La La Land - Filming Locations: Mia's Courtyard Apartment House (Someone in the Crowd )

Location #3:

Mia's Courtyard Apartment House
(Someone in the Crowd, part 1 )

Q. Where is it supposed to be?

0:12:09: This is supposed to be an apartment house in Hollywood, where Mia and her three roommates (also aspiring actresses) live.

It is where we see the first half of the musical number " Someone in the Crowd", during which the girls get ready to go to a glitzy Hollywood party, where they hope to meet someone influential who can help launch their showbiz careers.

In the scene, Mia at first decides to stay home, but she eventually comes around and joins her roommates in a colorful dance number down the middle of the street outside of their apartment house.

Q. Where was it really shot?

This is an actual apartment house, but it's a long way from Hollywood.

They shot this scene at the Rose Towers apartments, at 1728 E. 3rd Street, in Long Beach, CA (an ocean town which is about 25 miles southwest of Hollywood.

The address is between Gaviola Ave (on the west) and Hermosa Ave (on the east).

When the girls dance in the street, they are headed EAST down E. 3rd Street.

This 20-unit courtyard apartment complex (which does resemble the kind of Spanish-Revival style courtyards that once filled old Hollywood) was built in 1928, and was originally named the El Cordova Apartments. The apartments face inward, towards the lush courtyard and its fountain.

Here is a matching StreetView of the courtyard
where Emma comes out to meet her friends:

And here is a matching StreetView of 3rd Street, looking west, where the girls dance:

Here is a StreetView that matches the wide aerial shot
of the street once the girls get into their car:

And finally, here is a video of the actual filming
of that street-dance moment:

( Later in the movie, we see the other side of this apartment complex,
and the alley that runs behind it, when Seb comes to pick her up for a date. )

( But we're only talking about the exterior shots. As I understand it, the interiors of her apartment house were partially filmed in the Langham apartments , a popular filming location, at 715 Normandie Ave, in L.A. -

However, since they built a studio set for the interior, it's difficult to know which interior shots were filmed on that studio set, and which might have actually been shot inside the Langham. )

See a StreetView of the exterior

Here is a link to a Google Earth 3-D view
of the street & apartment house.

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