A few months back, I saw the first part of the Little House on the Prairie miniseries that was on ABC. They lost me when they were claiming to be in Kansas, and the Rockies were clearly visible in the background.

Yeah, right.

I disagree. Most movies are not really about what stuff is in what city.

My personal Gotham issues aside, I get really distracted by movies that claim to take place in one city but are clearly being shot in another. If I can see the CN tower in the background while the characters are talking about being in NYC, it completely throws me out of the film, regardless of whether or not the location matters to the plot.

And this is just a species of the problem of conforming a mass market product to the knowledge of a subset. If I'm directing, say, The Day After Tomorrow, I hardly have the time and money to check everything with the chairs of the physics, geology and climatology departments at UCLA.

Yeah, I don't care as much if they're calling Random Urban Locale City X, as when it couldn't possibly be City X. Like on the X-Files when they went into a high rise and called it DC. Dudes, just call it Rosslyn!!

If I'm directing, say, The Day After Tomorrow, I hardly have the time and money to check everything with the chairs of the physics, geology and climatology departments.

I think if your story hinges on it, put it into your budget.

However, movies are lies. Movies are constrained by politics, money, personalities, and many other things. Who knows who'd be more accurate with infinite power & budget, and who really doesn't give a rat's ass?

I clearly need to establish a department of suckology somewhere, so that filmmakers can consult with me, and I could prevent another Day After Tomorrow.

I'm surprised you think they were able to suck that much without the assistance of a Suckology expert on set.

I clearly need to establish a department of suckology somewhere, so that filmmakers can consult with me, and I could prevent another Day After Tomorrow.

Fine, be that way. Next time you get trapped in the NYC library by killler frost, see if I walk all the way from DC to rescue you.

I think if your story hinges on it, put it into your budget.

Well, see...in Double Jeopardy, the whole plot hinges on the fact that Ashley Judd can't be prosecuted for her husband's murder after she was unjustly convicted of it, right? (I haven't seen it.) The problem with the film, as I understand it, is that the first murder and the second are in different states...and there is no double jeopardy protection against being prosecuted for the same crime in different states.

Now, if you learned about this fairly late, it would be a huge pain to change the locales just because of some technicality like that that about 1000 people can appreciate. (I didn't learn this in law school; it was in a footnote of an article I edited.)

But the number of people who know what various metropolitan areas look like is much bigger than the number of people who know the details of actual law.

Oh, and the Rent trailer is up for real now: [link]