Nishitha Dutta
‘Four Christmases’, directed by Seth Gordon, is a 2008 Christmas comedy-drama film about a couple, Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) visiting their comically dysfunctional families on Christmas. While this unbearable show of crazy antics pushes Brad to the brim of impatience, it compels Kate to reconsider her life choices. The transitionary scenes in the movie, where they glide through one Christmas to the other, comprises picturesque setups dominating the frame. Where was the movie filmed? Let’s find out.
Four Christmases Filming Locations
‘Four Christmases’ reportedly began production on December 4, 2007, and New Line Cinema’s inclusion into Warner Bros threatened its completion. (But we all know how that went!) Various spots in California were employed for filming purposes. Let’s take a look.
San Francisco, California
Kate and Brad put up in a cute neighborhood located at 85 Burnett Avenue. The production features locations in and around San Francisco including the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square, the Embarcadero, and Chinatown. The San Francisco International Airport was also captured during the opening scene where they used an existing terminal that was swarmed with 500 crew members. Twin Peaks is also featured in one of the landscape shots. Oakland is also visible on the list of filming venues.
Friend saw Vince and Reese filming Four Christmases outside his San Fran apt… how cool is that?!
— Elsie Samson (@elsiejean) December 7, 2007
Los Angeles, California
Paula’s (Sissy Spacek) house is shown with a hippie academic aesthetic, in perfect tandem with the course of her life’s history. It is actually located at 1290 Oakwood Drive, Topanga. Many scenes were shot in the Ren-Mar Studios, at 846 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. The bare and minimalistic entry to Marilyn’s (Mary Steenburgen) house is one of them. Another scene shows Brad’s (Vince Vaughn) company hosting a party at the Madison, a 1924-built Security Pacific National Bank branch located at 102 Pine Avenue in Long Beach.
The space inside is massive with wood-paneled walls and sky-high ceilings, and the bank got remodeled into a restaurant that closed in 2012. The scenes comprising Creighton’s (Jon Voight) house were filmed at the Boddy House at Descanso Gardens, a public garden and historic site in La Cañada Flintridge within Los Angeles County. The exterior and roof of Howard’s (Robert Duvall) house were freshly constructed in the Shadow Hills area of the San Fernando Valley.
On their trip to Marilyn’s house, the party shifts to the United Church of Faith and Worship in Piedmont where Pastor Phil (Dwight Yoakam) is shown in his flashy ensemble. The New Life Community Church in Hawthorne also used for filming purposes. The scene was reported to be filmed with a lot of visual effects including projection screens, lighting cues, neon, and smoke. Santa Clarita, located to the north of Los Angeles, also made the cut.
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