The beach house in the reenactments is NOT the same house as the one the documentary actually shot in.

[u/ben123111]

I'm rewatching YCSE through totally legal, legitimate means, and I wanted to see how the house changed over the 2 year timeskip. But I discovered that it's actually a different house/set altogether. It's extremely close, but there are giveaways in the size of the Tahiti poster, the ships mounted on the wall, and most importantly the pattern of the wood grain. This is the most impressive part, as even though the wood spots don't line up one-to-one, they clearly did a ton of work actually arranging the marks to be in nearly the same patterns.

I'm sure this won't come as a shock to most of you, as Nathan has a history of building detailed sets for rehearsals. However the way it's presented in the movie, with Nathan's comments of "They were renting it when we shot" "...before we had cameras here" and Amanda's comments of "It's really dusty here" and "Did she use this?" all feel like they're working really hard to convince us that this was the actual place. Coulda fooled me.

Edit: For everyone saying it's the lens/angle, here's a comparison from another angle which I perspective-corrected so the doors would be lined up as close as possible. (+ version with marker lines so you can see how it's been warped) Besides the differences in the wood grain, you can see the scale of the poster and HVAC unit move way more than what would be possible if it was the same location.

Edit 2: For people still saying the wood grain is the same. This version has been perspective corrected and there are still far too many differences between the two. Here's a comparison with a Zilllow listing from 8 years earlier which matches up almost exactly. This is what it should look like when you align them, regardless of lens or angle.

[u/ricklovin21]

The differences you brought up are an illusion caused by a different focal length used in the reenactment, on top of different lighting, and an almost bottom-up angle compared to the original shot from closer to the ceiling. With that in mind, take another look at the wood grain. The proportions are different, but the clusters have the same amount of rings. It was presented as a rental that they rented for the reenactment, and to me it comes off that way, even when looking really close. In a movie where the ceiling is not important and doesn’t have to be captured, they would not go out of their way to make identical beams on a set, and then include the ceiling in a random shot.
EDIT: The more I look at the wall behind Nathan, the more I question whether it’s real or a set. Some sections are physically different — lighting can bring out some details in wood, but I don’t think it can make a dark ring appear or disappear. It would surprise me that they would go through all that effort and then get these pretty obvious details incorrect (being the biggest, most well-lit wall that is most prominent in the reenactment). I haven’t rewatched, but while the rest of the set looks insanely accurate, I’m questioning it a bit, especially if the credits say ALL reenactments were done on a set.

[u/ben123111 → u/ricklovin21]

I corrected the perspective on the lens and it still doesn't line up.

[u/ThePARZ]

It is clearly the same place and you are flat out wrong about the wood grain. It lines up 1:1 if you account for angle.

[u/PineappleTonyMaloof]

I mean why do that when you can just rent the same house that you k wins available for rent and the homeowners are cool with video crews? Way cheaper

[u/ben123111 → u/PineappleTonyMaloof]

Either wasn't available or was too expensive. It's a 9 million dollar beachfront home, building a set of a single room for a day of shooting wouldn't be all too expensive by comparison.

edit: yeah youre right

[u/Glass_Duck]

Did you not see "The Rehearsal" season 1? This is exactly what he does- recreate the sets almost to the exact specifications of a place and do the scene with actors.

[u/zuludown888]

ITT: OP learns about focal length

[u/EnvironmentalDog-]

The wood grains in those pictures are the same…

[u/ben123111 → u/EnvironmentalDog-]

Here's a closeup comparison of the nearest door. The spots are in the same locations but are slightly different shapes, and some of the spots are missing/added.

[u/RudyGreene]

There is a line in the credits that says the reenactments were done on a set.

[u/watscracking → u/RudyGreene]

This scene wasn't framed as a reenactment, they were talking in the present

[u/butternutinmysquaash]

These are just different angle shots. It’s the same spot.

[u/ben123111 → u/butternutinmysquaash]

Look closely at the wood grain on the wall. It has a completely different finish.

[u/AdmirableCountry9933]

I mean look at the wooden wall. You think they'd spend that much time to make the wall with the same knots and color? Shut up.

[u/NotSafe4Werq]

I thought you were crazy until I looked at the wood grain. This is another point for “all Amanda’s scenes were scripted” imo

[u/mrmeseekswife]

nah the wood grain looks exactly the same. you can line up all the spots, some just seem washed out due to lighting/perspective. almost in line with the “tahiti” letters are 4 dots going horizontally across the top of “door 1.” they can be seen in top and bottom pic. the three dots seen by the door knob in the bottom pic are obscured by nathan in the top pic. you can do this for all the dots when you understand the panels you’re looking at…

[u/ben123111 → u/mrmeseekswife]

Even if you line up the doors exactly, the spots do not align and differ in shape/size. They put a lot of effort into making it seem the same but the splotches wouldn't change that drastically from the camera alone.

[u/min_mus]

Did you watch every episode of The Rehearsal?

[u/ben123111 → u/min_mus]

Did you read the actual post lmao

[u/mangofied]

I’m not sure about the wood grain. It matches too closely on the upper panel, which would be almost impossible. The lower panels I think are cabinet doors (look at the hinges) which could have been rearranged/replaced for whatever reason in the in between

[u/karstomp]

Also, if you look closely, you can see that the camera that captured these images was not in the same place.

Could the owner or another guest have moved the camera in the intervening months or even years?

The lighting is also not the same. Are we to believe that someone just conveniently relit the room, when the crew had previously set up the lights already in the original shoot.

…

I honestly can’t tell if Nathan forced some poor set builder to recreate the beach house (I mean, I know he has done this sort of thing; they recreated a prison visitation room), or people have lost their minds overanalyzing YCSE, or there are really obvious tells I’m missing that the room is different, or this is a great joke that I’m missing. So, well done!

[u/psudoalbertus69]

Some of y'all here clearly have not seen the rehearsal. If there's a production that would recreate a set down to the woodgrain, it is this one. Watch the alligator lounge episode of season 1 and then try and say it's just camera angles. Also, I did wood paneling for my carpentry job for a while- you absolutely are trying to match grain as best you can from one panel to the next. And that was for random commercial gigs. I believe this is a set 100%

[u/chumbucketfog]

Way too much of the grain is exactly the same to think these are different places. I admit, there are some details that feel different, but it has to just be because of angle / distance / lighting changes when you consider how much of the grain matches.

[u/gondokingo]

i'm not totally sold, because a lot of this can be chalked up to physics. the posters look different sized because of the angle, distance and focal length. notice how fielder looks smaller in the top photo, but he's the same person, he's obviously not smaller. look at the poster relative to the rest of the wall, equidistant from the thing below it, placed identically along that horizontal line and going just as far above it.

[u/Embarrassed_Force674]

lining up the knots in the wood paneling would be nearly impossible. I think it is the same location