Starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass, ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ is an Indie sci-fi flick that centers on three members of a magazine staff who set out to investigate a man advertising for someone to accompany him on his time traveling endeavors. The film is unlike any other time-travel movie out there and it not only pleases you with its simple sci-fi concepts but also with its charming mumblecore characters. With that said, if you’ve already watched the film and you were fascinated by its beautiful beachside setup, here are all the details you need to know about its filming locations.
Safety Not Guaranteed Filming Locations
According to several reports, the overall production budget of ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ was $750,000 and it was shot using a Sony F3 camera with old Panavision lenses. The director, Colin Trevorrow, purposefully chose these lenses to give the movie a “Hal Ashby look.” According to the movie’s official production notes, it as filmed in 32 locations over 24 days in Seattle and surrounding areas. Despite its small budget, Trevorrow wanted to give more scope to the movie’s setup and thus, he and his crew were on the move almost every single day. “Usually a film of this budget has 3 — 4 locations, but we wanted it to have scope and to feel, as the film goes on, bigger and bigger,” said Trevorrow.
Seattle, Washington
According to a local news source, the filmmakers of ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ decided to shoot the movie in Washington for two primary reasons. One was that Mark Duplass, who plays Kenneth in the film, had some prior experience with Northwest films and suggested that Seattle-based cinematographer Ben Kasulke and his crew would be a perfect fit for the movie. The other reason was that Colin Trevorrow was anyway looking for a quaint beach town that would make viewers “feel like you’re watching a movie from another time.” And that’s how the filmmakers came across Washington’s Ocean Shores, which proved to be the perfect backdrop for the film.
Due to budgetary restraints, the filmmakers made good use of all the locations in and around Seattle. For instance, they used editorial offices of Seattle Magazine for filming the initial moments of the film in which Audry Plaza works for a local magazine. An old casting call ad demanding extras for the film’s sets in Seattle also confirms that some scenes of the movie were shot in Memorial Field In Burien, a suburban city in King County, Washington.
Although we couldn’t find any official stills from the sets of the movie, several Twitter users were able to identify the locations featured in its backdrop. You can check out some of these tweets below:
https://twitter.com/tonyarmbrust/status/1290077368325820416
Did you know they shot the movie "Safety Not Guaranteed" in Seattle and surrounding areas? #SNGTrivia
— #Oldboy (@FilmDistrict) April 7, 2012
🎥Safety Not Guaranteed 📷May2019 #SafetyNotGuaranteed #DiscoveryPark #Seattle #Washington #AubreyPlaza #MarkDuplass #Movies #FilmingLocations #MovieLocations #Photography #TravelPhotography #ColinTrevorrow #TimeTravel #CuriocitySeattle #LiveWashington @colintrevorrow pic.twitter.com/50mQ9yEIMc
— Hollywood in Real Life (@Hollywood_irl) June 20, 2019
Within 5 sec & not reading the info on the movie, I knew Safety Not Guaranteed was set in Seattle. And at Seattle Mag! Been in that office.
— Michaele D. Myers (@mdmyersMA) May 5, 2013
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