Downtown is basically a studio backlot for car commercials on some days.

FORBES: Run-and-gun in New York City

Another block or so west is Sony Studios (www.sonypicturesstudios.com), where you can join the studio audience of Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, or just take the backlot tour.

BBC: Culver City, ready for its close-up

The fire in Bodega Bay was a montage of mattes of houses, smoke and birds, with only the fire, in the backlot at Universal, really burning.

ECONOMIST: Robert Boyle

As a result, scenes purporting to take place in New York are actually taking place in New York, rather than on a backlot in Los Angeles.

ECONOMIST: Lexington: The mystery of Michael Bloomberg | The

The multimillion-dollar studios sit on 60 acres and include five sound stages, a 5-acre pond, a theater, a chapel, a commissary, a gymnasium, Perry's office, an art department where sets are designed, hair and makeup facilities, a wardrobe department, set decoration, a post-production facility and the backlot, according to the studio website.

CNN: Fire at Tyler Perry's studios limited to backlot facade