Lights, Camera, Action!
Coming from a town with a population of under 7000 people, Los Angeles would be filled with those 3 words. I could not imagine anything other than a film reel, and directors parked at every corner. Hopping off the plane at LAX I found myself eager to enter the movie set that would be the next 4 years of my life. I won’t say that I was disappointed, but rather I was challenged. I found that a director was not seated at every corner of the LA streets, but I did find that if I looked, I could explore LA through film, and I took it on as a challenge to myself. As a Cinematic Arts Minor, I set my mind to finding these film sets through locations in Los Angeles, expanding my knowledge of film, but also this city that I was now calling home.
The Last Bookstore
As I searched through my movie repertoire, I stumbled upon the film, Under The Silver Lake, though a more indie film, I enjoyed the local Los Angeles sets used. I found myself stumbling upon the Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles for my birthday to explore the set where Andrew Garfield found himself searching for clues. I too was searching, walking through the maze of books to stumble upon the locations in which the shots were taken. Traversing through the various rooms, floors and shelves of books, I found myself immersed in the pages. Though I had come to explore a film set, I found myself finding my favorite bookstore. From the vintage books with tales in their spines beyond the words on the page, to the NYT bestsellers. Through these novels I learned more about Los Angeles from its people to its culture.
The Griffith Observatory
Los Angeles is known for its film setting, yet the one that my roommate told me that must top my list was the Griffith Observatory, better known as one of the sets for La La Land. She could not have been more correct, as I entered the observatory, I felt myself being immersed in the film. The locations walked by actors were being touched by my own shoes, and though I was not able to dance through the air, I felt myself lifted off the ground. The architectural marvel was incredible to experience, and more so the connection to the stars. The connection that this observatory had to astronomy amazed me. I entered this observatory to walk in the steps of the La La Land stars, however, I found myself discovering the connection that Los Angeles has to the stars above, learning about constellations, looking through a telescope, and mapping planet movement. Once again, through a tour of a movie set I learned more about the city and its connection to the cosmos.
USC
The last location encompassed the most film sets, and I found that it was my favorite: the campus of the University of Southern California, or as the students fondly call it: USC. From Grace Ford Salvatori Hall being used to document Mark Zuckerberg’s journey to creating Facebook in The Social Network to the set for Elle Woods to walk along in Legally Blonde USC truly was the movie set that I imagined when I moved to Los Angeles. I even found that it brought my home to me. My small town in Connecticut is the home to the inspiration for the TV show Gilmore Girls, and it was a shock to me that the graduation that I had seen in the show that took place “Connecticut” was in fact the front of our very own Doheny Library. Through the art of cinema, I hope to uncover more of LA’s hidden treasures.