Rockport, Alaska?

It used to be that we Bostonians had to pack our bags and head to Los Angeles to break into Hollywood. Failing that, Toronto was the place to film scenes that took place along the East Coast. But now the magic of Hollywood has been lured to our area, and it’s so powerful it’s turned one local town into Alaska.

Rockport Pirates has a collection of images from a shoot for the The Proposal, which has been shooting in and around Boston for weeks. All filmmakers needed to do to change Rockport into the Alaskan town of Sitka was add some signs to the local storefronts and put up a few state flags.

It doesn’t sound like much, but as the pictures show it’s surprisingly easy to change a Massachusetts fishing village into the Alaskan boonies. In November 2007 issue of Boston magazine, we told you how easy it was for moviemakers to transform Boston into the streets of Manhattan or Paris in our exhaustive guide on the Hollywood Invasion.

We just hope they don’t change our street without ample notice. We’re easily confused.