THE AMERICAN CINEMATIC LANDSCAPE INSCRIBED @WORK

The American Cinematic Landscape (ACL) is commonly conceived as a text or product and as a practice that is made @work. Reading the cinematic landscape as a text has proven to be the most common avenue of engagement where it is a prewritten, inscribed cultural product to be theoretically interpreted. The idea of “@work” follows Don Mitchell’s argument that landscape is a product of human labor, and in the context of cinema @work is about building, staging, framing, and digitally replicating locational imagery for consumption. Narrative cinema is a constant process of placemaking: the conversion of location imagery harvested from production centers to ground diegetic spaces. The American cinematic landscape is always becoming and will continue as long as there are crews out filming. This chapter provides a tour of the ACL beginning with the primary production center of NYC, then moving to LA and the TMZ (30-mile zone) and onto film ranches and the legacy of Old Tucson Studio. Cities and regions since the 1990s have been chasing the dream of Hollywood through Motion Picture Incentives (MPI). Many cinematic cities have gained and lost prominence, including Vancouver, San Diego, Wilmington, Albuquerque, New Orleans, and Atlanta.