Director Tim Burton aimed to use as few digital effects as possible. "It was nice to shoot on-location, to be connected to a place and geography, while having people floating, as opposed to doing it all digitally."
Rather than a movie set, the house where the children live is an actual house. It's called "Nottebohm" and can be found near Antwerp, Belgium.
Ransom Riggs' novel was partly inspired by otherworldly vintage photographs, including a cover shot of a levitating girl. The author collected the photos at flea markets, included them in the book, and showed them all to the Director Tim Burton before filming began.
Eva Green (Miss Alma Peregrine) was very fond of the pipe, citing it as a beautiful prop, combining feminine and masculine aspects of Miss Peregrine's character. Eva kept the pipe in her London home.
During Jake's second visit, when discussing the letter with Miss Peregrine in the kitchen, the radio broadcast in the background is a speech by Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. He talks about "significant things" taking place in the alliance with Russia, the eventuality of an allied invasion of Europe, a eulogy of the Canadian war effort, and Italy's crumbling defenses. It was broadcast from Canada on 31 August 1943, and re-broadcast three days later, at noon, for the British Isles. This is consistent with the date of the loop in the movie: 3 September 1943.
Tim Burton: [The Wizard of Oz (1939)] Scenes in the present, outside the loop, have a blue tint, while scenes inside the loop are in full color, which is similar to The Wizard of Oz, where scenes in Kansas are monochrome, but scenes in Oz are in color.
Tim Burton: [stop motion] The two dolls that Enoch created are filmed with stop-motion, something used in almost all of Tim Burton's movies.