On Location in Los Angeles

As I've shared before, parts of Los Angeles can feel like one giant back-lot.

According to the website www.seeingstars.com, on any give day one hundred different ads, commercials, TV shows, or movies are being filmed on the streets of Los Angeles.


Of course, most aren't as elaborate as this crew I stumbled across last October. This is on Broxton Avenue in Westwood Village, a couple of blocks from UCLA.


Broxton is apparently a very popular location for filming. This isn't the first time I've seen a movie crew here, and the street's been used in films like Crash.

Broxton is a one way street in Westwood Village, and - with very limited traffic flow - filming causes fewer problems for pedestrians and merchants.

As an aside, years ago my mom worked at the Walden Books located on this same city block. Pop star Michael Jackson came into her store one day, dressed up like old man. She didn't recognize him until she looked at the name on his credit card and hear a very high pitched "thank you" when she handed him back the card. True story.


The Walden Books is long gone, but here's a public parking garage on on the same block. I noticed the crew on my way to work. I wandered around for a few minutes, just to see what what going on.


It's incredible how many people it takes to shoot one simple scene. The shooting here took at least two days, and there had to be at least 200+ people involved. Most of the time their work involves waiting.

I honestly have no idea what it takes to make a movie. The actor on the right is probably someone famous . . . but I'm not the one to ask.

Question: how does a camera crew deal with harsh shadows in an outdoor scene?

Answer: create your own cloud cover. I've seen this in a backlot before, but somehow the crew was able to get permission to build a screen over a public street to midegate shadows from the sun.

Here's another shot of the screen above Broxton. Wow, huge.

photo credit: www.seeing-stars.com


Here's a final shot from the film "Dinner For Smucks" (no, I didn't see it).


Just another day on the back lot of Los Angeles. Time to get over to campus (aka work).

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