Greg Daniels developed a wildly entertaining science-fiction comedy with drama tropes from Amazon Prime Video starring Robbie Amell and Andy Allo. Today, we shift gears and focus on another aspect of this production; instead of covering the plot or cast, we’re going to examine where this movie was shot. As such, we’re going to travel across North America to find the Upload filming locations
The series, now renewed for a third season, takes place in a fictional place and time where we as humans can upload digital versions of ourselves.
The main character, Nathan, dies unexpectedly, and his persona is uploaded, but he discovers that in that fictional cyberworld, his troubles still exist. He has an overbearing toxic girlfriend and must adapt to whatever happens in this digital paradise that is flawed with the elements of earthly existence.
Upload Filming Locations
Upload is a single-camera science-fiction comedy-drama that is filmed across New York and Texas in the United States and in British Columbia in Canada. The debut season’s main photography took place between March and May 2019. The sophomore season was filmed between January and April 2021. Season three was filmed between August and November 2022.
If you see the series, you’ll find out that besides the exteriors, there’s a lot of CGI going on there, because we’re talking about a world where your digital self is the main character. But where did the cast and crew move to make this production happen? Come with us to find these things out on a trip across North America.
New York
In the movie, the main character dies early on, and his digital persona is uploaded to a place called Lakeview. Lakeview’s real location is a Mountain House, more specifically, the New Paltz Mohonk Mountain House, a vast estate made up of a main building, adjacent facilities, and over 150 square kilometers of dense forests, hills, mountains, and even bodies of water. The exterior shots of Lakeview are shot there. But the interiors of the vast Lakeview complex take us elsewhere.
Another location in New York used to create ambiance for the main characters is Brooklyn’s Fairway Market. In the show, Nora, a virtual handler for the main character, has a condo in which we see through the windows the skyline of a futuristic New York City’s Manhattan island.
Texas
In Upload, Lakeview is an exciting, wonderful place where humans spend their afterlives. The interior of this luxurious virtual facility had many shots taken elsewhere than Mohonk in New York.
Instead, we move to Pasadena, Texas, to a location called “Castle Green,” a Victorian-style property full of highly period decorated interiors that meld with the futuristic tropes and aesthetics of a virtual soul that’s trying to adapt to the afterlife while finding out that everything was the same for him when he was alive, except that he must live in a fancy resort.
Vancouver, Canada
After going through Texas and New York, we go to the Northwest, to British Columbia, in Vancouver. A mini-Hollywood is known for being the filming location for countless productions like Riverdale, Arrow, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Supergirl. As well as many Hollywood productions like Deadpool, It, Fantastic Four, Juno, Fifty Shades of Grey, and many more.
Vancouver’s local authorities have a policy of offering production companies incentives to take their business there. It is an economic strategy that offers tax incentives, bolsters local industries gives job opportunities to the many arts and film students in the region’s colleges, and it also eases up on the bureaucratic requirements to shoot on the street.
Moreover, Vancouver also has several high-end studios that have nothing to envy from big Hollywood or London facilities with all the toys, gadgets, devices, and elements a filmmaker and his production company can enjoy bringing to life a movie, series, show, or documentary.
In the case of Upload, we see a lot of indoor scenes shot at the Cecil Green Park House, a mansion of Tudor architecture that was also used for shows like The CW’s Riverdale and “Fifty Shades Freed”. Moreover, we also see exterior shots of Chinatown, the famous Lord Stanley Ballroom located at Stanley Pavillion, and several streets near Gastown.
