KC in TV and Movies

[Angel]

I don't think it was filmed in KC.  Somewhere in Louisiana, I think.  Weird, considering it was supposed to be the KC Federal Reserve.  I wonder if filming is difficult here because during a 3 or 4 month shoot the weather would change too much.

[IraGlacialis]

As nerdy as this sounds, I read a several issues of a Wolverine comic that takes partially takes place in Kansas City during the 1920s.
Areas shown and mentioned by name included the West Bottoms and Federal Reserve (the facade, including one of two sculptures, was illustrated in there).
The nickname "Paris of the Plains" is even mentioned.
However, the portrayal wasn't too flattering, with KC shown as being a city rife with corruption.

[aknowledgeableperson]

However, the portrayal wasn't too flattering, with KC shown as being a city rife with corruption.

Well, with Pendergast in control for the 20's and 30's that would be appropriate.

[shinatoo]

I don't think it was filmed in KC.  Somewhere in Louisiana, I think.  Weird, considering it was supposed to be the KC Federal Reserve.  I wonder if filming is difficult here because during a 3 or 4 month shoot the weather would change too much.

Shreveport. But there are several exteriors shot in KCMO and KCK.

[loftguy]

Saw the movie "Up in the Air" last week.  It stars George Clooney as a man who flies around the country quite a bit.  Anyway, they showed lots of aerial shots of the cities he visited.  I can remember shots of Omaha, STL, Tulsa, Wichita, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and KC off the top of my head.  For all of the cities, they showed the downtowns.  But for KC, they showed the aerial of a residential area of what looked like Overland Park.  I thought it was kinda weird, seeing as KC has a pretty nice skyline downtown.  Not sure why they didn't show that.  I wonder if Grid or Chef have seen this movie.  I could see them throwing their popcorn and drink at the screen when they show OP as KC. 

The aerial shot of KC could have been a new subdivision in OP, Olathe, Lee's Summit, Liberty, etc...  Looked like a curving monopoly board layout of same-sized biege houses with nary a bush or tree to be found.

It could have been a dig at KC, or it could have been an analogy to the numbing routine and meaningless nature of Clooneys life.

There was a rolling of laughs across the audience as this image played.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Sounds like they actually researched what its like to fly into KC - what like 1 in 10 flights actually get any sort of meaningful skyline view?  Hell, a developed subdivision is pretty generous - most approaches you get to see exurban/farm sprawl at its "best". 

[GRID]

Sounds like they actually researched what its like to fly into KC - what like 1 in 10 flights actually get any sort of meaningful skyline view?  Hell, a developed subdivision is pretty generous - most approaches you get to see exurban/farm sprawl at its "best". 

Yea, I get excited if we fly anywhere near Zona Rosa or something.  Most of the time, I'm lucky to see Smithville or Platte City, but what you mostly notice is farms,rural homes and some cows right before you touch down.

Still dumb though, KC does have a great skyline and it's sad when opportunities to expose it are wasted, especially when we have one of the more urban airports in the country (downtown) that could have provided some great shots to go along with the movie.

[shaffe]

Sounds like they actually researched what its like to fly into KC - what like 1 in 10 flights actually get any sort of meaningful skyline view?  Hell, a developed subdivision is pretty generous - most approaches you get to see exurban/farm sprawl at its "best". 

To add to this tangent, I flew in from Indianapolis in August and I think our plane was way too early or something because as soon as we hit Metro North-ish our pilot made a left turn and took us on a little tour of the city.  We eventually landed going east, still 15 mins early.

[droopy]

To add to this tangent, I flew in from Indianapolis in August and I think our plane was way too early or something because as soon as we hit Metro North-ish our pilot made a left turn and took us on a little tour of the city.  We eventually landed going east, still 15 mins early.

I've only flown by downtown once in all my travels/landings at MCI.  We essentially flew parallel to 71.  I was very surprised to look out he window and see downtown as we broke through the clouds.  I think we also looped because we were early and it took about 15 minutes to go from the downtown view to an approach.

On the movie topic: first thing that struck me from this - do you think they actually came to KC?  I'd guess the beige suburban aerials could have been taken in whatever location they were filming everything else.  And yes, I think loftguy is probably onto it.  This was likely more artistic license than trying to portray KC in the most favorable light.

[chrizow]

one time i flew into KCI at night and we flew over KC in such a way that it made KC look absolutely huge.  to this day i don't know what direction we were going (can't remember where i was coming from).  it was almost like we just circled around the JoCo/KCMO urbanized area for like 15 minutes.  i recall hearing some passenger banter about being surprised at how KC looked like a real city. 

[GRID]

Sometimes when you fly in from the southeast; Atlanta, Miami etc you get that and it's awesome, especially at night.  It makes it seem like KC goes on forever, you see Jackson County, Johnson, Midtown/Downtown KCMO and the lower part of the northland.

You can sometimes get that when coming in from Dallas, Houston etc. too as you fly over JoCo, midtown, downtown and platte county, though most of those flights go over the speedway area and land from the south or west.

The flight in from Atlanta is amazing though.

Sometimes you get to see the city if the wind changes or if you are coming into the metro with the wind.  Like shaffe said, once you get about 10 miles from the airport, you will be directed to land against the wind and sometimes that forces you to go around and come in on the other side and with that, you will sometimes get a nice flight over the city, usually just north or above downtown, unless you go around the north side of KCI (which is more typical) and then it's almost bizarre, because you are circling around and descending for 20 minutes and you see nothing but rural areas the entire time you turning and when you turn like that, you expect to see something somewhere.

[zonk]

I was watching History Channel last night and they had a ad/preview of the new season of Life After People:

http://www.history.com/content/life_after_people

I saw an image of the KC skyline from Liberty Memorial.  The 1/2 second shot showed the city at night with Union Station lit up and then all the buildings gradually went dark.  Was kind of cool because all other cities were London, LA, NY, Miami, Rome, etc....

[FangKC]

Life After People is one of my favorite TV series.

[NDTeve]

Wife was watching the show on ABC after The Bachelor last night...Love Carousel or something ridiculous. The girl on it was from a small town near Kansas City. She didn't sound like a hoosier but definitely wanted to talk marriage on the first date.

[Jess]

On the movie topic: first thing that struck me from this - do you think they actually came to KC?  I'd guess the beige suburban aerials could have been taken in whatever location they were filming everything else.  And yes, I think loftguy is probably onto it.  This was likely more artistic license than trying to portray KC in the most favorable light.

It seems like I read that they did the "KC" shooting (as well as most of the midwestern shooting) in St. Louis, where they did have Clooney et all framed in more outdoors, establishing shots for the St. Louis portions of the story.  I also read in the Star that they flew the couple of local actors they used to St. Louis to do their filming (one was cast as a flight attendant; I believe most, if not all, of her scenes were cut). The only portion of the movie that supposedly takes place in KC, other than the aerial overview shots, ends up being what amounts to basically a montage of the main character's "assignments."  Basically, a placard comes up that says "Kansas City," it briefly and silently shows him talking to a receptionist in a generic cube farm that's been mostly dismantled, obviously downsized to the point of extinction, and then the screen flashes to "Tulsa" or "Wichita" or something similar, where something analogous happens.  There's no real "stay" in KC or anything.  It just flashes through as one of the places he goes to do his thing in America's heartland.  Because it's just a generic office montage, it could be filmed anywhere, and I'm sure it was filmed in STL or at the studio.

[phna]

Falling Down: Kansas City

A short sequel to the 1993 film starring Michael Douglas

http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hoste ... id=8955261

[mudjack]

i saw Fling. Well actually, I saw the first 40 minutes of it before i turned it off for being so terrible! It's a shame, because i really did want to like it. And I'd also really like to own Brandon Routh's kick ass loft!

I netflixed Fling because of this discussion. I expected it to be bad, but I had no idea that a movie could be that unwatchable.

[mean]

I netflixed Fling because of this discussion. I expected it to be bad, but I had no idea that a movie could be that unwatchable.

Have you seen Manos: The Hands of Fate?

[Jess]

Manos is at least twistedly fascinating in a "They really MADE this?  No!" slack-jawed disbelief kind of way.  Especially the MST3K-narrated edition (possibly the only edition).

[moderne]

Last night on Modern Family mention was made of "Tonganoxie, Missouri."