One of the best parts of movies is imagining to set foot right into our favourite scenes. And that’s exactly what Englishman Thomas Duke does, one perfectly lined up photo after the other.

A shot taken from the movie Dunkirk lined up at the actual beach in Normandy
The Stepping Through Film projects brings movie scenes to life in their actual real-world locations © Stepping Through Film

Thomas Duke is a film lover and a photographer who has found a unique way to merge his two passions together. He travels around the world looking for the locations of some of the most iconic movie scenes and places a still picture from said movie to merge it perfectly with the existing place. This ongoing project is called Stepping Through Film and it has garnered attention even from the Academy itself, which follows Thomas on his Instagram page.

A shot taken from Disney's The Little Mermaid lined up with the sea in Denmark
This project is a way for its creator Thomas Duke to merge his two passions, cinema and photography © Stepping Through Film

"I've always adored film and loved everything about it. I used to visit London a lot for many, many years as I attended film premieres and events as a fan. I always had my camera!," Thomas told Lonely Planet on how he started the Stepping Through Film project. "So the two went hand-in-hand; I love film, I love creating and most importantly I love exploring."

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Thomas says that he always has a list of movies he’d like to feature in mind, and once he decided which one to tackle next his process is not much complicated – he prints the photo and heads out on his way. Once he’s on location, taking the perfect shot requires "a fair bit of time" and "lots of strange looks from people" when he has to lie on the ground or in a very strange position to get the alignment of the movie scene just right.

A shot of Thor and Hulk from the first Avenger movie in New York
Out of all the places he has visited, Thomas says that New York might be his favourite because it feels like walking in the middle of a huge movie set © Stepping Through Film

"I’ve sometimes seen people post [pictures of me] online and mention how they weren’t sure what I was doing," Thomas said. "But then they saw the film and understood the passion behind it all!"

A shot taken from the recent 2019 movie Joker
Thomas's work also covers television series, as well as very recent movies like 2019's Joker © Stepping Through Film

To Thomas, the most fascinating part of the Stepping Through Film project is exploring and examining each country’s culture and differences down to the very small details, and learning insider’s knowledge on the filming production that have visited certain places. "Locals always have the most insight into a certain production," he said. "So that’s always nice to hear."

A shot taken from the John Wick movie series in New York
While lining up the shot perfectly might take some time and some weird positioning, Thomas assures that it's all worth it at the end © Stepping Through Film

If you’d like to keep up with Thomas Duke’s Stepping Through Film project, you can find his Instagram page here.

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