Locations in a film can be as famous as the celebrities who star in them. Chas Demster, a 1989 Warsaw Community High School graduate, has created a website for people to find out information and see photographs taken at more than 250 movie locations. Itsfilmedthere.com is in its fourth year. In an interview Monday afternoon, Demster said he’s always had an interest in film locations. As a kid, a family friend took him to locations used for the “Blues Brothers” movie. He thought it was neat to see Hollywood history and how it’s changed. It was a hobby for him when he started checking out film locations at 12 years old. Whenever he was in a city, he would go to film locations and take photographs for his albums. He’d show the pictures to people, who eventually suggested he start up a website. The hobby has now become more of a business. The website averages 2,500 hits a day and 500 visitors. To find out where a movie was shot, Demster will watch a film and note for any hints. He’ll look for clues such as addresses, business signs or neighborhoods. Most of the film locations he’s taken pictures of are in Chicago and Los Angeles. He’ll use Mapquest, Google and other Internet sites to help him search the places up. “Sometimes you just get lucky and find it,” he said. His site includes photographs, information on where a house is but not who lives there. People have to obey laws, he said, and not trespass. People love movies, and it’s not uncommon for people to want to go to a film location and get their picture taken in front of a famous building. “It was hard for me to believe when I started this that there wold be this much interest in it, but there is,” Demster said. He gets comments from people thanking him for finding the location from a movie. Many films and television shows use backlots instead of real locations. Once you’ve been to a backlot, he said, you can tell the difference between a backlot and a real location. Backlots have narrower streets. When people find out a location in a movie was fake, they are often disappointed, Demster said. His website also highlights films shot in Indiana, such as “A League Of Their Own,” which starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna. To get photos of that movie’s location, Demster got to go everywhere inside and out of the home dugout used in the film. He got a personal tour, which is his favorite thing to do for the website. Businesses used in a film like the publicity his website offers them. However, he leaves residences alone in order to respect privacy. “Once you put a residence in a movie, it becomes famous. You get lurkers,” he said. His website also contains links to Demster’s email and a link to a Facebook page for updates. On the Net: www.itsfilmedthere.com
