Home Alone - New York. Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

By Mark McConville

 

THIS TRAVEL blogger has visited more than 1000 filming locations where she lines up pictures of famous movies with their real life background.

Harry Potter – Alnwick Castle.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

Incredible images include Harry Potter pictured in front of the ā€˜Hogwarts’ Alnwick Castle, Home Alone’s Kevin in New York and characters from The Hangover sitting on steps in Bangkok, Thailand.

James Bond, Spectre – Solden, Austria.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

Other striking pictures show Leonardo Di Caprio in Thailand where The Beach was filmed, James Bond skiing down a snowy mountain and Forrest Gump telling his life story at a square in Georgia, USA.

Star Wars, Skellig Michael, Ireland.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

Andrea David (40), from Hamburg, Germany, travels to filming locations around the world and combines fantasy with reality by lining up a movie image with its real-life background.

Game of Thrones – Audley’s Castle, Northern Ireland.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

ā€œIt’s easier to ask local people about filming locations when you can show them the specific scenes,ā€ she said.

Forrest Gump – Savannah, Georgia.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

ā€œSo I always carry some printed picturess of the filming scenes with me. Once in Cambodia at a ā€˜Tomb Raider: Lara Croft’ location (four years ago) I thought it would be fun to try to align the image with its real background to mix up fantasy and reality in one picture.

The Hangover – Bangkok, Thailand.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

 

ā€œAmong the most famous movie places ranks the real Kellerman’s Resort of ā€˜Dirty Dancing’ in Virginia, the beach of ā€˜The Beach’ in Thailand, the square in Savannah where ā€˜Forrest Gump’ told his story and the blue door of ā€˜Notting Hill’.

 

ā€œThe message is that there’s more to see at a place when you know the stories behind it. In this case fictional film stories but of course this can also be personal or historical events.

The Beach – Thailand.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

ā€œI love this type of photography because it makes these stories visible for everybody; it’s like a window into fiction. I often get messages from people saying that they weren’t aware they lived in the area of a filming location.ā€

 

Andrea hasn’t counted how many places she’s travelled to so far but her photo archive suggests more than 1000 filming locations.

Waling Dead – Atlanta, Georgia.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

She blogs about her travels (www.filmtourismus.de) to 180k users a month while her Instagram account (@filmtourismus) has 225k followers.

 

ā€œI’ve always been a film buff and when I studied tourism management in Munich I decided to write my diploma thesis about the influence of films on where we choose to travel (combining my love of cinematography and film with my background as a former travel agent),ā€ added Andrea

Dirty Dancing – Hotel Trail.
Andrea David / mediadrumimages.com

ā€œWhile doing research in 2004 I gained a taste for it and started travelling to various filming locations. After my thesis I continued travelling this way because I really enjoyed it. Then, in 2007, I decided to share my experiences and adventures with other people who may also be interested. A lot of people wrote to me saying how grateful they were to know how to find these places.

 

ā€œI’m a huge fan of Star Wars and the island Skellig Michael in Ireland is definitely one of my favourites, and thinking about iconic landscapes I also have to name the desert Wadi Rum in Jordan. For example it can be seen as the surface of Mars in ā€˜The Martian’. That was an overwhelming and almost unreal experience I will never forget.ā€

 

For more information seeĀ https://www.filmtourismus.de/