Dazed and Confused Filming Locations

Richard Linklater shot his breakthrough film, Slacker, in and around the city of Austin, Texas.  He managed to do the same with his first studio film, Dazed and Confused.  Part of that was Universal happy to keep the budget down, but a lot of it was Linklater wanting to film where he was most comfortable.  Considering the great performances from local Austinites like Matthew McConaughey and Wiley Wiggins, the choice turned out to be a great one.

When it comes to documenting the filming locations, there are a bunch of sources you might come across in a Google search.  However, I'll draw you to what I feel are the two gold standards.  The first is Grahm's Guide:  https://www.grahmsguide.com/dazed-and-confused-1993.  This guide stands out for its well-written and well-documented nature, but also for two very big things when it comes to Dazed filming locations.  

First, it is the only source I found that documents the location of the car wash that the freshman girls are driven through.  I guess even in 1993 it was hard to find 70s-style  "Robo-Wash" car washes, because they had to go over an hour south of Austin to a small town named Seguin to shoot that one short scene.   This town is actually closer to San Antonio than Austin.   

Second, Grahm debunks the theory (that you'll find many other places) that the Emporium interior scenes were shot at a different location than the exterior scenes.  Definitely not the case, although I can't fault some local Austin business for trying to get people to show up by spreading the rumor that their bar is a Dazed filming location.  

The other source is from YouTube.  Pretty much any popular film will have a filming location video on YouTube, and some will have many, many good ones.  To put it bluntly, as of the writing in mid-2019, Dazed does not.  There is just one excellent Dazed filming location video, and we all have "Matt's Rad Show" channel to thank for it.  Matt visited the locations in August 2018.  Check it out:

 

Matt does an amazing job and manages to get really lucky when visiting both Carl Burnett's house and the football field.  His visit to Carl's house is worth it's weight in gold!  His technique of finding (as close as possible) the angles taken when shooting the film and superimposing a picture-in-picture of actual scenes onto his footage is brilliant. The video is well worth your time.  Matt also posted a separate, longer video documenting his visit to the Top Notch, which is also worth watching.

I visited Austin over the July 4th weekend of 2019.  I hit up every existing location, including the car wash.  I didn't have the luck (or moxie) that Matt had, but it was still a wonderful experience.  I'll make a post about that trip a bit later in the blog with pictures and video.  But what I will say now is that even though 1992 seems like yesterday in my mind, things definitely change.  Austin is growing by leaps and bounds nowadays - Google and Facebook and Apple are moving in.  Places disappear or they get modified.  

I was happy to see what I could see in 2019 because some things have changed even since the 2017 pictures on Grahm's Guide page.  Austin's school district recently began discussions for closing some schools. Bedichek Middle School (a/k/a Lee High School) was not on the list, but who knows what will happen in the future.  I rolled up to the Americana movie theater, which was converted into a public library at some point after 1992, where Darla sprays her immortal streams of ketchup and mustard and my heart sank.  

Upon arrival, there was a chain link fence surrounding the property on which a plastic banner hung, telling me that the library was under renovation.  Nothing had been touched on the exterior and based on the library's website, the exterior will not undergo any extensive renovation/changes, just the interior (https://library.austintexas.gov/yarborough-branch). Edit: It's back open and fully accessible. But again, you just never know what will disappear.  

So my advice is that if you're a big Dazed fan and want to see these places in person, head to Austin and do it sooner than later! And remember to always respect the private property, too.