# Do they shoot funeral scenes in actual graveyards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556 "2021-12-05T22:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/1 "2021-12-05T22:01:55Z")
I was laughing at this wonderful sketch: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0Rn5QdO07d8/maxresdefault.jpg "I Think You Should Leave - Spectrum and Funerals") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rn5QdO07d8) Some of the Coffin Flops appear to be shot in a real graveyard, though… but wouldn’t that be considered disrespectful by the families of people actually interred there? Do they have a fake graveyard in Hollywood? ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/2 "2021-12-05T22:40:12Z")
Those scenes were shot in a real graveyard: “When it came time for people to actually start dropping out of coffins, the crew had a single day — February 18, 2021 — at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California, a cemetery considered particularly amenable to film shoots, having [served as a location](https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=Mountain%20View%20Cemetery%20-%202400%20N.%20Fair%20Oaks,%20Altadena,%20California,%20USA&sort=alpha,asc) for _CSI_ , _The Office_ , and _Six Feet Under._ It came complete with an empty grave reserved specifically for film shoots, which was helpful when it came time to film the coffin flop where a body drops straight into an open grave. “That’s their ‘movie grave’ they call it or something, so that if you need a graveside thing, you don’t have to do it at a real person’s headstone,” Max says.” > **[How Coffin Flop’s Coffins Got Flopped](https://www.vulture.com/article/i-think-you-should-leave-coffin-flop-sketch.html)** > > The story behind one of I Think You Should Leave’s funniest moments from season two. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/3 "2021-12-05T22:44:34Z")
Sometimes. The Blob(1988) has a shot where the camera starts in cemetery/graveyard and then pans left to show a high school stadium where they are watching the high school game. Get this. It was filmed in a Town that actually has that setup. Behind the stands/bleachers at the high school is a road and on the other side of the road is a graveyard. It’s like the cycle of life right there… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/4 "2021-12-05T22:50:52Z")
The hospital where I’ve spent so many happy work hours is located across the street from (partially catty-cornered to) the Forest Lawn Cemetery. Another branch of the same hospital is just down the road from the county landfill. The juxtapositions are…unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/5 "2021-12-05T23:27:45Z")
The first couple of seasons of the [_Sleepy Hollow_ TV series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_(TV_series)) were filmed in Wilmington, NC, which is the area I live in. It was a supernatural adventure series, so there were a lot of scenes in a graveyard. Pretty much all of them were filmed in an actual graveyard, Bellevue Cemetery. From the proper angles, it’s appropriately spooky looking, with weathered gravestones and obelisks: [![](https://thepoppyskull.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/halloween-nc-7-1024x683.jpg) ](https://thepoppyskull.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/halloween-nc-7-1024x683.jpg) (From the wrong angles, you’d get cheap chain link fencing in the shot.) It’s conveniently only a couple of blocks from Screen Gems Studios. A number of productions in Wilmington have also used that cemetery for filming. There’s a moderately busy street that runs along one side, and it gets closed for filming with some frequency, which can be a pain. I don’t know if any funeral scenes per se have been filmed, there, though. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/6 "2021-12-05T23:36:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The hospital where I’ve spent so many happy work hours is located across the street from (partially catty-cornered to) the Forest Lawn Cemetery. Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz is across the street from a cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/7 "2021-12-06T00:12:18Z")
Here’s some info on the cemetery and the filming during the original run of Twin Peaks. > **[Twin Peaks Film Location - Black Lake Cemetery at Night](https://twinpeaksblog.com/2021/05/31/twin-peaks-film-location-black-lake-cemetery-at-night/)** > > See the Southern California film location where Agent Cooper and Dr. Jacoby discuss Laura Palmer at Black Lake Cemetery from "Twin Peaks" Last I heard, there is still nobody buried in the plot where Laura’s grave was. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/8 "2021-12-06T01:45:26Z")
I think graveyard scenes should be filmed on golf courses…and golf scenes filmed in graveyards. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/9 "2021-12-06T01:48:37Z")
I don’t know for certain, but I believe the rule is to never show the real names of any of the existing headstones. They always are framed from behind or fully out of focus. Any close-ups will be of fake ones made for the production. These days, any accidental reveal of things like real signage on streets, house numbers, or headstone names, anything that shows identifying information, is easy to hide with CGI compositing. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/10 "2021-12-06T04:51:45Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Any close-ups will be of fake ones made for the production. They almost always look godawful and super-fake on television. I haven’t figured that one out yet; they’ll have passable flame CGI and other stuff like that, but they can’t CGI a convincing tombstone? At least in feature films, they just have one made by an actual monument company, I’m sure. Or maybe clever prop guys; I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/11 "2021-12-06T08:33:52Z")
Back in the day, the guy I worked with on the radio had (briefly) his own Letterman-style talk/variety show on Russian commercial TV. To boost ratings, he brought me on as the show’s roving “American correspondent.” The first bit we did was for Halloween. We went to a real cemetery in the north of Moscow and taped a half-dozen segments as the sun was going down, saying that the first person to come out to the cemetery and find me and my Jack-o-lantern would win USD $1000 (later upped to $5000). By the time we finished, it was totally dark, freezing cold, and the candle inside the pumpkin had burned out. (The bit ended with me getting knifed by an “irate fan” after I told her she was too late, time was up, and the contest was over.) This was broadcast as a “live remote transmission” a couple of weeks later. The next day, faxes poured in from people saying they couldn’t find me and wondering who (if anyone) had won the money. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/12 "2021-12-06T11:38:49Z")
Hrmph. They outta shoot in Greenway, in Murfreesboro. From some angles it looks too much like an HP Lovecraft story. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/14 "2023-12-04T15:42:12Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I think graveyard scenes should be filmed on golf courses…and golf scenes filmed in graveyards. Are you related to Al Czervik by any chance? I see this is a zombie and whoever revived it must have been sent to the cornfield. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/15 "2023-12-04T16:13:24Z")
Remember that, in winter a cornfield is a graveyard for cornstalks. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/16 "2023-12-04T16:14:46Z")
> [Athens Lunatic Asylum cemetery](https://imgur.com/a/sCSvIEa) Athens Lunatic (Hey… I didn’t name it) Asylum cemetery. I don’t know if it’s been in a movie. I just wanted to post that. (Sorry about the hijack) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/17 "2023-12-04T16:23:49Z")
Season 6, episode 18 of The X-Files was shot in a graveyard in Altadena, California. They wanted one with “old-fashioned vertical tombstones”. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/18 "2023-12-04T17:47:16Z")
The cemetery scene (not a funeral) in _The Blair Witch Project_ was filmed at the very real Burkittsville Union Cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/19 "2023-12-04T19:42:36Z")
The graveyard scenes in episodes of the original _ **Mission: Impossible** _ were shot in a cemetery adjacent to the Desilu (later Paramount) compound. The tomb of “Eva Braun” in the one about neo-Nazis launching a “Fourth Reich” was a for-real crypt that can be seen in aerial photos of the grounds. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/20 "2023-12-04T22:33:52Z")
The Blob movie from the 1980’s has a great shot that pans from a high school football game right over the street to a cemetery. It’s a real location. They have an actual high school right next to the cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556/21 "2023-12-04T22:50:20Z")
How about the cemetery scene in The Godfather? [Filmed at Calvary Cemetery](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/a-guide-to-the-godfather-filming-locations-in-new-york-city-180979785/) in Queens. ETA: speaking of James Caan, the movie [Gardens of Stone was filmed at Arlington National Cemetery](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093073/locations/?ref_=tttr_ql_dt_5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-shoot-funeral-scenes-in-actual-graveyards/955556.md?page=2)