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This is a somewhat obscure question, but through a bit of Googling and a bit of background work, I've been unable to find an answer. I'm a UMD student, and have been trying to ascertain whether or not the shots of the University of Maryland in the X files are real, or shot somewhere in California. There are never action shots, simply lead characters walking into buildings, overhead shots of the campus, etc... It looks like the shots might be real (given that nothing too amazing happens), but as it was the early 90s, the landscaping has changed slightly (and it's a fairly standard east coast school architecture without an amazing amount of distinctive features). If this is an inappropriate question for this forum, what hints might I need to find out where the shots were done (are they typically listed in the credits, for example?).

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Can you provide any episodes that mention the University of Maryland as a location? I am a UMD alum and am confident that I could figure out if they're actually there or not. We did definitely have St. Elmo's Fire, National Treasure 2, and some (probably) hilariously bad movie starring Corey Haim called Life 101 filmed on-campus! –  stevvve Aug 30 '12 at 0:46
Hm. A number of episodes in the first season (at least) can be confirmed, I can try to find the names. As someone who still roams the campus, the shots look very much like UMD pre mall gentrification. –  Kristopher Micinski Aug 30 '12 at 1:01

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The credits for locations do not list any Maryland locations. However, since there's no indications of how those locations were used, it would be difficult to identify what locations were used to represent UM, short of finding someone who actually recognizes the specific places.

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thanks a lot! that helps! –  Kristopher Micinski Aug 29 '12 at 23:23

Every single episode in the first five seasons was filmed entirely within the greater Vancouver area in British Columbia, Canada. Every single episode in the last four seasons was filmed entirely within Southern California. The only exceptions are the establishing shots of the FBI building and aerial views of DC, both from stock footage.

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Do you have a reference for this, about the only thing lacking from the answer. –  TylerShads Sep 5 '12 at 18:01
I had suspected that stock footage was used for the FBI building and shots surrounding the DC area (aerial views..), but didn't know if this was also the case for the campus, however campuses look fairly similar, so stock footage from a random college campus would be possible too.. –  Kristopher Micinski Sep 5 '12 at 20:52

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