[kyberneticka]

I've only lived in Los Angeles for ~6 months, but my understanding of what people accept as the "greater LA area" goes as far east as Covina, includes Santa Monica, down to Long Beach, and up to Santa Clarita. These are all rough estimations, depending on personal preference (which I've exposed here, I suppose), but it gives you a sense of what one might consider in trying to figure out where LA ends, and where the rest of Southern CA begins.

[thatcat]

If you include down to Irvine, then what you're describing is the "studio zone" or "thirty mile zone" (TMZ), where standard studio rates apply to film production as set by unions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_zone