Where is this movie/photoshoot set?

February 5, 2024 3:53 AM

I've become mildly obsessed with what I think is a Chinese location for photoshoots, movies, and music videos that makes it look "American" and I want to know more about it but I can't figure out the exact name or location.

I first came across this place in a random ad that I kept seeing in a mobile game, where two (white) people were talking outside in a location that looked SO over the top American that I knew it wasn't a real place. I Googled some of the signs in the video and I ended up finding so many more photos and screenshots of it (some listed below), but none them gave the location. Anyone know it?

From other angles in the photos I found I could see that other parts of the same set are much more British than American (a "Fish + Chips" place, a red phone booth) but the overall vibe is clearly meant to be the US. Some of the American signs on this set are clearly copies from existing locations (Roy's Motel Café and Nelson's Buffeteria).

Here is an instagram post taken at this location, but not location tagged. It really shows all the angles and the scale of it so this was useful for other searches.
This is a Google translation of a Chinese website where someone asks where the location is, but the only reply is someone sharing the original Roy's Motel Cafe sign.
I also found what I think is a still of a music video from a photographer's portfolio, a car ad, movie still, fashion ad, and another car ad.

From the context and background I'm pretty sure that this is in China. It doesn't seem to be one of the famous "fake towns" because it's such an odd mix of American and British things, but more like a set that is rented out to a wide range of productions that want to look like they were shot abroad.

That's as far as my online sleuthing got me, and I could just be satisfied with this, but I want to know more! What is this place? Is it open to the public or can it only be hired for shoots? Is the mix of American and British things an oversight or just convenience? Was this originally built for one specific film and then kept, or was it purpose-built as a "western location"?

Please satisfy my curiosity so I can get back to work.

posted by easternblot to Media & Arts (29 answers total)

I think these are digital assets, rather than physical locations.
posted by pompomtom at 4:27 AM on February 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

Perhaps translating the signage at the top of the building in the background would help?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:38 AM on February 5, 2024 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: It's not digital assets - I've got a good sense of the layout of the entire site after looking at all the photos. (Fish + Chips is always directly between L. L. Coffee and Nelson's Buffeteria, for example)
posted by easternblot at 5:24 AM on February 5, 2024

Response by poster: Thorzdad, that's a good call! I'm trying to find a good view of the red building in the back and point a translation app at it. (But I might end up needing a human to read the text because I think the white lines behind the blue text will make it difficult for apps to see)
posted by easternblot at 5:30 AM on February 5, 2024

I am mildly obsessed with it too now. I tried Google Lens and found some more images of the place, but found no solid answers.

You could try going to Google Translate and drawing the characters. Have tried in the past and it was quite accurate. I can't see them well enough to try it here though.

I think the best bet is that someone who can read Chinese comes along and tells us what those blue characters say.
posted by iamsuper at 5:33 AM on February 5, 2024 [2 favorites]

My very rudimentary Chinese isn't good enough for that but I did toss the question out on bluesky to see if any of my assorted friends who are much better at it than I am can perhaps provide any info or read the building signage. Will report back if I shook anything loose!
posted by Stacey at 5:43 AM on February 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

FWIW Nelson’s Buffeteria is a real business whose branding they’ve aped, but it’s in Tulsa, OK.
posted by fedward at 5:48 AM on February 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: fedward, yep. Same for Roy's, which is in Calfornia I think. I wonder if the other signs also exist somewhere but aren't as well known.
posted by easternblot at 6:01 AM on February 5, 2024

might well be Jackson Hole, China
posted by el_presidente at 6:08 AM on February 5, 2024

Response by poster: I did look at some pictures of Jackson Hole in China and that seems to have much more of an old-timey vibe (not mid-twentieth century like this place).
posted by easternblot at 6:20 AM on February 5, 2024

I found this random pinterest page with some other photos of this and similar (?) spots. Not much help, but maybe some.
posted by papayaninja at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2024 [3 favorites]

Seconding fedward: this is a business that has been a going concern since 1929, which moved to their current location at some point in the last twenty years.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 7:36 AM on February 5, 2024

This totally looks like a studio backlot to me, with a crazy collection of reproduced British and American locations. Not that helps finding an actual location....
posted by mrphancy at 8:00 AM on February 5, 2024 [3 favorites]

So funny that the "L.L. Coffee" seems to be trying for L.L. Bean ... coffee bean ... some sort of elaborate pun or just a combo of two very "American" things?
posted by mccxxiii at 8:41 AM on February 5, 2024 [6 favorites]

papayaninja has more photos of the place. To the right of Nelson's Buffeteria is a place called "The Bar Theatre" and also a hanging street sign that says "Broad Way"

It almost feels like part of an amusement park, something like Shenzen's Windows of the World.
posted by vacapinta at 8:51 AM on February 5, 2024

I agree with mrphancy that this absolutely screams studio backlot. So I'd start researching where physical production takes place in China. Where are their soundstages and exteriors?
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:57 AM on February 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

Sifting through the additional stills that were linked, I'm favoring Beijing.

Here's the whole video from that music video still. Roy's is dressed as something else, which just scream backlot even more. You do get to see more angles of the space.
posted by mrphancy at 9:05 AM on February 5, 2024 [2 favorites]

One of those video screenshots is a laptop bag commercial. But the thing next to "Nelson's" in that commercial isn't "The Bar Theatre," it's just boarded up. And it looks the same way in the music video mrphancy just posted. So if this is a film set, the Bar Theatre and the streetlamp in front of it (with the "Broad Way" sign") were added some time between the laptop commercial and music video and that instagram post with the balloon.

I wonder if these are digital assets being added to green screen work, or if the person with the Pinterest board is making or collecting renderings of the set used for marketing.
posted by fedward at 9:11 AM on February 5, 2024 [2 favorites]

The pictures in the car ad look like renderings, too.
posted by fedward at 9:13 AM on February 5, 2024

The characters on the red building also change. In the IG post, they're blue and the second and third* seem to be 中国 (China). Whereas in the still in the music video they're red, there's less of them, and the first two seem to be 爱国, which google translates as "patriotic".

*I'm not sure if the first box-like thing is a character or logo?
posted by scorbet at 9:35 AM on February 5, 2024

So I'd start researching where physical production takes place in China. Where are their soundstages and exteriors?

There's a whole bunch of them, I think. The big one is Hengdian, a bit south of Hangzhou, but there are a number of others around China.
posted by scorbet at 9:53 AM on February 5, 2024

I don't buy that these are merely digital assets, at least not in that first Instagram post. Don't forget to click the arrows to see all the others in the photoset. These are casual-style snapshots showing many different angles and including elements that aren't particularly on-theme.

If they were merely digital assets, why the lighting truss(?) above the main strip? And why the subway-style plastic seats arranged, sports-style, on bleachers, at the edge of the last photo's frame but never featured or used. And why the giant black privacy-ensuring gate between the set and the street (and why the garbage cans just beyond the gate). And why the off-theme red building at all?

I'd buy that it's been composited in for some of the other uses (though why keep the red building then?), but I think the backlot-style set does, or at least did, exist somewhere.
posted by nobody at 11:14 AM on February 5, 2024 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: I've been looking at that giant film studio and I don't think it's that one. It seems to specialise in Chinese historic locations. Plus, the things I found from the mystery location tend to be low budget (ads and music videos, not so much big budget films) so more likely to be in a big city somewhere. But Googling key words got me nowhere yet.

I did manage to figure out two of the Chinese blue symbols on the building. The 2nd and 3rd symbol just say "China". So helpful... I think the first symbol is a logo.

Will try the other text seen on the building in other images as well.
posted by easternblot at 1:06 PM on February 5, 2024

Response by poster: I also tried putting a crop of just the building in the background through Google reverse image search. It couldn't find a match, but the things it did find were mostly hotels. Could be a hotel that changed owners/names at some point?
posted by easternblot at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2024

I'm no closer to finding an answer, but sifting through Google image search, I found this photoshoot that shows that this is totally a backlot somewhere. It also has a theatre front and some interiors. I like the ERAWDRAH sign.
posted by mrphancy at 2:31 PM on February 5, 2024 [2 favorites]

are you able to pull off any of the EXIF data from any casual photos taken at this place?

I know that various websites do scrub this kind of data automatically on uploading, but you may be lucky and find an image taken with someone's mobile phone with the GPS turned on.
posted by many-things at 5:33 PM on February 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

This absolutely looks like a studio backlot to me too, but not a particularly convincing one. Guessing it's not a huge studio but a smaller, lower-budget one.
posted by Threeve at 11:11 PM on February 6, 2024

Response by poster: I got the mobile game ad (that inspired this rabbit hole) again! Took some screenshots but haven't had a chance to upload them. The interesting information is that the ad was filmed in winter. There is a bit of snow and the trees are leafless. So that might give a bit of a clue - or does all of China get snow?

Then I also noticed a second ad with the same people that was filmed indoors in what looked like a very makeshift set, but through the window outside you could see the Fish + Chips place. So they put up a temp structure in that lot, adding to the low budget backlot vibe.

The ads were for a game from Pocket7Games, but I've noticed that some of these game ads just drop their logos on more generic ads, so I don't know if that's the name that would have been on the casting call. (Since they're English-speaking actors in China, I thought that trying to find the casting call for it could be a lead, but then again I highly doubt that it would have the filming location on it.)
posted by easternblot at 2:21 PM on February 7, 2024 [3 favorites]

damnit. i keep compulsively checking this post. i have spent countless hours trying to come at from different approaches...
posted by chasles at 8:43 AM on February 29, 2024