Cinematic Geography of LA

As we adjust to and learn to love our new hometown, I'm still amazed by the extent to which LA really is a movie town. I certainly expected to have a movie culture--after all, we live just outside of Hollywood--but I was not prepared for the way that the movie industry and that the love of film has permeated the very fabric of the city. It's amazing how many people I know are or have been in the business--nothing like figuring out a co-worker was in a 1990s sitcom or realizing that seemingly everyone here is a card-carrying SAG member. It was really driven home when we went to the gym last night during what is normally a prime gym time--but which happened to be during the Oscars ceremony yesterday--and found it a complete ghost town.

The flips side is to start recognizing the city itself as a character in movies. That happened for the first time last week, when we were watching the more recent "The Italian Job" remake and spotted several locations just within a few blocks of our house.

With that in mind, I present to you these two short YouTube clips about LA appearing in its own movies: