AMERICAN BEAUTY

AMERICAN BEAUTY

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Filming Locations —

•	Sacramento, Sacramento County: Though the films appears to be set in a suburb of Chicago, IL, the aerial shots over the town were filmed above Sacramento, CA.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Filming Locations —

•	Brentwood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County: 11388 Homedale Street.

•	Burbank, Los Angeles County: Warner Bros. Studios.

•	Canoga Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County: The Mr. Smiley's drive-thru scene was filmed at Carl's Jr., 20105 Saticoy Street at Winnetka Avenue.

•	Chatsworth, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County: The open house scene.

•	Elysian Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County: Los Angeles Police Academy, 1880 N. Academy Drive.

•	Hancock Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County: 330 South Windsor Boulevard at West 3rd Street.

•	Long Beach, Los Angeles County: Long Beach Polytechnic High School, 1600 Atlantic Avenue.

•	Torrance, Los Angeles County: South High School.

According to an unnamed source, this is how the show ended up shooting the aerial footage in Sacramento.... They needed a generic landscape in California at which to shoot (the film is set in the suburbs of Chicago, IL), and decided upon San José. The residents in Silicon Valley were okay with the filming, but the police department eventually decided that they wouldn't let the helicopter go below 300 feet because of the noise. The production thus pulled out and moved to Sacramento instead where they hoped they could get as low as 100 feet. In February 1999, Robert "Bobby Z" Zajonc, aerial coordinator and pilot, flew over East Sacramento to do the shots — but again they had the 300-foot limit! Thus, unfortunately, time and money were wasted to get the same shot they could have done elsewhere. In conclusion, the shots were done over Sacramento and the city's Mercy General Hospital is even visible in the background above.

The actual Burnham home, though, was filmed
at 11388 Homedale Street in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

The movie ends with the reverse of the
same aerial shot that it began with.

•		American Beauty (1999)
•	CAST: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Chris Cooper, Scott Bakula, Sam Robards, Barry Del Sherman....
•	WRITER: Alan Ball
•	PRODUCER: Alan Ball, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Stan Wlodkowski
•	DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
•	PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Naomi Shohan
•	CINEMATOGRAPHER: Conrad L. Hall
•	EDITOR: Tariq Anwar, Christopher Greenbury
•	LOCATIONS DEPARTMENT: Christine Bonnem, Yoshi Enoki Jr., Chee Ho

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