And then she showed me the back room where she took all of her clothes off.

December 5, 2012 2:32 AM

Edward Scissorhands - Filming Locations - 20 years later

See the 'making of' this set of photos here.

posted by paleyellowwithorange (22 comments total)

I'm disappointed that no one kept the Dino hedge.
posted by arcticseal at 4:02 AM on December 5, 2012

I love this movie.
Sad Tim Burton gave up film-making soon after he made Ed Wood.
posted by Mezentian at 4:09 AM on December 5, 2012 [10 favorites]

I love how faithful they are to the poses of the characters in the movie. I think my favorite was the dog on the curb.
posted by scalefree at 4:30 AM on December 5, 2012 [6 favorites]

Gosh, trees really improve suburbs immeasurably. Not as creepy, alienating film locations, but as actual places to live.

I remember being quite horrified by the housing estate when I was a kid.
posted by distorte at 4:38 AM on December 5, 2012

Edward Scissorhands - Filming Locations

Oh, that sounds kind of neat. Not one of my favorite films, but--

20 years later

SHUT UP SHUT UP *weep*
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:19 AM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]

Looks like the windows on the houses are very different. Possibly they were dressed for the movie to be even more plain than they were.
posted by double bubble at 5:41 AM on December 5, 2012

Dang, it was sad to me (an architecture enthusiast) to see the garage door with the diamonds gone.
posted by notsnot at 5:46 AM on December 5, 2012

Yeah those mid-century doors are so cool, it's a shame they've fallen out of style in favor of plain blah stuff.
posted by ghharr at 5:55 AM on December 5, 2012 [5 favorites]

Did we break it already? I just get a page (forwarded to something at Pinterest) that says '{"status": "404"}'.
posted by litlnemo at 6:25 AM on December 5, 2012

Wow! Trees grow a lot in 20 years!
posted by something something at 6:28 AM on December 5, 2012

It's weird how 22 years later all the houses are brick. I didn't know there was a time when houses weren't mostly textured-looking. Fascinating!

I wonder if they had to get everyone's permission before shooting or if anyone was like "who are these weird guys taking pictures outside my house..."
posted by Autumn at 6:36 AM on December 5, 2012

I introduced my kid to this movie last week (loved it), and I assumed they built the neighborhood homes. I didn't know they were real houses.

It looks like they either went out of their way to make the houses more plain and "cookie cutter", or they've just been modernized a bit over the years.

Trees? Did they uproot the trees to film and then replace them? Did they plant the trees when they were done? Did the homeowners plant them? The neighborhood developer?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:38 AM on December 5, 2012

Yeah, I'm totally confused by the movie magic that must have taken place here. The photos are great, but I feel like there's a story to tell here that just can't be told through some photos.

Did they put a new façade on each of the houses? Were there actually no trees there at the time? Some of those trees look much more established than 22 years old. Was it a planned community that was just being built at the time and could therefore serve as a blank canvass upon which to paint the blank suburban experience? I have so many questions...
posted by jph at 6:57 AM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's actually been 22 years since it came out. You're even older than you thought.

And now you're even older. And now you're even older.
posted by curious nu at 6:59 AM on December 5, 2012 [4 favorites]

Apparently, their digital camera is 22 years old, as well.
posted by Optamystic at 6:59 AM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]

Lutz, Florida and the Southgate Shopping Center of Lakeland were chosen for a three month shooting schedule. The production crew found, in the words of the production designer Bo Welch, "a kind of generic, plain-wrap suburb, which we made even more characterless by painting all the houses in faded pastels, and reducing the window sizes to make it look a little more paranoid." Rick Heinrichs worked as one of the art directors. The key element to unify the look of the neighborhood was Welch's decision to repaint each of the houses in one of four colors. He described them as "sea-foam green, dirty flesh, butter and dirty blue".*
posted by Sys Rq at 9:12 AM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]

Wow! Trees grow a lot in 20 years!

Yes, they do.
posted by Fizz at 9:25 AM on December 5, 2012

Heh. I always assumed the opening sequence was shot in Daly City. Something about all those identical pastel houses. But I guess the point is that it could be anywhere....
posted by Afroblanco at 10:00 AM on December 5, 2012

It's so cool that Tim Burton had all the houses painted in pastels for the movie. Who thinks of that?!
posted by molasses disaster at 11:30 AM on December 5, 2012

That's super cool. I love looking for locations from movies I love. If you like these photos, you might like the ones my girlfriend and I shot of locations from Vertigo around San Francisco.

edit: I'm too stupid to properly format a link
posted by Siempre La Luna at 3:30 PM on December 5, 2012

Who thinks of that?!

I do pretty much every time I go into the suburbs. The aesthetic described is clearly a direct homage to "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds, which describes the monotonous uniformity of suburban life, and was inspired by Daly City mentioned by Afroblanco just above. There's a pink one, and a green one, and a blue one and a yellow one and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same...

Having heard that song growing up, now I sing it any time I have to go visit my sister in the suburbs.
posted by jph at 7:42 AM on December 6, 2012

from the latest DVD commentary link Burton:

"The film was shot in an actual neighborhood in Florida, and the houses were all painted to match as they are seen in the movie. Although the production painted most of them back – They also removed all the topiaries that had been planted for the film. – Burton mentions some of the owners liked the change and kept the new colors."
posted by The Whelk at 9:34 PM on December 6, 2012