I am moving to LA :-)

cordvision

cordvision

Well-known member
I will study at Santa Monica College (and hopefully transfer to USC later). Right now, I live in a small village (4000 citizens) in Switzerland. It's going to be a huge differnece :Drogar-Dum(DBG): :-)
 
I was just telling my wife yesterday how friggin congested and gross it is here in L.A. now. There should be an admittance test for industry folk, like a drivers license for filmmakers. Because they all come here, fail, then friggin stay as waiters and college drop-outs, holding up my freeways and never leaving.

Oh, by the way, this isnt about you, no offense at all :) Just been bummed on this city lately. When you pack this many people in one town they get angry, and then I have to deal with their driving.

Anyway, welcome to Los Angeles!
 
oh, by the way. I think I might need a car, right? How much do I have to expect to pay for a used one that will drive me around for 3 to 5 years? Here it would probably cost me about 3000-4000$. I don't need anything special it just needs to work properly...

Hope to see some of you...

What are good places to get a used car? URL?
 
what do I have to look for if I buy a car in LA. I mean, does the car have to pass a test every couple years or can you just drive it as long as you want? Anything special to look out for?
 
survival will be difficult at first. pretty much your days of neutrality are over because once you move to L.A. you will have to choose a gang to join. the good thing is that most americans like swiss cheese. you can likely use that to barter with the natives.
 
cord - if you are going to buy a used car, I suggest buying from an individual from a trade car magazine and asking that car to be inspected at a local garage or even at Midas. We bought a used car for my son out of state and had the individual take it to a Midas shop and they did a full inspection, we found out the passenger window didn't work, saved ourselves $400. So have the car inspected, will save you grief later.

There are many apartments, condos for rent in Santa Monica, if you are a student, I imagine you'll probably end up living in Venice, still, there are apartments at every price range, seriously.

The bus system here is ideal. They move fast and constant, will take you even into LA. However there is a subway system here as well. I'm hoping to hop on the subway this week or next week and head over to Hollywood.

It's been said that LA is congested. Santa Monica is not. Sure there are a lot of people on weekends, but everyday stuff, not bad. I got home from a class yesterday and drove down Wilshire, no traffic whatsoever, so really, it's not that congested.

The air is not polluted here like in LA, we have the ocean breeze on our face. Look me up when you get here.

Charli
 
Welcome to America and to the LA area. Just a little heads up. Try and find some people on either myspace or craigslist to help on their shorts or films or whatever they got going on. Its a really good way to network and to get your feet wet. Also I would suggest using that money that you would spend to go to USC to buy a camera and make a couple short films and maybe even a feature if you could swing it. Most of the film schools are a horrible waste of money. I'm not sure what you want to do in the industry but for the most part you could learn it on your own and just being honest with what your strengths and weaknesses are.
 
Thank you for your replays. They are great help. I definitely plan to hook up with people and help on project and also find people for my own projects. I hope it's easier to find enthusiastic people who really are into filmmaking than it is here. For apartments I already checked westsiderentals and craigslist. Any other good sites where I could find apartments with two bedrooms (me girlfriend will also come to LA (only for 1 year) to study english) for a good price.
I already got an hvx for my own projects and I like it very much :)
 
I want to clarify/disagree with a few of these points, maybe save you some time.

Charli said:
There are many apartments, condos for rent in Santa Monica, if you are a student, I imagine you'll probably end up living in Venice, still, there are apartments at every price range, seriously.
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Except, y'know, cheap. Santa Monica is in general one of the most expensive areas of LA, and Venice isn't real cheap, either. The east side is cheaper. Culver City isn't bad.

Charli said:
However there is a subway system here as well.
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The subway doesn't extend to the west side. Hollywood is as far as you'll get. It works great for me, moving between Hollywood and Downtown, but for someone on the west side, it's useless.

Charli said:
It's been said that LA is congested. Santa Monica is not.
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Your experience must be completely different from mine. Trying to get anywhere between Santa Monica and Culver in rush hour is an absolute nightmare - I imagine in part because the public transportation isn't there.

But, that's not enough reason not to live there, if you can afford it. It's nice. I'd like to live in Venice myself, but for right now, that's not for me.

Good luck with the transition!
 
Out by Pico can you can get some decent rentals here in SM, out by San Vicente, don't even think about it, those are multi-million dollar rentals. We also found some affordable housing in Venice, thought about living there.

I'm in a million dollar rental and I'm not paying ANYTHING what it's worth. They threw the keys at us, so yes, you can get lucky. We found this rental by walking up and down Ocean street. Some rentals are not advertised on Westside or Craigslist.

I haven't tried the subway yet, so I can't express how it is. I've driven to Culver City and yes, that is for sure affordable and I went during lunch and got in and out without a problem. Must be harder in evening, wouldn't know.
 
Hey Charli, how long have you lived here? I'm near UCLA, blocks away from SM. It takes me an hour to get 3 miles into SM on any given afternoon. And what makes you think there's a subway down here?
 
Boyle Heights!! just a quick 2 hour Metro ride to Santa Monica!! but keep an eye on the HVX :)
 
cordvision said:
what do I have to look for if I buy a car in LA. I mean, does the car have to pass a test every couple years or can you just drive it as long as you want? Anything special to look out for?
Click to expand...

Yeah, anything newer than 1974 has to pass a smog (emissions) test every 2 years. Before you sign over the papers, make sure the owner has it passed for the smog. I think (but not positive) that it's their legal responsibility to make sure it passes smog before he or she can sell it to you.
 
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