The State of Georgia has come a long way to be the entertainment production center of the South. One of the biggest still ongoing production in Atlanta and around it, is of course the record-breaking
The Walking Dead.
Atlanta Movie Tour is a company organizing daily tours to see TWD filming locations in town. There are two tours to choose from, one focusing on Atlanta and another one in nearby Senoia where fictional Woodbury and Alexandria Safe-Zones are located and currnet filming is taking place. I chose the first one as my tour and was not disappointed.
The 3-hour tour takes place onboard a mini-bus.
This is the bridge that Rick rides in town in thevery first episode. The building used to house some railway company offices but is now vacant.
Fictional department store where Rick and Glenn escape zombies in second episode.
Stretch of street that Rick and Glenn walk covered in walker guts.
Next door is the parking lot where Glenn steals an orange Dodge Charger to distract a herd of walkers.
In season 5 Daryl and Carol find a van hanging from this bridge while they try tracing down Beth.
Time jump to season 4, Terminus turns out not to be a safe haven. The building is located south of Downtown.
This is where the group is loaded on a rail car in final minutes of season 4.
Back to season 1 and episode 1. Rick rides to Atlanta through this bridge.
And this is the square where the scene with a tank being surrounded by walkers was shot. Unfortunately the bus just drove through, so I didn't get that good shot.
Alley where Rick and Glenn escape walkers in the second episode (just before climbing on top of the department store).
Next we drove north of Atlanta, where there is a hippie commune called Goat Farm. Several productions have been filmed in here, including The Hunger Games where the location was used as District 12 "mining town".
Some random season 3 scenes have been shot in here. Our guide has been an extra zombie on Walking Dead and is one of the walkers eating Merle.
Back in episode 1, this is the police station where Rick and Morgan get some guns and ammo, and where Rick shoots his former colleague (now a walker) next to a fence.
Pimped up swag mobile!
Every one should recognize this location. This is the hospital where Rick wakes up and discovers piles of dead bodies at the backyard. It's an old Atlanta Mission building.
Unfortunately the tour was not able to take us to where "CDC" was filmed, but instead we got to see the most famous view of the Downtown skyline. From Jackson Bridge Downtown skyscrapers line up nicely for a great photo.
...and this is the famous view in the series.
Note how much they have digitally edited. They doubled the lanes, added a railway, etc. Nothing is what it seems in Hollywood.
And that was it. The tour is definitely worth the money for a TWD fan and I had good time. More Atlanta photos soon.
Lastly there is a nice clip showing one how much they twist the reality in film industry.
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