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Vancouver Never Plays Itself

Vancouver Never Plays Itself

Every Frame a Painting
4 HN recommenders · discussed 2017–2026
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About this video

A video essay from Every Frame a Painting about Vancouver, a major film production city that almost never appears onscreen as itself. It shows clips of films and TV shot there that pass the city off as somewhere else.

Why it appears in the archive

HN points to it as a short, funny look at how cities stand in for other places on screen, and at the film industry's local effects.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

crummy · 2019-10 · strong rec

One of my favourite Youtube channels, Every Frame A Painting, talks about this in Vancouver - except that the movies are rarely set in Vancouver: [VIDEO]

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JBlue42 · 2017-04 · rec

I recommend "Los Angeles Plays Itself" to any interested in seeing the juxtaposition of what you see in movies/tv with the reality. There's also a much shorter, funnier one called "Vancouver Never Plays Itself" - [VIDEO]

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tobr · 2019-09 · rec

This made me rewatch Vancouver Never Plays Itself [1] from Every Frame a Painting. It didn’t have as many examples of Vancouver playing New York as I remembered, but it’s still an interesting demonstration of how a city is made to appear not to be itself on screen. 1: [VIDEO]

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mynameisvlad · 2022-07 · rec

> The idea is that this would promote more use of local businesses. It does not usually work out that way though. Great Youtube video on this topic, especially since you're likely talking about Vancouver: [VIDEO]

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Ragnarork · 2025-11 · reference

This reminded me instantly of Every Frame a Painting's video "Vancouver never plays itself"[0]. [0] [VIDEO]

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PetitPrince · 2026-08 · reference

"Vancouver never plays itself" as Tony Zhao and Taylor Ramos explain in on of their later Every Frame a Painting: [VIDEO]

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