Where Do They Film Smallville

If you're wondering, "Where do they film Smallville?" the answer might surprise you. The unique, atmosphere enhancing exteriors of the show are shot in a number of locales, making Smallvillelook a blend of rustic, historic and contemporary architectural influences. Understanding a little more about where these sites actually exist and how the mythical world meets modern set design wizardry will give you a better appreciation of how much thought and research goes into creating the interiors and exteriors you see when you watch the next installment of Superman's early life.

The Vancouver Skyline

The back story surrounding the early life of Superman is based on the famous DC Comics characters. Smallville, a television series first broadcast in 2001, follows the formative years of young Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, through his high school adventures and then on to his first experiences working at the Daily Planet.

The show is the brainchild of writer/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar who left the series in 2008. In recent years, Smallville has transcended the original premise of Superman's adolescent beginnings in a small farming community to encompass his early adulthood in Metropolis. It's a testament to the show's popularity and the flexibility of the actors and other creative brains behind the series that it has been able to transition to a more adult and sophisticated storyline.

Although Superman is an American classic, much of the WB series Smallville is shot in British Columbia (BC) near or in Vancouver. This avoids accidental comparisons to the skylines of well known American cities and still offers a recognizably American look. The production was initially set to be filmed in Australia, but BB Studios of Burnaby, British Columbia, the show's producers, decided on a locale that was inexpensive to shoot in and still close enough to Los Angeles to be a good strategic choice. In-studio filming for the show usually takes place at Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver.

The following list of sites will give you the locations for a number of major Smallville exteriors:

• The long shots of downtown Metropolis are actually downtown Vancouver, BC.

• The outside of Lex Luthor's mansion is Hatley Castle located in Victoria, British Columbia. Hatley Castle is owned and managed by the Canadian government.

• Luthor mansion interiors were filmed at the Shannon Mews in Vancouver.

• The Luthor Corporation building exteriors were filmed at the Surrey Central City building in Surrey, BC.

• Smallville High School's exterior in season one was actually the Technical Secondary School in Vancouver. Subsequent episodes were shot using the Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver.

• Downtown Smallville is really Cloverdale, BC, a small, quiet community whose picturesque buildings are representative of an idealized view of small town life.

• The exteriors of The Talon, a coffeehouse on the show, are actually of a movie theater, the Clova Cinema, located in Cloverdale.

• The Daily Planet façade is really the Marine Building in Vancouver, an art deco jewel that was once the tallest building in Canada.

• The Kent farm is filmed mostly in the studio, but exteriors are shot at a farm in Aldergrove in British Columbia. The farm was painted yellow for the show.

Where do they film Smallville? Well, all over Vancouver. With the exception of Los Angeles, Vancouver's film studios are the largest in North America, and other landmark shows, like the X-Files, Supernatural, the Stargates and more, have taken advantage of the flexible nature of Vancouver's architectural style while using nearby Vancouver Studios for other filming.

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