Backlot

A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.

Some movie studios build a wide variety of sets on the backlot, which can be modified for different purposes as need requires and "dressed" to resemble any time period or look. These sets include everything from mountains, forests, ships, to small-town settings from around the world, as well as streets from the Old West, to whole modern-day city blocks from New York City, Paris, Berlin and London. There are streets that comprise an assortment of architectural styles, Victorian to suburban homes, and 19th century-style townhouses that encircle a central park with trees. An example of this is "Forty Acres" in Culver City, California or, in the case of Universal Studios, the home of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie Psycho.

The shells, or façades, on a studio backlot are usually constructed with three sides and a roof, often missing the back wall and/or one of the side walls. The interior is an unfinished space, with no rooms, and from the back of the structure one can see the electrical wires, pipes, beams and scaffolding, which are fully exposed. Ladders are usually built into the structure, allowing performers to climb to an upper-floor window or the roof to do scenes. Not all the buildings and houses are shells, however. Some are closed in with a fourth wall. When not otherwise in use, they double as storage facilities for lighting and other production equipment. When in use, the structures are dressed by adding doors, window treatments and landscaping. L-shaped temporary walls are placed inside of doors to give the illusion of an interior. When not in use, however, the structures are usually stripped of this dressing.

Walt Disney Studios Park

Walt Disney Studios Park is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallee, France, opened on March 16, 2002. It is dedicated to show business, themed after movies, production, and behind-the-scenes. In 2013, the park hosted approximately 4.4 million guests, making it the third-most visited amusement park in Europe and the 21st-most visited in the world, though it has the lowest attendance figures of all eleven Walt Disney parks.

The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower similar to the Earful Tower in Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Dedication

History

Initial plans for a second theme park, named Disney-MGM Studios Europe or Disney-MGM Studios Paris, were scheduled to open in 1996, though these plans were cancelled around mid-1992 due to the resort's financial crisis at the time. After the resort began to make a profit, these plans were revived on a much smaller scale. Walt Disney Studios Park opened on March 16, 2002.

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SCAD’s Hollywood-style backlot is nearly ready for its closeup

Business Journal 08 Apr 2025
The third and final stage within SCAD's Hollywood-style backlot is scheduled to open in 2026 ... .
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