History Main / RealPlaceBackground

* The fourth game in the ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' series took this approach, using photographs of real-life LA scenery and scanning them in as the background shots.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' is set in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} in 2002, and besides the obvious monuments like the CN Tower and the [=SkyDome=], the locations in the film are based on various other areas in the city. Chinatown is the most prominent but other areas include Kensington Market[[note]]identifiable by the cafe and vintage shops with racks of clothes hanging outside and pastel picket fences[[/note]], the corner of Spadina and St Andrews[[note]]identifiable by its Cat on a Chair sculpture[[/note]], and the intersection of Bremner St. and Rees St.[[note]]identifiable by the orientation of the [=SkyDome=] and the billboard in front of it[[/note]]. Also the three tallest skyscrapers in Toronto at the time (plus the eighth) are accurately depicted: First Canadian Place[[note]]distinguished by it having two visible antennas[[/note]], Scotia Plaza[[note]]distinguished by its v-shaped recess[[/note]], the TD Canada Trust Tower[[note]]distinguished by its tiered spire[[/note]] and the Bay Wellington Tower[[note]]distinguished by its twin peak[[/note]].

** A number of famous stories and plots use real-life places and monuments. Most notably, Gwen Stacy died at the George Washington bridge (though confusingly Romita Sr. modeled it on the Brooklyn Bridge in the issue) and it's not uncommon for real life tourists and visitors to treat the real bridge as a memorial to her fictional death. Likewise, Peter and MJ's famous MakeOutPoint is the top of the Empire State Building, celebrated as their spot since the Wedding annual, and revisited in Matt Fraction's "To Have and to Hold" as well as ''Spider-Island''.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': The Marvel Universe was renowned for being set in New York as opposed to the fictional cities of DC heroes, but even then Spider-Man still stood out originally for being the most tied to the city since the Fantastic Four had global and cosmic adventures while Dr. Strange likewise was an esoteric figure:

** Marvel actually got into trouble for this in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' Issue #138. Ross Andru, Gerry Conway's collaborator, was fond of taking photographs and inserting real architecture into his backgrounds. However for one issue he used a real house in Queens and made it into the location of the Mindworm. Readers in that area however recognized the house and immediately went over and pestered the owners about its unintended celebrity as the lair of the Mindworm which led the owners to sue Marvel and settle, and after that Marvel saw fit to disguise their use of locations better.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': The Factory is based on real-life Renault factory in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt]], a suburb in Paris (the factory was later demolished in 2005 and replaced by a music auditorium). There's also a school, Lycee Lakanal/Lakanal High School, a few kilometers away, which of course is the basis for Kadic Academy.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' moves away from Strangereal that has been the staple of ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series and primarily set in fictionalized version of Earth, complete with real life countries like the United States and Russia. As such, many of locations in the Campaign were actually recreated from various real world cities and locales, most notably Miami, Dubai, Moscow and Washington DC. In addition, the Multiplayer mode also has Paris as a map, while Honolulu and Tokyo were added in the [=DLCs=].

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' moves away from Strangereal that has been the staple of ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series and primarily set in fictionalized version of Earth, complete with real life countries like the United States and Russia. As such, many of locations in the Campaign were actually recreated from various real world cities and locales, including Miami, Dubai, Moscow and Washington DC. In addition, the Multiplayer mode also has Paris as a map, while Honolulu and Tokyo were added in the [=DLCs=].

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' moves away from Strangereal that has been the staple of ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series and primarily set in fictionalized version of Earth, complete with real life countries like the United States and Russia. As such, many of locations in the Campaign were actually recreated from various real world cities and locales, including Miami, Dubai, Moscow and Washington DC. In addition, the Multiplayer mode also has Paris as a map, while Honolulu and Tokyo were added in the DLCs.

* Inverted for ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'', where a screenshot of the game was accidentally used in a news report about the Middle East.

* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' has projected scenery of the Art/SistineChapel (before Michelangelo painted it), and the streets of Pisa. The Leaning Tower shows up a lot (and is even mentioned in the lyrics) but it's justified because Pisa is very small. The characters' school is a short walk from the tower, and the Archiepiscopal Palace where Cesare lives is even closer to it.

[[folder: Fanfiction]]
Boomfield of the Joe the Great Franchise has several real world elements:
** Joe's Elementary School is based on Belden Elementary in Canton, Ohio, his middle school is based on RS Middle in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, and his high school is based on Corcoran High in Syracuse, New York.

** The sreets where Fred and Sam live are based on neighborhoods in Alliance, Ohio.

** The street where Joy lives is based on neighborhoods in Detroit Michigan.

** Some of the Bloomfield streets were inspired by Rochester, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; Oakland, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.

* Creator/SeventhExpansion's sound novels use mostly photo-shopped filtered photos as backgrounds, so this is bound to happen.

[[caption-width-right:327:Holy crap, that ''is'' my house!]]

* 7th Expansion's sound novels use mostly photo-shopped filtered photos as backgrounds, so this is bound to happen.

* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Tom Siddell based the backgrounds of Zimmy's DarkWorld off actual locations in Birmingham. Hence the FanNickname 'Zimmingham'.

Locations used for this purpose tend to become the subject of {{otaku}} "pilgrimages", a prime example being the Washinomiya shrine which is used in ''Manga/LuckyStar''.

* ''Manga/ThadsWorldDestructionBeforeDestruction'' is centered on Albuquerque, New Mexico.
* ''Webcomic/TheLessThanEpicAdventuresOfTJAndAmal'' is full of these.

This is far more common in TV shows, comics and games that are set in real places (e.g., [[BigApplesauce New York]], [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]], or [[GayParee Paris]]).