Categories: Opinion

The couple who travel the world recreating iconic movie scenes

The couple who travel the world recreating iconic movie scenes

After several trips together as a couple, Robin Lachhein and Judith Schneider both from Frankfurt, Germany, wanted to do something more special for their upcoming vacation.

They talked about several potential ideas before coming up with something they were excited about: traveling to a movie location and recreating a famous scene.

In 2014, they visited Prague and reenacted a clip from the 1996 film, “Mission Impossible” making sure to document the moment on camera.

Over the next few years, the couple toured everywhere from Rome and Iceland, to New York and even Utah, recreating scenes or promotional photos from movies like “Thelma and Louise,” “The Hunger Games,” “Eat, Pray, Love,” “The Devil Wears Prada” as well as TV series like “Game of Thrones” and “Downton Abbey”.

In 2018, the duo launched an Instagram account, Secret Famous Places where they share their performances alongside photos of the films that inspired their filming.

The account now has over 53,000 followers, with Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Marion Cotillard among those who posted in the comments section.

Forrest Gump

Lachhein, 32, and Schneider, 31, who met at a friend’s birthday party 11 years ago, say they’re thrilled that their slightly unusual hobby is gaining so much attention, especially since they never planned to share the footage with the world.

“First, we just want to take the photos for our living room so we can have great memories of the places we visited,” Lachhein told CNN Travel . “But more and more people reacted to these photos.”

According to Lachhein, some of his friends assumed the images had been Photoshopped and were surprised to learn that they actually traveled to the locations featured in the films, dressed as the characters, and took their photos at an identical angle.

“We were laughing when we talked about dressing like actors, because that’s a lot of work,” says Schneider. “But then we tried.”

They also go to great lengths to ensure the angle is as close to the original image as possible.

“You have to get the right angle, the right perspective and be exactly where the actor or actress was,” explains Lachhein.

The first shoot they did didn’t go exactly as planned. After dressing in their costumes, putting on the appropriate makeup and heading to Charles Bridge in Prague to imitate a Tom Cruise pose in the first of the “Mission: Impossible” films, it started to rain uncontrollably.
Lachhein and Schneider had little choice but to go back and meet again the next day.

Fortunately, they finally got the shot they needed and soon began planning other trips to movie locations.

PS I Love You

However, recreating an iconic movie or TV scene isn’t as simple as just showing up on location one day and picking up a camera.

The couple often has to do a lot of planning to determine exactly where the presented point is in the sequence they want to focus on, as well as how to get there.

They walked for hours to reach the spot where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling dance in the 2016 film “La La Land”, while villagers were on hand to help them find a specific rock in New Zealand from the action-adventure film. from 2008 “10,000 BC.”

“If it’s not such a big movie, then it’s a little difficult,” explains Lachhein. “Then there are many hours of searching Google Maps trying to find the overview of the area.”

La La Land

On a few occasions, they had to obtain permission to take photos in a specific location, as was the case when the duo reenacted scenes from the 2020 film “Tenet” at Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, Italy and “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.” ” on Lake Como.

Then there’s the small matter of making sure they have clothes identical to the ones worn by the movie or TV characters they’re posing.

“We always try to use things we already have so we don’t buy a bunch of stuff,” says Schneider, recounting how they made a necklace out of a piece of steel for a specific “Star Wars” scene.

“Or we borrow it from our friends. Sometimes it’s too easy, you may need jeans, white shoes and a shirt. But for something like ‘Game of Thrones’, it’s too complicated. We have to improvise a lot.”

One of the most popular images on their account is a recreation of a sequence from the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” taken in Monument Valley, in which they summoned a group of travelers to stand in the background to make it more authentic.

If the place they need to present is at a popular tourist spot, like the bench from the 2014 film “The Fault in Our Stars,” starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, which sits alongside the Leidsegracht canal in Amsterdam, receiving the image they need can be even more challenging.

“There were a lot of people who wanted to sit there,” says Schneider. “So we waited, and we waited until it was empty.”

Downton Abbey

His painstakingly precise efforts proved to be a hit on Instagram, with Swank giving the account his seal of approval when he commented, “This is amazing!” in her image from her 2007 film “PS I Love You,” which also starred Gerard Butler.

However, Welsh actor Tom Cullen, who played Viscount Gillingham in “Downton Abbey,” was the first star to post a message, writing “got it right” on his image, mirroring a scene from the popular ITV show captured outside Highclere Castle, in the United Kingdom.

“At that point, we had maybe three photos and 300 followers or something,” says Schneider. “So that was really cool. [da parte dele].”

As they both work full-time, Lachhein and Schneider plan their trips within the six weeks of vacation they are allotted each year.

Although some of their followers have assumed that the couple’s trips are financed by their families, they emphasize that they pay for everything themselves and don’t make money from their photos.

They try to avoid Photoshop as much as possible so the photos are an accurate representation of the location, but they admit to using filters and/or changing colors occasionally to improve an image.

While the couple doesn’t necessarily choose their vacation destinations based on the films they want to create, Lachhein admits that the prospect of visiting the filming location of the 2010 movie Inception played a big part in his decision to go to Paris in 2017. .

“’Inception’ is my favorite movie. I wanted to create this scene with Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard on the bridge [Pont de Bir-​Hakeim] looking at the Eiffel Tower.

“So we had to go to Paris. And we combined the trip with different movies and series.”

The origin

They were particularly touched by the trouble some of the residents had in making sure they got the exact picture they needed.

“People are so proud that these filming locations are in their city,” explains Schneider. “And they try to help us a lot. They are so kind.”

While the pandemic has put many of their overseas trips on hold for a while, the couple were able to travel around Germany photographing images and also paid a visit to Italy in the summer of 2020.

While they haven’t been able to travel as much as they’d like in recent months, they’ve been focusing on writing an e-book offering tips for other travelers looking to look for specific filming locations.

And despite recreating around 100 movie and TV scenes, Lachhein and Schneider have many more on their bucket list and plan to visit London, as well as New York and Australia, in the near future.

“The list [de locais] is long,” says Schneider. “I think we’re going to spend a few more years doing that.”

Source: CNN Brasil