Having lived in Brooklyn for over 10 years, I've realized that the image people have of this neighborhood, who are unfamiliar with it, mostly comes from movies and TV shows.

When I first moved here, people around me would ask, 'Isn't it dangerous?' and 'Isn't it a rough neighborhood?' This was all due to crime movies, and nowadays, when they ask if it's a 'hip and trendy place,' it's thanks to shows like 'Girls.'

The most significant influence on the formation of Brooklyn's image has come from the works of director Spike Lee. His 1989 film 'Do the Right Thing' dealt with racial conflict set in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), with a production cost of about $6 million at the time.

This one film instilled the image of Bed-Stuy = Black community and Brooklyn = area of racial conflict in the minds of people worldwide. After that, Brooklyn gained a reputation as a tense and edgy city, becoming a frequent backdrop for crime dramas and hip-hop music videos throughout the 1990s.

The turning point began in the early 2000s. Indie films like 'The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)' started to change the atmosphere by using Brooklyn's brownstone neighborhoods and Park Slope as settings. An image of a bohemian neighborhood where artists and writers gather emerged, which contributed to gentrification and helped raise housing prices. In fact, real estate statistics show that the median rent for apartments in Park Slope increased by over 40% between 2005 and 2015. In a way, the film image changed real estate prices.

In the 2010s, the Marvel Cinematic Universe once again put Brooklyn on the map. In 'Captain America: The First Avenger (2011),' Steve Rogers was set as a Brooklyn native, adding the image of 'hometown of heroes' to Brooklyn. Related merchandise and tourism demand also increased, and there were reports that sales at souvenir shops around the Brooklyn Bridge noticeably rose. Experiencing how the image of an old neighborhood has been built and changed over decades through films and dramas makes it all the more real for me.