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There are a few requisite shots for any drone video of Los Angeles. The Griffith Park Observatory, LACMA's Urban Lights, Park La Brea's patterned layout—Mingomatic, an amateur photographer, includes them all in the latest video sent to LAist. But the video goes beyond the tropes. There are overheads of the Westfield Century City mall—gorgeous in the glow of magic hour, even if rendered a Daedalian labyrinth by renovation. There is a fly-through of the Sepulveda Basin Dam, with the trees of Lake Balboa hazy in the distance. There is even a close-up of the Angel Moroni statue above the Mormon temple on Santa Monica Boulevard (the second-largest temple in the Mormon faith following the Salt Lake City Temple).
For those who just can't get enough of La La Land, there are also shots of the Manhattan Beach pier—lamp posts lit for magic hour, the turquoise-lined deck flanked by surfers. There is also a back-to-back look at the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theater. Iconic Randy's Donuts has a cameo, too, of course. And for those who love fireworks (this is still July, after all), the segment above Marina del Rey ends with a fireworks display over the marina that goes in reverse.
The video is set to Arcade Fire's "Wake Up," and Mingomatic's Instagram account can be found here, as well as his full series of drone videos above Los Angeles here.
