 Crowley and his crew searched Los Angeles for almost seventy locations that resembled fin de siècle London . Jonathan Nolan visited Colorado Springs to research Nikola Tesla and based the electric bulb scene on actual experiments conducted by Tesla . Nathan Crowley helped design the scene for Tesla 's invention ; It was shot in the parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory . Influenced by a " Victorian modernist aesthetic , " Crowley chose four locations in the Broadway theater district in downtown Los Angeles for the film 's stage magic performances : the Los Angeles Theatre , the Palace Theatre , the Los Angeles Belasco , and the Tower Theatre . Crowley also turned a portion of the Universal back lot into Victorian London . 
