Where Was Buffy The Vampire Slayer Filmed? Every Major Location Explained – SlashFilm

A part of what made “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” such a beloved cult hit was that followers might really get misplaced on the earth of Sunnydale. The slayer’s hometown felt like an actual place, and when combined with the attract of late-’90s California — a state which had largely outlined the tradition of the last decade with its valley slang and surfer/skateboard tradition — made for probably the most immersive TV experiences of its time. After all, it helped that everyone wished to be pals with the Scooby Gang, however there was an plain attraction to the supernatural epicenter that was Sunnydale.

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Sadly, loving “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has turn into difficult lately. After creator Joss Whedon was accused of, amongst different issues, working a poisonous set that made life very troublesome for the “Buffy” forged, Sarah Michelle Gellar included, the present that had meant a lot to ’90s children raised on its intoxicating combine of sweet sixteen drama and horror out of the blue did not appear fairly so comforting because it as soon as was. But when the time since these allegations surfaced has confirmed something, it is that “Buffy” does not belong to Whedon, it belongs to the followers whose childhood have been largely formed by the collection.

Movies like “I Noticed the TV Glow” have reckoned with the affect a present like “Buffy” had on a technology now nostalgic for its late-’90s attraction, and Amber Benson, who performed Tara on the collection, debuted her audio collection “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story” in 2024. Whereas this reckoning with the present’s legacy continues, I feel it is okay for followers to recollect why they liked it within the first place and simply nerd out about “Buffy” once in a while. Superfans of the collection would possibly properly recall fond recollections of wanting up the taking pictures places on their dial-up web connections, simply to really feel just a little nearer to the city of Sunnydale, and what higher option to reacquaint ourselves with the collection’ attraction twenty years after it aired by revisiting a few of the city’s most memorable places and their actual-life counterparts?

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The very very first thing we noticed when the present first aired (until you rely that unaired pilot that just about killed “Buffy” earlier than it began) was a shot of Sunnydale Excessive College. It was a becoming opening to a present for which highschool melodrama fashioned such a giant a part of its thematic id. All through the primary three seasons of the present, earlier than it was destroyed on the finish of season 3 and Buffy and Willow enrolled in UC Sunnydale in season 4, Sunnydale Excessive was probably the most vital places within the collection.

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Exterior scenes on the college have been truly shot at the true-life Torrance Excessive College, at 2200 W. Carson Avenue in Torrance, California. These out of doors pictures weren’t simply the varsity’s facade, both. All through the early seasons we see Buffy and the scoobies hanging out in a courtyard on the college, which may also be seen in one other touchstone of late-’90s teen drama, “She’s All That.” Torrance Excessive College was additionally utilized in “Beverly Hills 90210” and is subsequently bordering on iconic ’90s taking pictures location standing.

Different elements of Sunnydale Excessive have been filmed elsewhere. The swimming pool in season 2 episode “Go Fish,” as an illustration, was positioned on the College of Southern California Bodily Schooling Constructing and the soccer stadium in “Some Meeting Required” belonged to West Excessive College, additionally in Torrance. After Sunnydale highschool is destroyed, it’s rebuilt and reappears within the season 7 premiere, “Classes.” This renewed model of the varsity was shot on the California State College in Northridge. In any other case, the Sunnydale Excessive all of us keep in mind was principally Torrance Excessive College.

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Nearly as recognizable, if no more so than the Sunnydale Excessive lobby is Buffy’s home, 1630 Revello Drive — the outside of which has turn into ingrained within the minds of anybody who grew up on “Buffy.” Frankly, it appeared like a beautiful little Californian abode even when it did occur to have the unlucky draw back of being constructed on high of the Hellmouth.

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Whereas interiors of Buffy’s residence have been principally filmed on a soundstage, the outside all of us keep in mind is an actual residence positioned not that removed from Sunnydale Excessive itself. The home used for exterior pictures is positioned at 1313 Cota Avenue, which is simply three blocks north of Torrance Excessive College, the place the varsity scenes have been principally filmed.

For the primary two seasons of “Buffy,” 1313 Cota Avenue was truly used to movie some inside scenes, however solely the primary ground was truly used. Second ground interiors have been all shot on levels, and the downstairs was finally recreated on a stage after the second season — a set that performed host to maybe the saddest scene in “Buffy” historical past and one of the best factor that Joss Whedon claims he is ever executed: the opening scene of season 5’s “The Physique.”

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“Buffy” used many actual world places to create Sunnydale, however numerous Buffy’s hometown was truly constructed particularly for the present. As a substitute of taking pictures on an precise studio backlot, the middle of “Buffy” manufacturing was truly positioned on a warehouse lot in Santa Monica, on the intersection of Stewart Avenue and Exposition Blvd. Right here, the crew erected a number of properly-identified places, utilizing the warehouses for inside pictures and the parking zone for sure exterior places. However arguably essentially the most spectacular creation was a complete road which served as downtown Sunnydale.

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Often called Maple Court docket, the road was featured in “Buffy” from the third season on and performed host to a number of memorable shops together with Solar Cinema, the Espresso Pump and The Magic Field, which was at one time owned by Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who left “Buffy” earlier than the present ended. Apparently sufficient, earlier than it was The Magic Field, the shop was a unique magic store which acted as a facade for Maple Court docket, earlier than Giles took over the shop in season 5 and it was remodeled into The Magic Field, full with an inside set.

Manufacturing designer Carey Meyer spoke to the BBC about how Maple Court docket developed all through the present’s seven seasons, starting with the Espresso Pump, which was primarily based on a well-known portray. He stated:

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“It used to only be the parking zone on the again facet of our stage. The solely factor right here earlier than I began was a palm tree. Joss had all the time talked about having just a little yard or a Sunnydale major road [so] I keyed off the Edward Hopper portray of the diner and did an illustration of [the Espresso Pump] that appeared very very like the Edward Hopper portray.”

Meyer went on to clarify how the crew continued including items to the world across the Espresso Pump. He continued: “By means of season three, we simply saved including little facades and plugging up little areas till we [ended up with] this complete little road again right here. However it took a full season for that to happen.”

If you wish to get excessively nerdy about it (and should you’re studying this text, you in all probability do) you may truly see the unique Maple Court docket set standing in its authentic type on Google Earth, the place there may be satellite tv for pc imagery out there from 2002 and 2003, the years when “Buffy” was filming its closing seasons.

“Buffy” did not have the luxurious of a studio backlot, however the manufacturing crew definitely made essentially the most of their modest Santa Monica warehouse lot, creating places from scratch once they could not use actual-world buildings. The Bronze was one instance. Earlier than the warehouse lot was used to create Maple Court docket, it was used as a house for the now legendary membership the place Buffy and her friends would grasp frequently and which hosted a formidable array of musical acts throughout the present’s run, together with the Breeders, Michelle Department, Aimee Mann. The set itself was truly constructed inside a warehouse on the Santa Monica lot. The membership had each an inside and an exterior facade, and the latter was on the very finish of Sunnydale’s major road set.

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Within the e-book, “Slayers and Vampires: The Full Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral Historical past of Buffy and Angel” creator Joss Whedon is quoted as saying, “Once we designed the membership, we put the door to the membership on the surface of the particular warehouse in order that we might go in from the surface as a result of that might give it actual life and make it very reasonable.” The method definitely labored. So beloved is The Bronze, that considered one of 2024’s finest horrors, “I Noticed the TV Glow,” paid homage to its enduring cultural affect by having the characters go to a membership known as the Double Lunch that appears similar to the beloved “Buffy” location and which featured performances by Phoebe Bridgers and her former band Sloppy Jane.

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“Buffy” made such spectacular use of its warehouse lot all through its time, even whereas a handful of scenes have been truly shot on the Warner Bros. backlot. That features the Gents’s lair from the scariest episode of “Buffy” (you may truly see the Gents themselves drifting down the road that might later be used as Wisteria Lane in “Determined Housewives”). In any other case, the Santa Monica lot was the place nearly all of the present was filmed, and that was principally the case for Sunnydale Cemetery.

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For the primary season of “Buffy,” the crew shot principally in the true Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery at 1831 West Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. However after this, the crew wanted a extra accessible possibility, and a faux cemetery was constructed within the Santa Monica lot, together with tombstones created by manufacturing designer Carey Meyer. Chatting with the BBC, Meyer stated the cemetery “was once parking zone,” including:

“We poured in kerb, again-crammed it with filth and planted grass and plenty of bushes and stuff and that is our graveyard set. We shoot plenty of the graveyard stuff there. We do go to a different cemetery for a lot wider pictures, however the majority of our cemetery stuff truly takes place in that little tiny parking zone. At night time, with a few headstones within the background with all of the bushes and such, you may actually cheat to make it look fairly massive. We carry out faux grass and put it on the tarmac and fill all of it in, but it surely’s just a bit tiny parking zone.”

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Within the e-book, “Slayers and Vampires: The Full Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral Historical past of Buffy and Angel,” creator Joss Whedon was barely much less enthusiastic concerning the cemetery set, saying, “It made our lives a complete lot simpler, but it surely does not provide the scope you get from an actual graveyard.” Nonetheless, for many followers of the collection, the present’s makeshift cemetery was greater than ample, particularly when mixed with pictures from Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery. One other large location for the collection, Spike’s crypt, was created proper subsequent to the present’s parking zone cemetery.

Within the second season of Buffy, we have been launched to James Marsters’ Spike and his spouse Drusilla (Juliet Landau), who lived in a decrepit mansion in Sunnydale often called Crawford Avenue mansion. Later, they’re joined by David Boreanaz’s Angel after he loses his soul, and in season 3 the mansion hosted Angel after he was resurrected.

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The interiors of the mansion have been created on a soundstage, however these interiors have been straight influenced by the constructing used for exterior pictures of the mansion: the Ennis home. This distinctive constructing within the hills of Los Feliz close to Griffith Park Observatory was designed by famend architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and was additionally featured closely in Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” serving as the house of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard.

The Ennis home was inbuilt 1924 and its design was impressed by historical Mayan temples. This distinctive model discovered its approach into the inside mansion units constructed for “Buffy,” the place the same “textile block” design may be seen on the inside partitions.