How 5 Oscar-nominated movie sets were made

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3. The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote and produced it with Tony Kushner. The film is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on Spielberg’s adolescence and first years as a filmmaker. To recreate the three houses that Spielberg lived in during his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and Saratoga, California, production designer Rick Carter worked off floor plans that the director sketched from memory and then took artistic license with the spaces to fit the emotional mindset of Sammy. More attention was paid to the set in Phoenix, “…because, as a filmmaker, he became more himself. So not only the equipment that was there is accurate, but all the storyboards that Sammy used to make his movies.

Main filming locations: Locations in the greater Los Angeles area, including a cul-de-sac of midcentury-style homes, a ranch-style home, and a craftsman-style home; The Orpheum Theater and The El Rancho Theater; movie ranches Golden Oak and Club Ed; Malibu’s Zuma Beach; Susan Miller Dorsey High School; and soundstages in Santa Clarita, California.

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