, a city we've all seen a million times in a million films; every street, building, alley, skyscraper, intersection, shopping mall has been filmed and documented from every possible angle in films big and small. Now, every single scene in every film that depicts a location in NYC requires a similar type of preparation as described above.
Which would mean that the entire city would be closed down pretty much all the time. And since this is a clear impossibility, I have come to the conclusion that New York City is not an actual city but a place built for cinematic purposes only, like the backlot of a film studio, only larger.
I'm quite sure of it.
1 Comments:
That's quite a theory. Logical, well thought out. And totally freaked me out!
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