Most Iconic Filming Locations Near LA

It’s no surprise that locations throughout Los Angeles have been used in movies, TV series, and even music videos. While some places have been used often, others are famous for just one standout scene. Filmmakers occasionally use specific locations with variety and flexibility, like the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

Some filming locations, like the John Sowden House, are chosen because they have a pleasing aesthetic. In the case of the Sowden House, unique and complex details, like an elaborate fireplace and intricately carved concrete walls, gave Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator an impression of historical authority.

In some cases, it’s more cost-effective for the director to use this filming strategy. In that case, a specific LA area may occasionally be adorned to resemble a place in another state or even a different country. Whatever the motivation, finding the perfect location for the movie is all that matters to the storyteller. But what’s exciting for the audience is getting to visit these locations!

Super A Foods in Glassell Park

This Glassell Park grocery store was featured in one of the most frequently discussed movies of this era. The characters, played by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, end up talking about songwriting in the vacant parking lot after stopping for frozen peas. Super A Foods may have previously been just another grocery store, but A Star is Born changed that.

Venice Beach

Not only is Venice Beach the most frequently used beach for filmmaking in Los Angeles County, but it is also the second-most frequently used site overall. It serves as the quintessential California backdrop, offering a broad array of people, locations, and natural beauty.

Venice has you covered if you want to film crowds, with daily attendance at the beach ranging from 28,000 to 30,000 people.

Numerous merchants, entertainers, and squatters live on the two-mile-long Venice Boardwalk. The beach also provides a number of filming locations, such as the handball and basketball courts, fishing pier, skatepark, graffiti wall, and, of course, Muscle Beach, the bodybuilding paradise.

Lower Grand Avenue

This downtown underpass, concealed beneath South Grand Ave, is illuminated by light stripes that run vertically along the underside of the overpass.

The Soloist (2009) was set against this somber backdrop. Lower Grand Avenue was portrayed in the movie as a bustling thoroughfare, even though it is typically a deserted region.

The Kill Bill Church

Most people will recognize this setting as the locale for the infamous, bloody scenes of Uma Thurman wearing a wedding dress in Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2. The Sanctuary Adventist Church, as it is more commonly known, is a Spanish-style building surrounded by fields and ranches.

Any project that evokes an eerie atmosphere would look fantastic in the paint-scratched church with just a lone Joshua tree. Additionally, the structure has appeared in the films Inferno, Crossroads, and True Confessions.

The Desert Hideout from Terminator 2

With its striking red and yellow facade, Cactus Jack’s Market in Lancaster, California, stands out in the desert. You may recall Sarah, John, and T-800 stopping here in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The building still stands in the nearby desert, even though the market has since closed.

The Vista Theatre

This 1923 single-screen cinema, which can be found on Sunset Drive, is one of the few structures still standing from Hollywood’s 1920s development boom. Icons from amateur and cult movies have left their handprints and footprints on the pavement in front of the theater.

In the movie True Romance, the theater is also the location where Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette’s characters first cross paths.

Filming Locations In Las Vegas

Los Angeles is close to Las Vegas so it’s no wonder you’ll want to take a trip there to check out other popular filming locations. The most fun and relaxing way to visit Las Vegas is to hire a Los Angeles long distance car service to drive you from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back so that you don’t have to worry about navigating the roads.

MGM Grand

Paying a visit to The MGM Grand is worthwhile if you enjoy spy movies. Not one but two James Bond movies, Casino Royale and GoldenEye, were filmed here. Austin Powers, another of Britain’s legendary spies, also spent significant time there.

MGM Grand is known for their fantastic table games. If you’re looking to harness your inner James Bond, take the time to learn strategies at the table games to fit in with the crowd.

The Bellagio

may be the top resort in Las Vegas. It’s so wonderful that you’d still have fun even if you were unaware of the movie’s history.

It doesn’t matter what actors have entered the resort when you’re admiring the exquisite fountains and the top-notch, Picasso-themed restaurant.

However, you can increase how much you like the hotel by viewing Ocean’s Eleven or Ocean’s Thirteen again before you go there. These movies will get you in the mood for your vacation because they show off all that Vegas has to offer in terms of refinement and luxury.