how directors film cities

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like stated in the title I want to know how directors film cities. For instance, woody allen filmed manhattan in a very unique way and I wanted to learn about more movies like it



Seems too broad to answer in its current form. For example, could you elaborate on how Allen filmed Manhattan? Why did you feel it was interesting/unique?



like stated in the title I want to know how directors film cities. For instance, woody allen filmed manhattan in a very unique way and I wanted to learn about more movies like it
I can't explain how they do it, but I can say that you should seek out and watch films with impressive city-scape scenes. Jim Jarmusch is famous for his shooting of unique city-scapes. His best example is Night on Earth (1991) and it's a darn good movie too.



I can't explain how they do it, but I can say that you should seek out and watch films with impressive city-scape scenes. Jim Jarmusch is famous for his shooting of unique city-scapes. His best example is Night on Earth (1991) and it's a darn good movie too.
I watched night on earth by mistake and I was not fond of the multiple short stories but indeed I liked the first story with the girl from beetlejuice



Seems too broad to answer in its current form. For example, could you elaborate on how Allen filmed Manhattan? Why did you feel it was interesting/unique?
thats the thing I dont know what makes it good and so im watching a tone of **** movies set in NY like hercule in NY just to try to find out why it was better in manhattan but I cant pput my finger on it



I watched night on earth by mistake and I was not fond of the multiple short stories but indeed I liked the first story with the girl from beetlejuice
OK, but weren't you interested in how directors went about filming city scenes? That entire film is city scenes.



OK, but weren't you interested in how directors went about filming city scenes? That entire film is city scenes.
yeah should watch it again but by focusing on the ways he film each city not stupid should watch it tomorrow night



Welcome to the human race...
With a camera.

But seriously, I reckon Night on Earth is a weird example for this kind of question since the whole movie takes place within taxi cabs at night-time so you're not really getting that much of a view of the various cities anyway. Jarmusch has done much better examples of shooting cities across his career (Detroit in Only Lovers Left Alive, Memphis in Mystery Train, etc.)

As for Manhattan, I think it might just be down to Allen having locked down a good cinematographer in Gordon Willis to shoot in high-contrast black-and-white to emphasise the geometry of skylines or make the various pinpoints of light in the sky or skyscrapers really stand out and create some constellations (even doing it more literally when they hit up a planetarium). I think a good point of comparison would be how Wim Wenders shoots West Berlin in Wings of Desire with its own emphasis on black-and-white and various landmarks.
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