These photographers guide you through the locations of your favorite movies and TV shows

Have you wondered where some of your favorite movies or TV series were filmed? Or maybe you need an inspiration for your next shooting location? Let Tiia Öhman and Satu Walden (Fangirl Quest) guide you. These ladies are travelers and photographers who hunt down the locations of numerous TV series and movies and take photos using a technique they named screenframing.

Satu holds a tablet with a scene from the movie or TV show and aligns it with the frame on location, and then Tiia takes a photo. The result is quite a unique series of photos that shows our favorite heroes in a different and broader context.

Although it may seem simple, a project like this can pose many challenges. We spoke to Tiia and Satu about them, as well as about the whole idea and how it all began.

How did you come up with this idea in the first place? It’s truly an interesting project, and as I can see from your website, it’s quite big.

We spotted a few pictures done in this style, but with printed photographs. I think they featured the first season of BBC’s Sherlock and some historical sites not really connected to any TV shows or movies. We thought we’d try to take a few of our own, but I forgot the prints at home and we tried it with a tablet. The photos went viral and so the tablet sort of became our thing. There was really no going back after being featured on BuzzFeed and many other viral sites!

What is the biggest challenge in a project like this?

Sometimes the locations aren’t accessible to the public. Or, even if we get to the right spot and have it all prepared, a really bad weather like heavy rain may stop us from taking the photos.

Is it difficult to find out where the movies and series were filmed?

Sometimes, the exact filming locations are really hard to find or they’re located in an area that’s not accessible to the public. It’s easy to discover the location information for most of the new and popular movies and shows, but the older and less known they get, the harder the research work becomes. We’ve just returned from Wales where we wanted to sceneframe the upcoming Guy Ritchie film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and had to base our research on the trailer and some press photos alone. We knew the rough area where they filmed (“near this one lake”) and once we got there, had to just look for a very specific shape of a rock. Sounds ridiculous, but after hours of driving and hiking around we did find it!

Take a look and some more of Tiia and Satu’s screenframes:

Fangirl Quest features over 200 photos from different corners of the world, all made with the screenframing technique. They feature dozens of movies and TV shows, and everyone is sure to find something they like.

I find the results of screenframing interesting and sometimes even mind-boggling. But what’s also great about the project is that it can inspire other photographers, too. On Fangirl Quest you can see the locations of every photo shoot, in case you want to visit them yourself. And maybe for a moment, you can, in a way, be a part of your favorite movie or TV show.

About the Artists

Tiia Öhman and Satu Walden are friends and travelers from Finland. Tiia is a copywriter, photographer and graphic designer, and you can find some of her work on her personal website. Satu is a travel manager and copywriter. Together, they run a website Fangirl Quest, a blog about film tourism and other amazing journeys. To see more of their work, check out their website, like their Facebook page, and follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr and their YouTube channel.

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