Movie Locations

To the casual observer they look like the real thing: Uniformed Los Angeles police officers on motorcycles controlling traffic around action-packed chase scenes and sprawling film sets on the streets of L.A. Gawkers and paparazzi who get up close, however, might realize something is a bit off. The stripes signifying the officers' rank are gone, the motorcycles are without emergency lights and their badges read "Retired" across the top.

Location filming for movies and TV commercials on the streets of Los Angeles, once as prevalent as the corner taco truck, is rapidly fading to black. Double whammies of the recession and out-of-state economic incentives for producers have caused on-location film shoots in the Los Angeles area to fall to their lowest levels on record.

Principal James Garza strode onto El Segundo High's North Quad, tennis courts behind him, and pointed to the school's bell tower. "That's the shot," he said with a proud smile, recalling a scene from the 1955 movie "Blackboard Jungle" that was filmed on campus. The picture, which starred Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, was one of the first shot at the high school.

Can free parking in Los Angeles help to stem the migration of TV and film production to other cities and states? Probably not. But that most coveted of Los Angeles benefits was one of a series of recommendations adopted Wednesday by the L.A. City Council aimed at making it easier for producers to film locally and discouraging them from taking their business elsewhere. Among the recommendations are to consider a tax credit for building owners who make their properties available for filming and a refund of sales tax paid by production companies when at least 75% of the filming is done within the city.

Any time a film crew goes to an intense environment in a remote area, anything can happen, but the "Land of the Lost" team found some truly unexpected challenges last year when they set up their cameras in the desert past Palmdale. There's plenty of military in the desolate area and when word reached pilots that Will Ferrell and Danny McBride were filming nearby, the highflying (and high-decibel) sightseers came by to check it out. First, there was the F-18 that came in.

It was still dark when Dominga Cornejo parked herself outside her swap meet stand along South Spring Street, her ruffled pink apron tied around her waist and her giant bin of Mexican candy within arm's reach. At any moment, the 77-year-old expected a torrent of rain to drench her, a series of gun blasts to boom and a locomotive engine to come barreling down the street, possibly in her direction. "I'm ready for it," she said in Spanish. "I hope everyone sees my little store."

Few Hollywood stars work harder -- or cheaper -- than Los Angeles City Hall. "Mission Impossible III." "Evan Almighty." Now showing at a theater near you, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." All have had scenes play out across the landmark's stately chambers, portrait-lined corridors and grand stairways. Yet this publicly financed box-office favorite receives not a penny in return. Call it the price of being an architectural icon in one of the world's foremost entertainment capitals.

IVER HEATH, England -- It takes a lot of planks and plaster to bring James Bond's adventures to life. The latest 007 movie, "Quantum of Solace," is being shot amid high security at a sprawling studio complex near London, where vast soundstages have been transformed into a medieval Italian town, a corner of South America and the high-tech headquarters of British intelligence.

For a decade, producer Mike Medavoy has been eager to make a movie that is set here in the city of his birth, telling the story of an American in China who investigates the mysterious killing of a friend in the months leading up to Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor. But with China's film censors demanding changes to the script of his movie, "Shanghai," the Hollywood filmmaker may have to alter his plans.

Location. Location. Location. A few years back, Hart Bochner was making a movie in Bakersfield. The production moved to the desert town of Trona for two night shoots. The experience there proved so overwhelming that he was compelled to write and direct a movie about it. "Just Add Water," which opens Friday, is set in the town on the edge of Death Valley.