Want to recreate scenes from movies and TV shows at their locations? 6 places in Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, to be a ‘SetJetter’
- SetJetters is an app that allows users to find film and TV locations, recreate their favourite scenes and upload photos of themselves there in a ‘ShotSync’
- From Extraordinary Attorney Woo scenes on Jeju Island, Korea, to Chijmes Hall in Singapore, scene of the Crazy Rich Asians wedding, here are six in East Asia
It started with a pint in my local in London. First licensed in 1722, The Blue Anchor is beside the Thames, just along from the Victorian architectural splendour of Hammersmith Bridge. Behind the bar is a still of Gwyneth Paltrow from the romcom Sliding Doors.
Depressed that 2023 marks a whole quarter of a century since the release of that celebration of serendipity with Paltrow’s questionable British accent, I googled the name of the film and the pub.
Images of Paltrow and co-star John Hannah appeared and then, having disappeared down an internet rabbit hole, up popped a link to an app called SetJetters, with the tagline “From reel to real”.
The app aggregates locations used in major films and TV shows, letting users find a scene on a global map, then upload their own photo from the location in what is called a “ShotSync”, as they recreate the image. Users can also submit details of locations, films and shows, growing a global community in the process.
Seattle-based filmmaker Erik Nachtrieb is one of the app’s co-founders. They came up with the idea during the Covid pandemic, when, unsurprisingly, filmmaking all but stopped.
“We knew that film tourism was a thing, as we’d seen it everywhere,” says Nachtrieb. “When you go to Pike Place market in Seattle, the first thing they tell you is that Sleepless in Seattle was shot there. SetJetters actually started out as a show pitch called ‘Beyond the Frame’ as we built an app to promote the show, but quickly realised there was clearly a market for it.”
