Principal photography for The X-Files pilot took 14 days. The shoot took place in March 1993, before the series had established its long-running production routine in Vancouver.
The pilot was filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, despite early plans to produce the series in Los Angeles. The area offered forests and other locations that better suited the show's eerie investigative tone. The episode had a budget of about US$2 million, substantial for a television pilot of the period.
Several locations became especially important to the pilot's visual identity. Queen Elizabeth Park doubled as a cemetery, while interiors were filmed at places including a disused Riverview Hospital building and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's newsroom. Later episodes increasingly recreated locations on soundstages.
The 14-day figure refers to principal photography, not the entire production process. Post-production continued afterward, and the final version was assembled shortly before its preview for Fox executives. The pilot aired on September 10, 1993, introducing Fox Mulder and Dana Scully and launching the series' Vancouver era.