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An anonymous major director of action movies “L.A. is a very movie-friendly town because just about every square inch of the city has been used for theatrical and television films, so you can shoot just about anything and everything. And its sheer size offers a tremendous variety of landscapes, ethnicity’s, and coastlines”. The book Looking for Los Angeles written by Charles Salas analyzes and discusses the history of the film industry in Southern California and the effects it has had on the economy and population. I believe the book created a good basis by exploring the explosion of the industry during the 1960’s and looking at how Hollywood became the center of the film industry and a place everyone flocked to for work.
The book is good at viewing the development of Hollywood in a non-biased manner by looking at the different stages and time periods of the development of the film industry. The reason so many flocked to Los Angeles and why it became the center of a multi-billion dollar industry is because of the stable weather Southern California provides. Filming can occur year around and any weather can be created by rain or snow machines the book explains.
What the author does different is spend a lot of time focusing on how the industry affected the geography of the city. Much of Los Angeles is still very segregated and has more defined areas of poverty and wealth than the normal city. The author states that the reason for this is the great differences in income of those who work in the film industry and those who do not. This is a hasty conclusion that has no support and does not make sense because there are other ways to gain wealth in Los Angeles.
To buy or learn more about this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Los-Angeles-Architecture-Photography/dp/0892366168
This blog, written by a student author who has personal connections to the film industry is just generally fascinating....