Recommended Viewing

The best way to learn about Hollywood, is to watch movies, especially movies about Hollywood. The following give a feel for the city as it exists in this chronicle.

General Setting

Cruel Intentions: Actually, pretty much any film version of Les Liasons Dangereuse would be fine, but this one is actually set in Los Angeles in about the right era. And, of course, it has Buffy in it.
L.A. Story: This is the important one: not for the romanticism, but for the magical logic and the detachment from reality. See it, role-play it.
The Player: Hollywood in all its nastiness, and an interesting twist on the traditional happy ending.
Jawbreaker: Okay, the movie kind of loses its way towards the end (you can almost pick the point at which the director lost interest), but the set-up perfectly matches the kind of dynamic I'm after.
L.A. Confidential: Updated film noir, captures some of the mood I'm trying for in this chronicle.
Chinatown: Portrays one of the early water barons of L.A.
Sunset Boulevard: The early geography of the city.
Cast A Deadly Spell: High-magic version of L.A.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Satirises, among other things, the impact of the destruction of the city's public transport infrastructure.
The Day of the Locust: The Napoleonic battle scene is a good satire of how studios work.
Falling Down: An epic quest across the dark side of L.A.
Short Cuts: Slices of life from the suburbs of L.A.
The Real Blonde: In the out-outlying suburbs of Hollywood (ie. New York), models struggle with the ups and downs of showbusiness.

Hey, Wouldn't These Books Make Great Films?

(that is, if anyone in Hollywood read books ...)

Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion.: Life among the rich and disaffected in L.A.
The Informers - Bret Easton Ellis.: More bleak and wretched than what I'm aiming for, but in the same ballpark. Another Ellis novel, Less Than Zero, has the advantage of having been made into a film. The movie version of American Psycho could easily describe Glass Walkers in this chronicle.
The Secret History - Donna Tartt.: Without blood-bonding, how do you control your underlings? Here's one way. The novel starts with the murder of a main character, and descends into the darkness from there.
Generation X - Douglas Coupland.: Young Los Angelenos confront the apocalypse. Evocative descriptions of the desert surrounding the city. Marginal notes include a glossary of alleged slacker-speak.
The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western - F. Scott Fitzgerald.: In true Hollywood style, this incomplete novel was retitled The Last Tycoon in most editions after the author's death. Fitzgerald wrote Hollywood better than anyone. His novel The Great Gatsby has been filmed, and also captures the right mood.
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh.: Cemetery culture in L.A.
The Devil's Candy - Julie Salamon.: The making of the high-budget flop, The Bonfire of the Vanities, dissects a modern film studio.

Clans

My interpretation of the Sabbat clans in L.A. is roughly illustrated by the selection of movies below.

Tzimisce

Any classic cinematic vampire, especially Dracula. Although there are no Old Clan Loyalists (with the possible exception of The Count), Old Clan affectations abound.

Ventrue Antitribu

Square Pegs Death of a Cheerleader Heathers All-American Murder To Die For: Any of these illustrate the dynamic at work between the Antitribu and the rest of the Ventrue clan.

Toreador Antitribu

The Addams Family Addams Family Values: Definitely Toreador antitribu.
Crash The Naked Lunch: Interesting views of the creative process, as might be practised by Toreador Antitribu. Watch also for the Tzimisce influence in Crash.
Gothic: Visually spectacular view of the creation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The debauched lifestyle of the marginally sane provides an excellent model for the Sabbat's Toreador.

Serpents of the Light

The Exorcist
Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola's version): In this chronicle, Van Helsing would be a good Serpent of the Light.

Assamite Antitribu

Apocalypse Now: Make up your own mind as to who represents the antitribu in this movie.
Sniper: Freud would love this: the only way to thrive, is to destroy your mentor.