Glenbrook North High School – 2300 Shermer Road, Northbrook, Illinois
In this scene, Ferris Bueller’s (Matthew Broderick) girlfriend Sloan (Mia Sara) is escorted outside by Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) to wait for her “father” to pick her up from school after the death of her grandmother. Of course, it’s a scheme to get her out of school to meet Ferris and his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) for a day off!
“Oh Sloan dear…hurry along now!”
SAVE FERRIS – Water Tower – Northbrook, Illinois
Word around town spreads quickly of Ferris’ major “illness”, prompting the painting of this water tower to help the community rally around this sick youth.
Koenig & Strey Real Estate – Winnetka, Illinois
Ferris’ mother Katie’s real estate office, which is actually a real estate office (the same as shown in the film).
Glencoe Beach – Glencoe, Illinois
After taking the 1961 Ferrari GT California owned by Cameron’s father, and seeing the mileage that the parking lot attendants added to it, Cameron goes into a catatonic state.
Fun…thanks for bringing back the Bueller memories.
Awesome! Props on getting the right angle of the water tower, I gave up on my trip:)
Thank you for the Northbrook mention! I lived a block from that water tower for a while!
Did you find that it took a lot of research to track down all these locations, or was it easier than expected? Really cool post!
Matt
Hi Matt, it all depends upon the movie and how obscure the locations are (or if the movie is more obscure and there’s no information). My husband and I try to find information that’s readily available on the Internet first. If there isn’t anything, we next go to the movie credits (or to IMBD) and generally find out what towns or cities movies where filmed. Next, we’ll use Google Street view and satellite view or look for images from the town on Flickr or other photo sites. We’ll watch parts of the movies over and over for details like geographical features, water, railroad tracks, buildings, businesses, street/highway signs, etc. Once we determine the location, I put them all as waypoints into my DeLorme map program, transfer them to the GPS, and we’re ready to hit the road and start photographing! It’s loads o’ fun!
Yes, in many cases, it takes a lot of research. It depends upon the movie, the locations, the resources on the Internet. Sometimes I can find them easily if they’re already found by someone else, but most often we watch the movie over and over again, checking the general credits for locations and then searching Google maps, satellite images, and best of all, Street View. We have lots of fun with it!