Fangirl Quest: How to travel the world indulging your favourite movies
MOVIE buffs with a love of travel and an eye for detail have taken on the ultimate movie adventure. This is how to travel the world reliving your favourite flicks.
MOVIE buffs with a love of travel and an eye for detail have taken on the ultimate movie adventure.
Using the sets of movies as their guide for adventure, Tiia Öhman and Satu Walden were part of a road trip which travelled more than 3200km to filming locations all over the United Kingdom.
Tiia returned with more than 5000 incredible photos. While she’d spent plenty of time taking holiday happy snaps and a few creative shots, what stood out was the framing of film locations.
After forgetting all about them for a couple of months, she decided to post them in her photography blog, to see if any other movie buffs would like them.
Her pictures were a hit. They quickly gained over 60,000 shares on social media before featuring in big newspapers, across websites and on television.
“The idea of visiting filming locations and comparing them to what was seen on film is certainly nothing new,” they explain on their Fangirl Quest website.
“But we hadn’t seen it done with tablets and phones before, so we thought we’d give it a go. Like giving it a little modern kick.
“Three Finnish girls, one tiny car and loads and loads of narrow roads. And it was the best couple of weeks ever.
“Amazing scenery, wonderful experiences and a fair amount of road-trip games and giggles,” she said.
Following from the success of the venture, they started crowd-funding their road trips across
12,000km of North America (starting from Vancouver, Canada, and ending in New York) and further adventures across the UK.
They’ve also chased film events, geek conventions and red carpet events.
“Our aim is to always include beautiful photography and stories from these locations, so that other fans can see what it was really like and maybe even go for a visit themselves,” they say.
“We aim to bring our followers high-quality content, but to always keep it genuine and fun, and we hope our love for it all shines through.”
Below they explain their images.
Forrest Gump
“The exact spot in the desert wasn’t an easy one to find after 20 years and some alterations to the sides of the road, but I think we managed to get pretty close. It was hot, it was a bit scary due to occasional cars approaching from the nothingness at the speed of rockets, yet it was one of the most amazing places we’ve ever set our travelling feet.”
The Avengers
“New York is one of those cities where almost every street corner is a filming location. Visiting these locations is fairly easy as they’re both public spaces. Just be careful outside of Grand Central Terminal — it’s a very busy street, and we had to take some of the photos during the green lights, which must’ve been a hilarious sight. Just imagine two touristy looking gals carrying an iPad and a camera, running to the middle of the street the second the light turns green, the other one holding the tablet up in the air while the other one takes photos of it from different angles, all of this within 12 seconds or so. And we did it several times in a row to get the photos as right as possible.”
Space movies
“Vasquez Rocks, a filming location to many outer space-y things! In exchange for the trouble of a short car ride from LA, you’ll get to see magnificent rock formations and experience the heat of the desert. Apart from being roughly about 25 million years old and having served as a hide-out for famous bandits in real life, Vasquez Rocks is also a film star.
“The list of films, TV shows and music videos filmed there is remarkable.
“While we were doing our thing, we bumped into other sceneframers! We noticed this group of guys taking photos with a polaroid camera, then aligning that photo with the background for another photo. Tiia got so excited she ran down to tell them why we were there (and to exchange the secret handshake of sceneframers, no doubt!). Imagine our surprise when one of them turned out to be Finnish. Wow. There are not a lot of Finnish people in the world, so bumping into one on another planet in the middle of the desert was quite a surreal experience.”
Downtown Abbey
“Though best known for the iconic mansion setting of Highclere Castle, Downton Abbey has also used the quaint village of Bampton as a location. Walking through the streets of this tiny village really feels like stepping into another time. The villagers take pride in their status as a filming location and are more than happy to share their stories of what they’ve seen on set. Start off at St Mary’s Church and make sure to visit Bampton library, which houses a photo exhibition of Downton Abbey filming. There’s also a small shop where you can buy Downton Abbey postcards and other art. They also sell (for a very reasonable fee) a map displaying all the spots throughout the village that have featured in the series. A mere hour and 40 minutes from London, this place is definitely a must-visit for any Downton Abbey fan.”
Game Of Thrones
“Ballintoy Harbour: A small fishing harbour in the picturesque village of Ballintoy served as Pyke on The Iron Islands, setting the stage for Theon Greyjoy’s homecoming. One of the little coves nearby was also a beach on Dragonstone, where Stannis Baratheon, Davos Seaworth, Melissandre and Salladhoor Saan meet up. But our favourite spot were the magnificent tidal pools where Theon gets baptised into the faith of the Drowned God.”
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