{"id":17290,"date":"2025-06-09T17:28:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=17290"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:44:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:44:36","slug":"the-power-of-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/17290\/the-power-of-place\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some places live in our memories rent free, not because we\u2019ve been there, but because we\u2019ve seen them on screen. When storytelling meets location, fiction starts to feel like reality, and leaves its mark on us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Tom Cruise dangling off the State Opera in <\/span>Mission Impossible<\/span><\/em>, to <\/span>James Bond<\/span><\/em> walking its elegant streets, and the romantic encounters in <\/span>Before Sunrise<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>Vienna<\/span> has been the stage for spies, lovers, and unforgettable stories. Authentic film locations shape how we experience stories and even how we choose our next destination. With insights from location scout Franck Hakkert and recent documentary sources, I explored how real-world locations move from silent scenery to starring roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Local cinema in Vienna, featuring The Third Man (famous movie shot in Vienna)<\/p><\/div>\n

While Vienna is a good example of a city that comes alive on screen, it\u2019s far from the only place capturing filmmakers\u2019 imaginations around the world. Francis Lawrence, director of <\/span>T<\/span>he Hunger Games: The ballad of Songbirds and Snakes<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> doesn\u2019t like to fake it. In an interview with online magazine Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler, he shared his preference for filming on real sets across Germany and Poland, saying, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be in giant green screen and blue screen environments and to be doing everything digitally. It\u2019s not as immersive for the actors or the crew and I wanted to root everything in reality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To better understand the role of film locations, I spoke with Franck Hakkert, a former producer and one of the Netherlands\u2019 first professional location scouts. \u201cBack in the day, everything was filmed in studios,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut studios were expensive, and they just didn\u2019t look real enough.\u201d That demand for authenticity opened the door to a new profession. Hakkert began scouting locations, and he quickly discovered a passion for it. Eventually, he founded <\/span>The LocationBank<\/span><\/em>, a company to find filming locations in the Dutch film industry. For Hakkert, real locations still matter, both for credibility and emotional impact. \u201cIt\u2019s more believable when it\u2019s real,\u201d he said. Though the internet and CGI (Computer Generated Images) have changed the industry, he believes physical spaces can\u2019t be fully replaced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And science backs him up. A 2023 study by Natheer Abu-Obeid and Lama Abuhassan, published in the <\/span>International Journal of Architectural Research<\/span><\/em>, found that architecture in film has a measurable emotional impact on audiences. Their research shows that things like space, light, and structure shape not just the setting, but how we feel about it. A wide open space with soft lighting might relax you, but a shadowy gothic tunnel gives you instant anxiety.\u00a0 These design choices portray real live responses and, according to the study, offer valuable insights not only for filmmakers but for architects, too. As you can imagine, Vienna\u2019s elegant architecture and its atmosphere can transport an audience into different moods and times.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Vienna Opera State House<\/p><\/div>\n

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Belvedere Palace, Vienna<\/p><\/div>\n

But film locations don\u2019t just stay on the screen. They influence where we go in real life. A study conducted by The University of Malaga <\/span>Films and Destinations – Towards a Film Destination: A Review<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>explores how movies shape our travel dreams. According to them, portrayals of places in movies create what they call \u201csecondary images\u201d: emotional impressions of places we\u2019ve never visited, but somehow feel connected to. One minute you\u2019re watching <\/span>Killing Eve <\/span><\/em>in your pajamas, the next you\u2019re booking a flight to Vienna, Paris, or Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the numbers don\u2019t lie. A study by Future Market Insights reports that in 2024, the global film tourism market hit 61.1 billion USD , thanks to shows like <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/em>, <\/span>The Witcher<\/span><\/em>, and <\/span>Black Panther<\/span><\/em>. Between 2020 and 2024, the industry grew steadily at a 7.5% CAGR (<\/span>Compound Annual Growth Rate)<\/span>, and that pace is only picking up. From 2025 to 2035, the market is expected to grow at an 8.2% CAGR, reaching 145.9 billion USD by 2035.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Data Visualization Film Tourism Market Growth<\/p><\/div>\n

The rise of streaming platforms have boosted this effect. According to a 2025 Nielsen report, nearly half of all TV viewing time now happens via streaming, giving viewers endless access to international content at all hours. When a movie or show trends globally, it\u2019s not just fans who benefit, it\u2019s also the cities, towns, and landscapes that become stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

This phenomenon has become a serious thing in destination marketing. Cities once known only to locals are now on a lot of bucket-lists. But it\u2019s a blessing and a curse: portray a place poorly, or inaccurately, and you might scare off potential tourists or disappoint the ones who come. That\u2019s why researchers stress the need for collaborations between filmmakers and destination marketers. It\u2019s not just about beautiful cinematic shots, it\u2019s about storytelling that respects the reality behind the fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Franck Hakkert has seen the impact of film tourism too. \u201cIt is clear it is a thing with the big movies, like the popular bench in Amsterdam from <\/span>The Fault in Our Stars<\/span><\/em>,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he said. \u201cI notice it in my database as well because I can see that people search for locations from well-known movies.\u201d Still, Hakkert believes this kind of tourism rarely causes harm. \u201cI think people are well aware that it\u2019s fiction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Woman taking pictures at Belvedere Palace<\/p><\/div>\n

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Women taking pictures at Vienna State Opera<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some places live in our memories rent free, not because we\u2019ve been there, but because we\u2019ve seen them on screen. When storytelling meets location, fiction starts to feel like reality, and leaves its mark on us. From Tom Cruise dangling off the State Opera in Mission Impossible, to James Bond walking its elegant streets, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3749,"featured_media":17291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cbj","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Power of Place - International Journalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of Place - International Journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some places live in our memories rent free, not because we\u2019ve been there, but because we\u2019ve seen them on screen. 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