CNM NEWS PIECE: March 26th, 2010, evening slot
[The camera focuses on a young, perky brunette holding a microphone stamped with the station's logo, and peering seriously at the lens. She's standing on a nearly empty street on a bright afternoon, palm trees clearly visible in the background. If you've ever been there in your world, it looks almost like Santa Monica, down along the Third Street Promenade. It looks about the same, except less populated and visibly dirtier - the shops are all still open, but there are noticably fewer big name brands.]
Hello, and welcome to our eighteen-month retrospective on Los Angeles county, known today as The HIVE.
No one outside the region knows what the letters stand for, but everyone seems to know that it is, indeed, an acronym. Just another one of the city's many secrets, it seems.
[She turns to gesture at the streets around her and begins walking backward, being followed by the cameraman.]
Once a bustling city known casually as 'Tinseltown', Los Angeles lost its glamour in late summer of 2008. Even now, we know little about this turbulent time; the only sign that the outside world had that anything was going on was a citywide shutdown of communications, and the blocking or destruction of all major roads in. The Californian senator asked the White House to take action, but no one knew what was going on until it was too late.
Entry to the city is still difficult at best - even with the amount of paperwork, only I and a small crew were allowed through on the Pacific Coast Highway. It begs the question: what does this city have to hide? The sporadic attacks on the City, clear across the continent, have proven that there are some form of unsavoury ongoings. The most popular hypothesis is genetic experimentation, though there is little physical evidence outside the town's limits.
[An outrageously tall man in a trenchcoat strolls by in the background, looking surly. He looks at the camera as he passes, and gives the cameraman the middle finger with the hand that isn't a large, crab-like claw.]
What we do know is that the current mayor has made his stance on outside interactions very, very clear. As evidenced with the infamous broadcast the day before the roads opened again, the city will continue to function on its own, and react caustically to any interference.
[The scene changes to shots clearly taken the night before, with her voicing over it. It's clearly more active than the city during the day, people spilling out of bars and clubs in small waves or breaking out into localised fights. The atmosphere is alive and kicking, but you just know that if you were actually in that crowd, your wallet would get lifted or you'd get subtly stabbed.]
But what of the average person still living here? Despite the red tape that makes it difficult to move away now, almost twenty percent of the population has relocated to the surrounding area, or other parts of the state. [There's a nice little bar graph with those numbers, just in case you couldn't picture it. Then back to the nighttime scenes, this time in more residential areas and therefore a bit more relaxed.] It seems that despite the huge criminal activity, there are still average civilians living here, perhaps even being held hostage.
Since then, most of the entertainment industry has migrated up the coast to San Fransisco, or inland to San Diego. Surprisingly, some larger studios have even regrouped in Vancouver. It just goes to show that even in the strangest of times, we can all adapt.
This has been Isabella Ramos, of CNM.
[Please note that as this is a broadcast, comments cannot be replied to. Feel free to react nonetheless.]