Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Production - Filming

Filming

"Chicago is what I am", said Hughes. "A lot of Ferris is sort of my love letter to the city. And the more people who get upset with the fact that I film there, the more I'll make sure that's exactly where I film. It's funny—nobody ever says anything to Woody Allen about always filming in New York. America has this great reverence for New York. I look at it as this decaying horror pit. So let the people in Chicago enjoy Ferris Bueller."

For the film, Hughes got the chance to take a more expansive look at the city he grew up in. "We took a helicopter up the Chicago River. This is the first chance I'd really had to get outside while making a movie. Up to this point, the pictures had been pretty small. I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could, not just the architecture and the landscape, but the spirit."

Shooting began in Chicago just after Labor Day weekend, on Monday, September 9, 1985. In late October 1985, the production moved to Los Angeles; shooting ended on Friday, November 22. The Von Steuben Day Parade scene was filmed on Saturday, September 28. The majority of the film was shot in and around New Trier High School's Freshman campus in Northfield, formerly known as New Trier West. Scenes were also filmed at several locations in downtown Chicago and Winnetka (Ferris's home, his mother's real estate office, etc.). Many of the other scenes were filmed in Northbrook, Illinois, including at Glenbrook North High School, on School Drive, the famous long curvy street on which Glenbrook North and neighboring Maple Middle School are situated. Many students at the school served as extras. Most of the school's interior shots were filmed at the shuttered Maine North High School. The exterior of Ferris's house is located at 4160 Country Club Drive, Long Beach, California.

The modernist house of Cameron Frye is located at 370 Beech Street, Highland Park, Illinois 60035, known as Ben Rose House designed by architects A. James Speyer, who designed the main building in 1954, and David Haid, who designed the pavilion in 1974, and once owned by photographer Ben Rose. Ben Rose had a car collection in the pavilion, as Cameron's father has the Ferrari 250 GT California in the same pavilion in the movie. According to Lake Forest College art professor Franz Shulze, during the filming of the Ferrari-crashing-through-the-garage-window sequence Haid explained to Hughes that he could prevent the car from damaging the rest of the pavilion. Haid fixed connections in the wall and the building remained intact. Haid said to Hughes afterward, "you owe me $25,000", which Hughes paid. Other scenes were shot in Chicago, River Forest, Oak Park, Northbrook, Highland Park, Glencoe and Winnetka, Lake Forest and Long Beach, California.

A passionate Beatles fan, Hughes makes multiple references to them and John Lennon in the script. During filming, Hughes "listened to The White Album every single day for fifty-six days". Hughes also pays tribute to his childhood hero Gordie Howe with Cameron's Detroit Red Wings jersey. "I sent them the jersey", said Howe. "It was nice seeing the No. 9 on the big screen."