Film and Music

If you are a big movie fan, you may be interested in seeing some of the places where your favorite movies were filmed. Unless you live in a major film city, it’s likely you’ll be traveling to your favorite movie locations. In the United States, the vast majority of movie filming takes place in Los Angeles, where films are sometimes shot on location around the streets and buildings, but are commonly shot on film lots and in studios. New York City also sees its fair share of movie filming though, and filming takes place quite frequently on the city streets and around famous landmarks.

By visiting Los Angeles or New York City, you can see locations used in some of the most popular films of all time. In Los Angeles, for instance, you can drive down Sunset Boulevard, Mulholland Drive or Laurel Canyon, all of which have been used as movie titles and settings. You can also visit buildings captured on film, including the Las Palmas Hotel, used as the home of Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman, the Regent Beverly Wilshire, where she hooked up with Richard Gere’s character, and Rodeo Drive, where the movie’s famous shopping scene takes place.

In New York, you can see locations of classic films like Taxi Driver, Shaft, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, When Harry Met Sally, and most of Woody Allen’s film work. You can also visit famous landmarks, like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square and Central Park, all used in a number of movies, as well as the New York Public Library, major setting in movies like Ghostbusters and The Day After Tomorrow.

If your favorite films are foreign, you’ll likely have to travel overseas to visit the film’s locations. Harry Potter fans, for instance, can get a full fan experience by visiting the Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden outside of London.

Though movie filming is common in Los Angeles, New York and London though, filming takes place all over the country and the world. The holiday classic A Christmas Story, for instance, was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio.
So, if you want to visit some movie locations near your home, check with your local film office. You may find some movies were filmed right in your own backyard and won’t have to travel far at all to visit a movie location.