FilmReal is a location-based augmented reality experience that brings scenes from NYC’s famous past movies to life in the places they were filmed. It features an extensive roster of movie locations across the five boroughs covering genres from drama to horror to comedy.

This project was developed for my Urban Interaction Design course at Parsons School of Design in Spring of 2016 in collaboration with Merrilee Pan and Eric Jiang.

How FilmReal Works
Users can access the FilmReal interactive map beforehand and find movies by genre, year, and location. After picking their favorite locations to visit, they can head to the site and look for the FilmReal logo at the location the scene took place. Using the free paired FilmReal app for iPhone and Android, visitors can then view the scene filmed in their location, overlaid on what it looks like today. We prototyped the application using the Layar augmented reality prototyping platform.

Augmented Reality & the Urban Playground

We created FilmReal to prototype an augmented reality experience that would get users out of their homes and onto the streets. Culture is best experienced on-site and augmented reality (which is inherently location or “reality” based) provides cultural institutions and media outlets an innovative new way to deliver multimedia and mixed-media experiences. By harnessing location-based services, FilmReal collapses the boundaries between reality and film, helping tourists and residents to literally see the movie where it was filmed, and better experience the time, history, and embedded cultural stories of the place they emerge from.

Applications like FilmReal can also provide new opportunities for NYC tourism stakeholders (such as local government and cultural institutions) since it has the potential to draw new audiences and support curated neighborhood cultural experiences.

FilmReal Demo