It's the crack of dawn and I just came back from the airport. I love driving back along the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) where you often see dolphins as you sit at a stop light. At the Santa Monica pier there was a lot of activity in the huge parking lot: sharp-edgedwhite trucks and brilliant lights aimed at the beach, making part of it as bright as day. A television show was filming at dawn against the twilit horizon.
At the beach, it was easy for anyone driving by to see where they were filming. But in ordinary neighborhoods around L.A., you often see signs like the one above, giving directions to a set. One thing I've learned is that most movies have fake names that are used all during production, especially if a big star is involved. There are too many crazies around.
I grew up near LAX in the 1950s. Spotting actors was one of my father's informal hobbies--I was with him at various times when he saw Cesar Romero, Roy Rogers, and Walt Disney. Disney is the only one I remember talking to (and I have his autograph to prove it).
Posted by: chrissoup | 07 June 2008 at 17:17