If you’ve watched the virtual tours, drone shots, or other promotional media for Oberlin, you can probably tell that we have a wonderfully cinematic campus. It was practically made for the screen! This proves fruitful for Cinema and Media students when location scouting for their films, as Oberlin has a plethora of places that lend themselves to movie shoots. Some major productions have even noticed the filmmaking potential of Oberlin, including Noah Bambauch’s White Noise, the 2020 romance All the Bright Places, and apocalypse film Take Shelter. In this post I’d like to take you through some of the most beloved filming locations on campus, and some of my favorite places I’ve shot at while working on my senior film.
One of the most common places for filming is the Arboretum. Colloquially known as the Arb, this nature reserve is right off campus and ripe with cinematic potential. It’s the perfect setting for a horror film, a drama, a fantasy, even a comedy. Who doesn’t love the beauty of a forest, or the sun reflecting off a body of water? I filmed a bit of my movie there and it provided some of the most gorgeous shots that we took. One of my favorite aspects of the Arb is the bike path, a long stretch that winds through Oberlin and the greater Lorain County area. Lined by trees, farm land, and a golf course, it’s a wonderfully scenic place and lends itself greatly to photography. Tappan is another lovely nature spot for photography, though students don’t often film in it because it looks very obviously 'Oberlin' and tends to break the suspension of disbelief. In contrast, the sprawling size of the Arb creates a nature setting that looks like it could be anywhere. One of my classmates shot most of their film in a location off campus, and some other scenes in the Arb, and I didn’t even realize it was two different locations. Ah, the magic of cinema!
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Oberlin’s downtown area is filled with lovely, eclectic shops, and many of the owners are more than happy to let you shoot your film there. Oberlin has such a unique culture with many creatively decorated stores that can stand as their own characters. These shops are often a choice for documentary filmmakers since the store owners have wonderful histories to tell about their business. Ratsy’s is one of the most beloved stores downtown, and with a variety of trinkets, strange doo-dads, and a cozy thrift store vibe, it can be a great location for a film. IGA, our local grocery store, has also been welcoming to student filmmakers, and I have seen lots of films using the space in surprisingly creative ways.
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Another common location for student films is Village Housing. Since many of the larger productions are done by upperclassmen who have gotten the opportunity to live in one of the student houses around campus, they tend to take advantage of these places. Each of the houses has such a unique layout, architecture, and style that each one provides its own cinematic qualities. You can film every genre imaginable in one of these houses. It helps especially if you don’t want what you're shooting to look like it takes place at a school!
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Many of the campus buildings themselves also work great for filming! For my film Layover, I needed an airport scene, but shooting at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport itself wasn’t exactly feasible. We ended up filming this scene in the lobby of Hall Auditorium where many theatre and opera performances take place. With the wide, white, nicely decorated lobby, it really did look like an airport! The bowling alley connected to the Cat in the Cream is another student favorite, as it has great colors and decoration and provides the perfect frame for a story.
So, long story short, if you’re a photographer or filmmaker like me, Oberlin is ripe with material and locations for your artistic expression. If the many films that have been shot on campus don’t prove to you that Oberlin is a beautifully scenic place, I don’t know what will! Maybe showing you the Arb?
