10 Ways TV Shows Blew Your Mind (Without You Even Realising)
5. The New York Exteriors Were CGI Plates - Ugly Betty
Though Ugly Betty's pilot episode was filmed in New York City where it's set, in order to cut costs production was shifted to Los Angeles for the remainder of the show's first two seasons.
As a result, any time we see Betty out on the streets of "New York," we're actually seeing an impressive feat of digital chicanery. These scenes were all shot against a green screen and then ingeniously composited into a background plate filmed in New York.
Despite the show being over 15 years old now, these scenes generally hold up shockingly well today, to the extent that you'd probably never even notice unless you saw the VFX breakdown.
This can largely be attributed to how closely the lighting was matched between the two elements, as is typically the most blatant giveaway in bad compositing.
Unsurprisingly this shooting style presented a major challenge for the cast, but production actually moved to New York for the third and fourth seasons courtesy of a tax credit offered by the state of New York.
Even so, it's rare that 15-year-old green screen still looks this damn good. Bravo.