Not Tropeworthy: Canada Does Not Exist

Is this really a trope? I'm honestly not sure what's here other than "it's hard to tell where a movie is when it's shot in Canada".

This is "works shot in Canada often leave the fictional setting vague". That seems like a trope to me.

I think the description could use some work. Assuming it is even true, do we need quite so many paragraphs to say it?

Also, might this be trivia instead of a trope?

The examples could also use some work. How do you "shoot" a novel in Canada? There are also several Zero Context Examples.

edited 12th Jan '14 7:05:10 AM by Catbert

It's definitely not Trivia since it directly effects in media presentation. I do agree though that a shorter description that's not so rambling would help. It's too much history of the trope.

Basically, it's the idea that works will be made in one country but then made for audiences in another country as well so as a result the end product is very vague about where it's set and often times goes to great lengths to avoid nation specific terminology in order not to alienate either market.

edited 12th Jan '14 8:12:50 AM by shimaspawn

Are the Resident Evil films even an example? They're explicitly set in a fictional town in the USA, but make few attempts to hide that they're shot in Toronto. Seems more like California Doubling to me.

California Doubling's first sentence says it's about exotic/foreign locales made somewhere in California.

Most of the information could probably work well as a Useful Notes page about television production. There's so much good information there that it'd be a shame to see it go to waste.

Same trope, different locale. That's not what this supposedly is as far as I understand it.

Yes, California Doubling can be any location. California, Toronto, or Vancouver are all very common versions of California Doubling. The Resident Evil examples are California Doubling.

California Doubling's second sentence mentions the British counterpart, and the Vancouver Doubling link is just a pothole to UsefulNotes.Vancouver. It's not the only trope to start out talking about a specific case and then explain how it can apply in other cases too. That's not always good form, but it can work if you don't expect it to automatically be bad form.

Perhaps this trope could be expanded into some kind of idea that the concept of Canada does not exist in a work- not just from a location standpoint but from a narrative standpoint as well. Ideas such as "Canada is the 51st state" imply that there is a perception that Canada doesn't have its own separate identity, and several works do reference it (I believe The Simpsons once called Canada "USA Jr.")

I don't think that's really the same thing.

That does not seem to be the same trope.

Also, apparently I was wrong about how broadly California Doubling can be used.

The examples are all over the place, and the only pattern I'm seeing is one that's zig-zagged and subverted more often than played straight. The description refers to a "scale of hidden Canadianness" suggests that this might work better as a Sliding Scale than a straight-up trope.

...that's just silly.

Clocking due to inactivity.

Clock's up; locking.