While it is known for quirky institutions like The Museum of Jurassic Technology and The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Culver City is perhaps most synonymous with the film industry. The lot and production facilities of MGM Studios (now occupied by Sony Pictures) take up a sizable portion of this West L.A. community and additional former occupants include Culver Studios and Hal Roach Studios. Despite being overshadowed by the mystique of Hollywood, Culver City remains one of the key sites of American cinema, an urban space that has served as the backdrop to countless films.
Graphic designer and researcher Piet Schreuders has excavated a portion of this history with the creation of a 3D model of Culver City's Main Street in the 1920s. He took iconic shots from several Laurel and Hardy films and geolocated them within this digital model. The resulting video is a fascinating historical study of "the shortest Main Street in the world" and the idea of the cinematic city. This research is neatly consolidated in the above YouTube video and those wanting more information should note the 12 page excerpt from Furore #19 (1999) which Schreuders has posted online for Laurel and Hardy fans. [via Digital Urban]
[Piet Schreuders / Main Street Study / 1999]
While I do find this research quite exciting, I do have to admit my interest in it is partially fueled by nostalgia. I lived in Culver City for two years at the beginning of the decade and my design educated started at 3850 Main Street, the building at the very right of the above image (in Gregg Fleishman's studio - the original home of LAIAD). I also consumed several thousand shots of espresso at the Grand Casino Bakery (3826 Main Street) which is just off frame.
One of the things that I find so strange about Los Angeles is the manner in which urban space has been grafted into narrative cinema. Space is double coded and the "fictionalized" utilization of various sites throughout the city often eclipses their (sometimes banal) everyday use. This is the territory for exploration in Thom Anderson's 2003 documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself and also at the heart of my Critical Sections project - which I'm hoping will be launching on Vectors quite soon. Once that work is live I'll return to these themes of media-archeology and space in Los Angeles.
Chema Cobo
Marc Chagall
Chema Madoz
