Movie Tourism

Movies shape up our travel destinations, whether for vacation or work. Sometimes even for moving or adopting a new citizenship. In my personal experience, many of my travels have been determined by movies and my film career for quite varied reasons.

1. Inspiration. Before writing a script, or while writing it, many screenwriters need to flee their regular routine and environment and go to a place that will stimulate their creativity. During my first attempts at writing screenplays, I was not able to go beyond page 40 (about a third of a feature script). Finally I was able to write my first full screenplay when I took a two-month vacation in Argentina during summer time. A few weeks before going there, my laptop was stolen at gun point in Mexico, so I had to settle with a mechanical typewriter to do my first screenplay. I actually would recommend the experience of writing at least one work with a typewriter, while having no access whatsoever to computers or the internet, to experience the bare basics of the writing process and creation.

2. Research. Writers need to research the locations and societies they are going to write about in order to be realistic and avoid clichés. The internet, videos and books can provide some of the needed references, but the best thing is to go there in person. There are many details that can only be observed first-hand. For instance, I wrote a screenplay about Mexican witchcraft, so I visited a neighborhood that was supposed to be the epicenter of Mexico City’s witchcraft. By exploring this place, I was able to provide much more details to several scenes in my story and specially to the setting. This script remains unproduced. Maybe somebody put a spell on it.

3. Pre-production. Once the script is set to be produced, the priority is to develop the visual aspect of the film by selecting the right locations, dressing sets and conforming the right wardrobe. Also, in regards to the dramatic aspect, the director and actors have to get attuned with the correct demeanor, behavior, colloquialisms and accents. When I was ready to shoot my film El Paje, I had to travel to Tijuana, since the story is set in that border town. I researched all locations that matched the story and even bought wardrobe. With everything I gathered, we were able to reproduce Tijuana in Mexico City, which usually are very different. The trip was very important as it provided me with numerous details to make the film more authentic, such as the mixing of Spanish and English or the preference of dollars above pesos.

4. Shooting. One of the benefits of working in the movies is the occasional trip to exotic or faraway places, as it is always better to shoot the film in the adequate location instead of an artificial set. When I worked in Clear and Present Danger, we went to a tropical jungle to shoot several military scenes. We could very easily forget that the action was orchestrated and instead feel as if we were war correspondents. Also, we were able to have at least one free day per week, which was very appropriate to do some tourism and appreciate the real life of the towns we were visiting. Real places are infinitely more than mere locations.

5. Exhibition and promotion. Once the movie is done, it is time to show it to a public. The customary process is to send it out to film festivals in faraway places and hope to get a free trip. And sometimes, even if it is not free, filmmakers get enticed to follow their films to the nice places that they go. Several of the most memorable trips I’ve done were to film festivals. I had to pay for all or most of my expenses, but these opportunities are worth it. Also, these are the best places to do networking with other people that make movies around the world. Additionally, one can use the same trip for inspiration or research for the next project.

6. Recalling movies in life. Not only film professionals get to live movie-like experiences when travelling. There are many places that we meet for the first time in movies and one day by chance we visit those places – and we feel that we already know them. As a cinephile and film student, I must have watched scores of movies that were set in Rome or Venice, so when I had the chance to visit those cities, I could feel a special kind of magic: of knowing and even loving a place where I had never been before.

7. Recalling life in movies. Sometimes, it is the opposite: we know a place in real life and years later we see it again in a movie, bringing back huge amounts of nostalgia and making us say aloud "Hey, I know that place!" when we recognize a street or a restaurant or simply the view. A few months ago, when I went to my local cinema to watch the very forgettable Quantum of Solace, the one thing that I loved of that movie was to see the Italian town Siena in the big screen. I once lived in Siena for 4 months so I was conscious that it is a very cinematic and photogenic place.

8. Movies dictating life. Finally, the most peculiar influence of movies in our travelling is when we see a place in a movie and we immediately know we have to go there. When I was in film school, I did a paper on the films by Jim Jarmusch. As I was watching Mystery Train at the school’s videotheque, I was so captivated by Memphis and intrigued by each of the stories, that I decided I had to go to Memphis and visit every place portrayed in the film. A couple of months later, I was walking around Memphis and visiting the likes of Graceland and Sun Records.
Let me tell you, it was just like the movie.

Eduardo Soto-Falcon

1. Torre del Mangia overlooking Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy. This was the setting of the opening sequence in James Bond's Quantum of Solace.
2. Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy. Venice has been the setting of numerous films and hosts one of the most important film festivals in the world.
3. Elvis Presley's scripts and publicity photos exhibited in Graceland (Memphis, Tennessee, USA).