Filming Locations: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American coming-of-age comedy film written, produced and directed by John Hughes.
The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago. Accompanied by his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and his best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), he creatively avoids his school's Dean of Students Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), his resentful sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), and his parents. During the film, Bueller frequently breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera to explain to the audience his thoughts and techniques [Wikipedia].
I was randomly searching the internet about none other than SFV stuff and I surprisingly came across a comment that stated the hit 80's film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, had a scene filmed in the SFV. For the longest time I knew that this movie was filmed in Chicago partly because of director John Hughes' preference to film in his hometown. So I was totally stoked to find out that one of the great teenage films of the 80's actually had a scene in the SFV.
That scene was principal Ed Rooney's office and the adjoining secretary office occupied by Grace which was filmed at El Camino Real High School at 5440 Valley Circle Blvd Woodland Hills CA 91367. The odd thing about using this location is that the other high school scenes like the hallways and classrooms were in the Chicago area. So for some reason, Hughes filmed these specific office scenes in Los Angeles rather than continue filming in Chicago. So I am wondering if there was some kind of a schedule conflict, last second change in the script, the Chicago high schools offices were not desirable, etc. that prompted this change in filming location.
At any rate, FBDO remains one of the great films of all time which was well received critically, culturally, and financially but yet didnt win any awards aside from a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical for Matthew Broderick. At least we can say the film had a small part in the SFV.
The comments which referenced El Camino can be found below from Fast-Rewind.com which I confirmed at IMDB.com as well as a December 27, 1994 LA Times article, Do You Know Your Valley? (40 questions):
You can view filming locations for the rest of the film that were primarily filmed in Chicago from the following:
Filming Locations of Chicago and Los AngelesThe Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations
IAMNOTASTALKER
You can view more SFV Filming Locations here.
Ed Rooney's Office 5440 Valley Circle Blvd Woodland Hills CA 91367
And the trailer:
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Marty Mcfly
Anything and everything about the San Fernando Valley. This blog will take you back in time when the valley was covered with dirt and orange groves to a leader in the space race to its current status as America's suburb. Come along and join me on this adventure, I guarantee you have been influenced/impacted by the San Fernando Valley in one form or another even if you have never visited or heard of the SFV.
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ReplyDeleteWell, some scenes were filmed in LA, most likely for Union budget reasons, and if they’re going to film anything that way for production budget and Union reasons then they’ll try to lump together as many local locations in LA as much as possible. Thus the filming of the house and the neighborhoods in Long Beach for the very same reasonsz
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