Running on Empty – LA Without Cars
This might not be Hollywood film related, but it’s awesome nonetheless. Living in the Los Angeles area, you are forced to live and breathe traffic. Young, old, poor, rich — traffic will effect you in some way or another. Film grad Ross Ching created this short film (2 mins) about Los Angeles without cars. He touches upon all parts of L.A. from the great Loyola Marymount University to Century City all the way to downtown and beyond. I drive past that Sex and the City “billboard” everyday — I just wish the 405 was this empty. Radiohead’s “No Surprises” is a great touch.
I live in Los Angeles. I drive in Los Angeles. I think about traffic a lot in Los Angeles. A few months ago, I discovered Matt Logue’s Empty LA photographs. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but every time I was stuck in rush hour all-hour traffic, I found myself thinking, “What if tomorrow everyone’s car disappeared.” What would that scene look like? How would people react? How quickly would the atmosphere rebound from centuries of fossil fuel emissions? So I took Matt Logue’s still photography concept and applied it to something that I do best — time lapse. I built a story around the idea of us being shackled to this ball and chain; this love-hate relationship with whom we spend so much time with here in LA.
Check out his website to see how he did it. Enjoy.
