Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spending a Night at the Bates Motel

As the TV series, Bates Motel kicks-off in the States, it's interesting to follow the supporting promotional media.

The "Bates Motel" series is a prequel based on Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960's Psycho movie that is weirdly set in current times. The series is a study on how a son's creepy relationship with his mother and spending impressionable teenage years growing up in a motel made the character Norman Bates the most well-known and infamous motelier of them all ;-)

For us the most alluring aspect of Bates Motel is the motel itself. The set is located in British Columbia and is true to the original that remains at the Universal Studios lot in Hollywood that I've visited before.

Interestingly the classic roofline of the separate Bates house facade located on a rise beside the motel has not been included on the new set. Is this some strange ode to Canadian health and safety or building laws? Apparently, to keep the faith, the roofline is digitally added to sweeping scenes that featured the building on the show.

The New York Times reporter Neil Genzlinger has done a multi-media puff-piece adding to the publicity for the Bates Motel TV series. The story appeared in the print edition with a link to the video below.

Interesting to note how traditional media reporting is changing:

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