Random thoughts, an addendum

[craobhruadh]

I was watching Collateral the other day (Tom Cruise did a good acting job as the villain, too bad he's also batshit insane). I must have been living in LA long enough, because throughout the movie I kept on going, "wait a moment, I've been there

Comments

[faerieloch]

Well, just about every single desert you see in the movies that doesn't involve sand dunes is filmed in the Mojave-- just north of LA. So I frequently see joshua trees (only found in the Mojave) in Mexico, Texas, etc.. I'm always remarking "that's my desert!"

As an aside, they do this because it is close enough that they don't have to pay the crew for travel or "away" expenses.

[craobhruadh]

Oh, I agree, I've noted similar things about them using Caltech as a stand-in for other college campuses here.

I didn't know that the Mojave was a popular stand-in though, that's really interesting.

[pandoradeloeste]

Plenty of the movies set in NYC were filmed in (surprise) LA, so that's not so surprising. The showdown at the end of "Heroes", for example? Arco Plaza across from Grand Central Library in downtown LA.

[craobhruadh]

Heh, I'm almost certain they made that part of NYC up for the Heroes finale, or else I haven't heard of it. I do now wonder how widespread it is, as New York City and LA are two very different cities with decidedly different feels. I can maybe see them making downtown look like NYC with some clever camera-work though, but that's about it.