Blog #1

Before coming to Chapman, I lived an hour’s plane ride north in Palo Alto, California. I have always thought of LA as the place to be, envisioning a sun soaked Santa Monica boardwalk glistening by a golden beach, and the glamorous walk of fame that lines Hollywood Boulevard and pays homage to all the stars that made it big and gave the city the reputation that it has. I thought of it as the sparkling heart of show business, where celebrities live luxurious lives and thrive producing and creating the movies we love. I imagine movie studios circling the blocks, housing their own unique environments, shooting films with giant dinosaurs or fantastic space aliens to be idolized by the public. I also think of LA to be a centerpiece of entertainment, with locations like Disneyland, Universal and Six Flags giving you endless opportunities of things to do. A few movies I saw recently that added to my perspective of the city were Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Training Day. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood really gave me a look inside an actor’s journey and what it means to be looked up to in a city that always moves on. I always had this picture in my mind of a drunk, washed-up actor wandering across the stars in the middle of fame;s cycle when I thought of Los Angeles, and this movie really brought the whole story to life of what goes on in a performer’s head when they realize their peak might not last as they’d hoped. Training Day offered a lot of different new perspectives of the area to film, as it was the first time the Los Angeles ghettos were actually used as a set in a feature production. It gave a look into the lives we don’t often see on film- the ones that don’t glorify the city- and made me care more about the communities we don’t often hear about. It’s a really good movie and you should watch it sometime, and Los Angeles is wonderful.