A case study in the context of the construction of cultural branding of cities as main characters in post-2000 cinema

In this study, which deals with the relationship between city and cinema, I examined how cities appear in movies as a main character in the process of cultural branding. In addition, I tried to analyze what this situation contributes to the branding process in the context of İzmir with the movie "İzmir, City of Love". In the first part of the thesis, the concepts of brand and branding were examined and it was tried to define how to become a brand city. In the second part, it has been researched how cities benefit from cinema in the cultural branding process by examining other examples in the world. In the same way, how the cities rose to protagonists as a main character in the cinema was examined. In this section, some determinations about the contribution of cinema to the process of branding and creating a perception of the city, especially in the context of Woddy Allen's urban films, are given. In the third and last part, the contribution of cinema to the desire and motivation of the city of Izmir to become a brand city has been tried to be discussed through the example of the feature film " İzmir, City of Love ". The concept of Cinema Office, which emerged during the branding efforts of the city of Izmir, focused on how to increase the visibility of the city in cinema films by supporting the projects to be shot in the city of Izmir by making the cultural inventory of the city. Accordingly, it has been tried to reveal how it contributes to the creation of the image of the city.