question: How are whole cities in specific eras for movies/shows filmed?
comment: Depends on the budget and how much time the show spends in the setting. If it’s like Star Trek where they spend a single episode in the past, it’s just going to be using existing sets from some other movie or making their own really limited sets. A lot of either limited interior shots, or locations that are sparse and don’t need to be dressed up too much like the desert or the woods. If it’s like Boardwalk Empire that spends the whole show in the past, they put a lot more effort. Here’s a video of the entire boardwalk section being built, you can see where the set ends and the blue screen starts, but within the set it’s all built. URL_0
passages: Some movie studios build a wide variety of sets on the backlot, which can be modified for different purposes as need requires and "dressed" to resemble any time period or look. These sets include everything from mountains, forests, ships, to small-town settings from around the world, as well as streets from the Old West, to whole modern-day city blocks from New York City, Paris, Berlin and London. There are streets that comprise an assortment of architectural styles, Victorian to suburban homes, and 19th century-style townhouses that encircle a central park with trees. An example of this is (the former) "Forty Acres" in Culver City, California or, in the case of Universal Studios, the home of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie "Psycho".
   A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including "Baywatch", "Three's Company", "Pacific Blue", and "Private Practice". The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series "". In "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale, including the infamous "sun sign", was in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard.
  
  The films "The Doors" (1991) and "Speed" (1994) featured vehicles from Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus line, relative to the eras depicted in the films.
   Core structures that stood for decades and appeared in many productions are listed here, most of which were constructed to represent, in "Gone with the Wind", the antebellum Town of Atlanta, and later used for the fictional Mayberry. This portion of the backlot was the most permanent, and thus the most repeatedly recognizable, existing from 1939 until 1976. Other structures like the Jerusalem set, which was torched to make room for the Atlanta set, or Tara, which was replaced with the "Hogan's Heroes" stalag set, did not survive as long. The western/European set at the east end of the backlot also did not survive past the mid sixties.
   Tours depart every 30 minutes and last about 2 hours with a guide who lead a small group on a custom tram. The tour stops at various locations on the backlot and front lot. The tour starts on the backlot where you see old sets on Hennessy Street where they filmed scenes from "Annie, Minority Report" and "Gremlins". There is a stop in the Jungle where you get to see Merlottes from "True Blood" and the lagoon where one of the final scenes from "ER" was filmed. On Midwest Street the tram stops and there is plenty to see including the sets from "Gilmore Girls" (Stars Hollow), "Pretty Little Liars" (Rosewood), Miss Deagle's House from "Gremlins" which is also the Seaver house from "Growing Pains". The High School is dressed from the set of "Grease Live" and there are many more sets like Lukes Diner, The Brew, The Alibi Room ("Shameless"), The Church ("Waltons & The Lost Boys"), The Geller House ("Friends") and The Fuller House house. New York and Chicago Streets are the setting for ER and Shameless where Patsy's Pies is a practical set used from filming. New York Street is the setting for iconic scenes from "Auntie Mame, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", "House of Wax" and "Argo".
   In many cases a second unit is dispatched to film on location, with a second unit director and sometimes with stand-in actors. These shots can then be edited into the final film or TV program alongside studio-shot sequences, to give an authentic flavor, without the expense or trouble of a full-scale location shoot. "NYPD Blue", for example, was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, but used second unit footage of New York City for color, as well as featuring a small number of episodes filmed on location with the cast.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Filming location
  
  BULLET::::- Location library
  
  BULLET::::- Filmmaking
   The architecture and design of Atlanta posed a challenge to the production design staff for achieving period accuracy. Bernstein said, "it's a new city. There are not a lot of buildings from the 1970s and 1980s." Totten said that locations that still existed from that period had been remodeled in the 1990s or 2000s and no longer had 1980s decor or color palettes, thus requiring filming locations to be re-dressed. Storefronts and restaurants were particularly difficult, as small details such as carpeting, window frames, lighting fixtures, chair upholstery patterns, and bathroom fixtures needed to be retrofitted. The season two set for the house that headquartered Mutiny, Cameron's start-up company, was designed to mimic the homes found in the Lakewood neighborhood of Dallas. Modeled after a single-story American Craftsman–style home that was popular in the 1920s, the set's design featured hardwood floors, ample trim moldings, built-in shelving painted white, and curved kitchen woodwork.
   The 1974 Mel Brooks classic "Blazing Saddles" gives viewer a brief glance behind the scenes as they literally break the fourth wall onto an adjacent stage, and through the Warner Bros. commissary before spilling out of the main studio gates and onto Olive Avenue.
   Section::::Production.:Direction and casting.
   It is often mistakenly believed that filming "on location" takes place in the actual location in which its story is set, but this is not necessarily the case.
  
  Section::::Types of locations.
  
  There are two main types of locations.
  
  BULLET::::- Location shooting is the practice of filming in an actual setting
  
  BULLET::::- Studio shoots in either a sound stage or back lot
  
  Section::::Substitute locations.
  
  It is common for films or television series to be set in one place, but filmed in another, usually for reasons of economy or convenience, but sometimes because the substitute location looks more historically appropriate.
   BULLET::::- "Mad About You" (Sept. 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "McCloud" (1970-1977) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "NYPD Blue" (1993-2005) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "The Odd Couple" (1970-1975) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Rules of Engagement" (2007-2013) - primary filming in Culver City, CA
  
  BULLET::::- "Seinfeld" (1989-1998) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Will and Grace" (1998-2006) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Suits" (2011-2016) - primary filming in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- List of fiction set in Chicago
   List of New York City television and film studios
  
  BULLET::::- A24 Films
  
  BULLET::::- All Mobile Video
  
  BULLET::::- AVM Unitel, 53rd Street, 433 West 53rd: (sale and demolition announced Jan 2016) housed "The Montel Williams Show"
  
  BULLET::::- AVM Unitel, 57th Street, 515 West 57th Street: houses "CenterStage"
  
  BULLET::::- Chelsea Studios, 221 West 26th Street: a historic soundstage dating back to 1914; currently houses "Rachael Ray" and "The Wendy Williams Show"
  
  BULLET::::- AMC Networks
  
  BULLET::::- AMC
  
  BULLET::::- Asset TV, 570 Lexington Avenue, full service live broadcasting studio
   The series was filmed in Chicago and many nearby towns in Illinois and Indiana, with interior sets filmed on the Early Edition Sound Stage at Studio City in Cicero, Illinois. Many famous Chicago locations are seen throughout the series, such as Navy Pier in the season three episode "Play it Again, Sammo." The building used for exterior shots of McGinty's bar, a location of central importance to the series, was formerly used by the Chicago Fire Department, and is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Franklin Street and West Illinois Street in downtown Chicago. Additionally, Hobson lived in the Blackstone Hotel during the show's first season.
   Southern California locations were used throughout the film, presenting a challenge to location manager John Panzarella. He noted that "period locations are disappearing fast", including several employed in an earlier film he scouted, the 1997 "LA Confidential". The Warner Bros. studio, which, unusually, has retained its vintage buildings, stood in for most of the fictitious Capitol Pictures Productions after trailers, electrical hookups, and other contemporary fixtures were removed. Union Station in downtown Los Angeles was also used for some studio exteriors. The synchronized swimming scene with Scarlett Johansson was choreographed and directed by Mesha Kussman, and performed by the Aqualillies, a Los Angeles-based group of professional synchronized swimmers. They worked at the water tank on Stage 30 at Sony Pictures Studios; the tank was also used for Esther Williams films and was under restoration until a week before shooting. The wood-paneled conference room where Mannix vets the movie with religious leaders was filmed at the Cravens Estate's drawing room in Pasadena. The office of general counsel Sid Siegelstein was shot at a 1929 building in Los Angeles's Arts District later owned by Southwestern Bag Company. The building was designed by the same architecture firm that did UCLA's Royce Hall.
   BULLET::::- "Telefon" (1977) – set in Houston but filmed on a Hollywood backlot, parts of Los Angeles and inside the Hyatt Regency at 5 Embarcadero in San Francisco
  
  BULLET::::- "FM" (1978) – filmed at Greenway Plaza in Houston
  
  BULLET::::- "The Swarm" (1978) - second unit scenes filmed on Memorial Drive, Astrodome, Interstate 45 South/McKinney Street Exit ramp, and the main lobby of 2 Houston Center
  
  BULLET::::- "Texas" (1980–1982) – daytime soap opera, a spin-off of "Another World"
  
  BULLET::::- "Urban Cowboy" (1980)
  
  BULLET::::- "Murder in Texas" (1981) – made-for-TV film
   For the first two seasons, "Leave It to Beaver" was filmed at Republic Studios in Studio City, Los Angeles. For its final four seasons, production moved to Universal Studios. Exteriors, including the façades of the two Cleaver houses, were filmed on the respective studio back lots. Stock footage was often used for establishing shots.
   On September 19, 2015, it was confirmed that "Loving" would film numerous scenes at Union Hill in October and early November. On September 29, 2015, the Lawrenceville–Brunswick Municipal Airport in Lawrenceville, Virginia was converted for drag strip scenes up until the period of September 30. Vintage cars from the 1950s were used and the stars and extras of the movie were dressed in period costumes for the scenes that were filmed, with over 125 people onsite during the two days of filming. On October 9, 2015, Bowling Green's Main Street had been transformed to resemble a scene from the late 1950s, with the production team blocking off Main Street and shooting in front of the original courthouse. On October 12, 2015, filming occurred outside 2201 E. Franklin Street, Richmond between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. On October 15, 2015, vintage vehicles were spotted in the area around Venable Street in Richmond. On October 28, 2015, filming had begun in Petersburg, with the main filming location occurring along Sycamore Street from Washington Street to Bank Street from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. On November 3, 2015, with filming occurring at the Museum District, Richmond, Virginia.
   Filming went from 10 February to 16 May 1963. It was filmed on location in Palm Springs, as well as in the studio at Warners.
  
  Troy Donahue later recalled:
   BULLET::::- "The Book of Daniel" (2006) - Silvercup Studios in Queens, various suburban locations, church scenes at All Saints Church, Pasadena, California
  
  Section::::Shows filmed primarily elsewhere but have some location shooting in the Five Boroughs.
  
  BULLET::::- "Becker" (1998-2004) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Blind Justice" (2005) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Brooklyn South" (1997–1998) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "" (2004–2013) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014) - primary filming in Los Angeles
  
  BULLET::::- "Friends" (1994-2004) - primary filming in Los Angeles
   On January 22, 1947, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, began operating in Hollywood. In December of that year, "The Public Prosecutor" became the first network television series to be filmed in Hollywood. Television stations KTLA and KCET, both on Sunset Boulevard, are the last broadcasters (television or radio) with Hollywood addresses, but KCET has since sold its studios on Sunset and plans to move to another location. KNBC moved in 1962 from the former NBC Radio City Studios at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to NBC Studios in Burbank. KTTV moved in 1996 from its former home at Metromedia Square on Sunset Boulevard to West Los Angeles, and KCOP left its home on La Brea Avenue to join KTTV on the Fox lot. KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV moved from their longtime home at CBS Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard to a new facility at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.
   BULLET::::- "Twenty Thousand Dollars for Seven" (1969 by Alberto Cardone with Brett Halsey, Teresa Gimpera, Fernando Sancho, Germano Longo, Antonio Casas)
  
  BULLET::::- "Sabata" (1969 by Frank Kramer with Lee Van Cleef, William Berger, Pedro Sanchez, Nick Jordan, Robert Hundar)
  
  BULLET::::- "Sundance and the Kid" (1969 by Duccio Tessari with Giuliano Gemma, Nino Benvenuti, Sydne Rome, Antonio Casas, Chris Huerta)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" (1969 by Irving Lerner with Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer, Nigel Davenport, Leonard Whiting, Michael Craig)
   The district continues to be a popular location for filming due to its historic vibe. In 2016, the head of the neighborhood's business improvement district stated that "There's not one day where there's not shooting." The popular TV sitcom "New Girl" takes place largely in an apartment loft located in the Arts District. Filming has become complicated due to the development of the retail sector and residents who will be disturbed by filming at night. Also, many formerly empty lots and streets are now under development where crews used the space to park trucks and trailers.
   BULLET::::- The HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is filmed in the real-life Pacific Palisades residence of Larry David, as the home of his character, "Larry David".
  
  BULLET::::- The TV series "Teen Wolf" is currently being filmed at Palisades Charter High School. Crews come to film every couple of weeks.
  
  BULLET::::- The original 2014 movie "God's Not Dead" had scenes filmed at 1033 Ravoli Drive in Pacific Palisades.
  
  BULLET::::- The 2014 movie "Redeemed -Grace Abounds" starring Ted McKinley, resident of Pacific Palisades was filmed at 1033 Ravoli Drive in Pacific Palisades.
   The Gary Cooper classic "High Noon" (1952) shot on a western street at the Warner Brothers "Ranch", then known as the Columbia Ranch. The ranch facility is situated less than a mile north of Warner's main lot in Burbank. The 1957 classic "" also filmed on the old Columbia Ranch, and much of the outdoor filming for the Three Stooges took place at Columbia Ranch, including most of the chase scenes. In 1993, Warner Bros. bulldozed the historic Burbank-based sets used to film "High Noon" and Lee Marvin's 1965 Oscar-winning Western comedy "Cat Ballou", as well as several other features and television shows.
   The Massachusetts Film Office is the official state agency charged with assisting movie-making, television and commercial production in Massachusetts. The organization's website serves as a resource for productions interested in learning about filming in Massachusetts by providing a breakdown of the state's tax incentives, a filmography of films and TV series shot in the state, a directory of filming locations and more.
   BULLET::::- "And Then There Were None" (1974 by Peter Collinson with Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer, Richard Attenborough, Charles Aznavour, Gert Fröbe, Stéphane Audran, Herbert Lom)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Four Musketeers" (1974 by Richard Lester with Michael York, Oliver Reed, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston, Christopher Lee, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Stranger and the Gunfighter" (1975 by Antonio Margheriti with Lee Van Cleef, Lo Lieh, Patty Shepard, Femi Benussi, Karen Yeh)
  