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Dexter Stopped by the Police |
A. In the real world, this scene was shot on Massachusetts Highway 117 (AKA Seven Bridge Road), in Lancaster, Mass., near the Bolton Fair grounds (318 Seven Bridge Rd.) and Kalon Farm.(339 Seven Bridge Rd.) it's important to know that there are actually two different locations in this brief scene: 1. The location of the billboard behind which we see Angela's patrol car hiding, when it pulls out the first chase Dexter, and 2. The location where Dexter is actually pulled over to the side of the road. Although the cars seem to be traveling in the same direction in both scenes, they are not. Dexter & Angela are both driving east when he passes the Iron Lake billboard, but they are actually going the opposite direction, west, when he is pulled over.
The fake billboard was put up on the south side of MA-117, with the approximate GPS coordinates of °27'44.6"N 71°39'33.8"W .
The two spots are actually less than half a mile apart, on the same street, albeit on opposite sides of the road. The spot where Dexter is pulled over is 0.4 miles
south/southeast of the spot where they put up the Iron Lake billboard,
with the approximate GPS coordinates of 42°27'34.6"N 71°39'11.3"W . The pullover spot is about 0.6 miles south/southeast of the Bolton Fairgrounds. The camera is looking east, while Dexter is driving west, and pulls over to the north side of the road. ![]()
Using that bit of information, and finding the location of the Fair on Google maps, I identified the road they were driving on as MA-117. And I was fortunate that Google StreetView was available on that street (something that isn't always the case in rural Massachusetts). So, I began using Google StreetView to "drive" up & down that highway, looking for a distinctive tree that was visible in the scene where Dexter was pulled over. However, since the scene was shot In the winter, when the trees were deciduous, the trees looked different in this StreetView. But I solved that by switching the StreetView to an earlier view when the trees had no leaves, making itcomparatively easy to find that particular tree, and the nearby at indent in the road where Dexter pulled over. But try as I might, I couldn't find that earlier spot where they put up the billboard, since the billboard was no longer there, and I incorrectly assumed it would be on the same was side of the road as the pullover spot. But a fan, Scott Sheehan, who lives in Massachusetts, and who has driven the route many times (while taking his daughter to soccer), recognized it and emailed me to let me know where it was. He also let me know that they had filmed the two scenes on opposite sides of the road, something that helped a lot when trying to pinpoint the spot. ( Thanks, Scott ! ) Besides another distinctive tree marking the billboard spot, there was also a small hill/crest on the horizon, Topped and with pine trees, that helped me be sure that I had the right spot.
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