important addendum

[starlady]

Dear Covert Affairs,

That is NOT the D.C. Metro, seriously. Do you film in New York or L.A. or something? What happened to realism?

no love,
Me

Comments

[kaigou]

I hear it takes an act of Parliament (and yes, I do mean Parliament) to get permission to film in the DC Metro. Congress has to like, approve it, or some crap like that. It's not impossible, it's just... really really really, well, okay. Pretty much impossible. So everyone films somewhere else, and just slaps up signs for Lafayette lellyfant le elephant L'Enfant Plaza and figures no one outside the Beltway would have a clue, anyway.

[kindkit]

I hadn't heard that, but I know I've read that the various authorities will not grant permission to film in the Metro if the film will show any act of violence taking place there.

[kaigou]

I'd always heard they wouldn't grant permission if the film implied in ANY way that the Metro is not absolutely perfectly safe and, like, say, no cops running at top speed. Or anyone running at all. Let alone running with guns. Or to get somewhere that there's a bomb, even if the bomb isn't actually in the Metro. Even before 9/11, it had a lot to do with the fear that international tourists might see such segments and get the idea that this was what it's "really" like. Which is kinda ridiculous when you consider this doesn't stop anyone from putting up signs in some other subway and calling it the Metro, but then again, when you see the real thing, you do realize instantly that what you had seen wasn't the real thing.

On the other hand, this also means Hollywood's had multiple opportunities to do crap like putting up a faux metro station in Georgetown, which always puts me halfway between laughing hysterically and gnashing my teeth, because if there WERE a stop in Georgetown, I'd probably have at least two years' worth extra on my life for not having to traipse across the Key Bridge so many times. All the time I could've saved! But noooooo.

*cough*

[starlady]

I'd always heard they wouldn't grant permission if the film implied in ANY way that the Metro is not absolutely perfectly safe and, like, say, no cops running at top speed

I wish New York would have this rule, it would lessen the "New York is dangerous!" trope in Hollywood movies which is so not true, it makes my teeth hurt. (I may or may not have seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice last night, which features a mugging at the Eighth Avenue/NYU stop in Manhattan at like 8pm, which may or may not be directly responsible for this renewed ire.)

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Slightly off-topic, but...Have you by any chance read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books? It's a YA fantasy series, and in book three (The Titan's Curse), someone getting a DC subway stop wrong turns out to a plot point.

[seekingferret]

Sure as hell isn't the New York subway.

[starlady]

Yeah, the platforms were too clean. I'm betting L.A. Apparently it's Toronto! I should have known.

Otoh, it does say something about the show as a show that I only noticed this on my second viewing.

[recessional]

According to IMDB, it films in Toronto, so that would probably be the Toronto Metro. :D

(Rule of thumb: if it's a TV series and it's claiming to be somewhere that you know it isn't, even odds it's filmed in Toronto or Vancouver.)

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen an episode, but have already seen another DC friend notice and complain about the same issue. Fifty bucks says the thing was actually filmed in Toronto - like most of the movies that are ostensibly set in NYC and ostensibly feature the NYC subway are.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

One of my friends on DW says it's Toronto. (I've never been to Toronto, so I wouldn't know.)

The subway cars are like New York's, but on consideration the platforms were too clean.