Movies Filmed in Orlando Florida Cinematic Identity: The Florida Project, Edward Scissorhands, Parenthood, and the City Behind the Theme Parks
Orlando’s cinematic identity has always been hidden in plain sight. The city that most of the world associates exclusively with Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld has, for decades, quietly served as the production base for films that audiences assumed were made somewhere else entirely. The movies filmed in Orlando include Academy Award-winning performances, cult classics, beloved family comedies, and some of the most critically acclaimed independent films of the 21st century, all set against a Central Florida landscape that filmmakers have used to double for everything from small-town Pennsylvania to 19th-century Mexico. Unlike cities that announce their presence on screen, Orlando works by disappearing into its roles, a quality that has made it one of the most versatile production locations in the American South. For filmmakers working in the region or professionals providing Orlando videographer services on commercial and narrative projects, this chameleon quality is the city’s greatest production asset.
The Florida Project: Orlando’s Hidden America
“The Florida Project” (2017) is the film that finally forced the world to see the Orlando that exists beyond the theme park gates. Written and directed by Sean Baker, the film follows six year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince, in a performance that earned her the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer) and her struggling single mother Halley (Bria Vinaite, in her film debut) as they navigate life in a budget motel along the commercial strip of U.S. Highway 192 in Kissimmee, just six miles from Walt Disney World. The title itself references the code name Disney used for the theme park during its planning stages. The juxtaposition is the entire point: the happiest place on earth casts a shadow in which real families live in weekly-rate motels, sell perfume in parking lots to make rent, and improvise childhood from whatever materials are at hand.
Baker filmed on location at the real Magic Castle Inn and Suites at 5055 West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee over 35 days in the summer of 2016. Co-writer Chris Bergoch had first noticed children playing in motel parking lots while visiting his mother in the Orlando area, and the observation became the seed of the screenplay. The cast was composed largely of non-actors recruited from the community. The Paradise Inn at 4501 West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway doubled as Futureland Inn, where Moonee’s friend Jancey lives (the distinctive rockets on the building have since been removed after a change in ownership). Other filming locations included Eli’s Orange World at 5395 West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, the Twistee Treat ice cream stand at 4722 West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, Shingle Creek Regional Park, and the Jungle Falls Gift Shop at 5265 West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway.
The film’s final scene, in which Moonee and Jancey run toward the Magic Kingdom, was shot guerrilla-style inside Walt Disney World using an iPhone 6S Plus and a skeleton crew of six people, without Disney’s authorization. Baker chose to shoot this way because, in his words, “sometimes you have to break rules to make a film.” Unlike the rest of the production, which was shot on 35mm film, the iPhone footage gives the ending a dreamlike quality that Baker left intentionally ambiguous. Willem Dafoe received Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, Critics’ Choice, and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bobby, the motel’s compassionate manager. Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named “The Florida Project” one of the top ten films of 2017. For Orlando videographer professionals, the film demonstrated something crucial: that the most compelling production asset in Central Florida is not the constructed fantasy of the theme parks but the authentic, complicated, visually rich world that surrounds them.
Edward Scissorhands: Tim Burton’s Florida Suburb
Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) transformed a quiet subdivision in Lutz, Florida, about an hour west of Orlando, into one of the most visually distinctive neighborhoods in film history. Burton chose the Carpenters Run subdivision, specifically the small ranch homes along Tinsmith Circle, as the setting for the pastel-colored, cookie-cutter suburb into which Avon lady Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) brings Edward (Johnny Depp), the gentle, blade-fingered creation of a deceased inventor. During filming in the summer of 1990, no fewer than 44 houses were temporarily repainted in candy-colored pastels, and elaborate topiary sculptures, actually metal and chicken-wire frames covered with greenery, were placed throughout the yards.
The Boggs family residence at 1774 Tinsmith Circle is now owned by a fan who has painted the house back to its original film color, a lavender-blue, and has created an outdoor screening area where visitors can watch the film on the same property where it was made. When the film crew left after production, they planted trees throughout the neighborhood as a thank-you to residents, and those trees have now grown tall enough to give the streets a fuller, greener canopy than what appears on screen. The Gothic castle where Edward lives was constructed as a temporary facade in nearby Dade City, on a property that has since been cleared. Burton used a Florida sinkhole as the foundation, shooting from the bottom to create the illusion of a mountain, a technique that exploited the state’s flat geography rather than fighting against it.
Additional filming took place at the Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland, where the salon scenes were shot, chosen by Burton for its authentic retro appearance. The bank interior scenes, which prominently feature a vault, were filmed at 400 North Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa, in the building locals call the “beer can” building. Rose Rosen, the Tampa-based casting director who hired local extras for the production, recalled that Burton “was just getting big then. He had just gotten done with ‘Batman,’ so he wasn’t quite the name-brand that he is today. But it was a big deal, obviously. It was a big-budget, huge movie.” The film cost $20 million to make and grossed over $86 million worldwide. Three decades later, visitors still make pilgrimages to Tinsmith Circle, and the Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland still fields weekly questions about where the beauty shop was located. As one of the most beloved movies filmed in Orlando’s broader Central Florida region, “Edward Scissorhands” proved that the area’s suburban sprawl could be transformed into something visually extraordinary.
Lethal Weapon 3, Parenthood, My Girl, and Orlando’s Stealth Era
The late 1980s and early 1990s represent Orlando’s most prolific period of major studio production, though most audiences never realized these films were made there. “Lethal Weapon 3” (1992), set in Los Angeles, filmed its explosive opening scene at the former Orlando City Hall at 400 South Orange Avenue. Filmmakers paid the city $500,000 to blow up the building, which was already slated for demolition, in a simulated bomb explosion. Former Orlando Mayor Bill Frederick made a cameo in the sequence. The granite slabs from that explosion were salvaged and repurposed as the tabletops at White Wolf Cafe in Ivanhoe Village, where they remain today, a piece of Hollywood history hiding in a neighborhood restaurant.
“Parenthood” (1989), Ron Howard’s ensemble family comedy starring Steve Martin, was set in St. Louis but filmed primarily in and around Orlando, with additional scenes shot at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Locations around Orlando appear throughout the film, which was produced at Universal Studios soundstages. “My Girl” (1991), the coming-of-age drama starring Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky, was set in Madison, Pennsylvania but shot about 20 miles north of Orlando in Sanford, Florida. The Sultenfuss House and funeral parlor were filmed at 555 East Stanford Street in Bartow. Thomas J’s house and Mr. Bixler’s home were at 605 Magnolia Avenue in Sanford. The bingo scene was filmed at a church in Ocoee. Mirror Lake in Clermont provided the location for the iconic willow tree where the two young characters spent their time together.
Many of the Main Street scenes were filmed along East 1st Street in Sanford, and a warehouse on Sand Lake Road housed interior sets. The film wove together more than a half-dozen Central Florida communities, none of which appear in the credits as anything other than stand-ins for a fictional Pennsylvania town. This pattern of movies filmed in Orlando masquerading as somewhere else entirely would define the city’s production identity for decades.
The Waterboy, Monster, and Central Florida’s Versatility
Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy” (1998) is set in Louisiana but was filmed across Central Florida, including at Stetson University in DeLand, in St. Cloud and Clermont, and at Camping World Stadium (then the Citrus Bowl) in Orlando for the Bourbon Bowl football sequences. “Monster” (2003), the biographical crime drama starring Charlize Theron as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, was filmed entirely in the Orlando region, with locations including Kissimmee, Sanford, South John Young Parkway, Semoran Skateway in Casselberry, and the Daytona International Speedway. Theron’s performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making “Monster” the most critically honored film ever shot primarily in the Orlando metro area.
Theme Parks as Production Infrastructure
Orlando’s theme parks have also functioned as active production venues, blurring the line between entertainment attraction and film set. Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Orlando hosted live productions including “All That” and “What Would You Do?” in the early 1990s before operations moved to Hollywood. “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” filmed extensively at Universal Orlando Resort, including Universal CityWalk, Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, and several attractions. “Jaws 3-D” (1983) was shot on location at SeaWorld Orlando, with scenes at Sharks Underwater Grill and the stingray feeding pool. “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” (1992) filmed partly at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios). “Tomorrowland” (2015), starring George Clooney, used locations at the Kennedy Space Center, New Smyrna Beach, Altamonte Springs, and the Carousel of Progress at Walt Disney World for scenes intended to represent the 1964 World’s Fair.
The Kennedy Space Center on nearby Merritt Island has served as a filming location for some of the most famous space-themed productions in cinema history. The takeoff sequences in “Apollo 13” (1995) were filmed at KSC launch sites, with the Vehicle Assembly Building visible in the background. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (2011) filmed pivotal sequences at Kennedy Space Center as well. These productions demonstrate that Orlando’s production radius extends well beyond the city limits, encompassing a regional ecosystem that stretches from the Space Coast to the Gulf Coast.
Paper Towns, The Florida Project Legacy, and Orlando Playing Itself
For most of its film history, Orlando has played somewhere else. “Paper Towns” (2015), based on John Green’s novel, was a rare exception: a major studio film set primarily in Orlando and partially filmed there, including establishing footage in the former Naval base community of Baldwin Park. But the larger shift came with “The Florida Project,” which proved that the most artistically and commercially compelling version of Orlando on screen is the real one, not the fantasy. Sean Baker’s film did not attempt to make Kissimmee look like anywhere other than Kissimmee. The budget motels, the gift shops with their garish signage, the flat expanse of Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, the proximity of extraordinary childhood poverty to the most visited tourist destination on earth, these are not production design choices. They are the actual conditions of the place, and they made for a more powerful film than any set could have produced.
The City Behind the Theme Parks
The full catalog of movies filmed in Orlando is, by definition, underestimated. The city has quietly served as the production base for films that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and earned the highest honors in the industry, all while most audiences assumed they were watching Louisiana, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, or nowhere in particular. That anonymity is a production advantage: Central Florida’s subtropical landscape, its abundance of period architecture in towns like Sanford, its mix of urban and rural environments within a short drive, and its proximity to major studio infrastructure at Universal Orlando make it adaptable to virtually any narrative requirement. For Orlando videographer professionals and production companies, the history of movies filmed in Orlando demonstrates that the most compelling screen stories are not always the ones set in famous places. Sometimes they are the ones set in the places that everyone drives past on the way to somewhere else, the places that are invisible until someone finally points a camera at them and says, look.
