Set to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, The Road Trip Project is the result of over 2,000 photos taken over a 17-day trip across North America during visits to the filming locations some of the horror genre’s most iconic films. Captured by Carl Rodrigue and a friend, the two visited locations used in Jaws, I Spit On Your Grave, Friday the 13th, The Amityville Horror, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, The Exorcist, The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carnival of Souls, It Follows, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and The Dead Zone.
“We left Québec City on October the 28th, went all the way to the south to New Orleans, to the West to Austin, came back North by Chicago and returned on November the 13th,” said Rodrigue in an interview. “We spent Halloween visiting the different locations of The Blair Witch Project, which was a real treat.”
While many of the locations captured have been highly publicized and are easy to find, others weren’t. Time has changed many of the film locations and efforts have also been made by owners to deter movie tourists. “Chief Brody’s house in Jaws is only recognizable by looking at the houses of the neighbors,” said Rodrigue. “Same goes with The Amityville Horror house, which the new owners have renovated.” Rodrigue admitted that Google Street View was a huge help in preparing for their trip and finding each location. In other instances, it just came down to chance. “The gas station from I Spit on your Grave is a perfect example of that. We found it by pure luck,” says Rodrigue.
One of the things that impressed me most about The Road Trip Project was how well the creators were able to match their location photos to the shots from the actual films. I asked Carl how they managed to recreate the shots. “We made print-screens of all the shots we wanted to reproduce in advance…using these print-screens, we were able to put our cameras at the same angle and, while editing, we found the best frames to match them.” Unfortunately, Moon Film wasn’t able to capture every shot they had hoped. In many instances, the two just didn’t have access to the location. For example, the third photo in the The Amityville Horror section is captured from the road above. Rodrigue admits that editing the film was almost as fun as the trip itself. “It’s as they say, ‘Write the book that you want to read,’ so we made the video we’d like to see.”
Moon Film plans to release additional videos as a result of the trip, each dedicated to the individual movies and their filming locations.
You can check out Moon Film on YouTube, and on Facebook. Moon Film previously made headlines with their Cinema – 120 Years in 120 Seconds video, which was picked up by a number of online outlets from around the globe.
