Lights! Action! Dim Sum!

The owner of a new film and television production facility in downtown Los Angeles hopes the fastest way to an executive’s heart is through his stomach.

“Work Some, Dim Sum” is the motto of China Stages, just a few blocks from Chinatown at 1100 N. Main St. The 120,000-square-foot facility is being touted as a place where producers can work all night, then feast all day at Chinatown’s many restaurants.

Owned by John Y. Wong, China Stages has already been used by production crews from “Die Hard 2” and the upcoming “Screwface.” When renovations of the massive industrial district building are finished, China Stages will be equipped with complete post-production facilities, screening rooms and a commissary. There is also enough space on the property to park 450 cars.

With production activity on the rise, Wong and his partner, Tony Amatullo, say they are confident that the $6-million facility will be utilized. But should the “dim sum” gimmick fail, the two might consider another food-related tie-in.

With Philippe the Original, famous for its french dip sandwiches, just down the street at 1001 N. Alameda, they could always change the name to French Stages and employ this motto: “Work Some, Dip Some.”

An Ear for the Future

While most of the rest of the music industry is giving digital audiotape the cold shoulder, at least one record company is trying to capitalize on the controversial technology as a marketing tool.

GRP Records, which specializes in jazz and New Age music from artists such as Diane Schuur, Chick Corea and Patti Austin, says it believes that its core baby boomer audience of 24- to 49-year-olds “love advanced technology (and) can afford and are interested in home entertainment.” To back up its hunch, the New York-based label has released a dozen titles in the DAT format. The tapes sell for about $20.

So far, GRP is the only label besides Sony Classical to market digital audiotapes. DATs offer the high-quality sound of compact discs by relying on circuits that electronically convert a sound wave into a string of numbers that all but eliminate the distortion found in conventional tape recordings. But most record companies have not issued digital tapes because they fear that the technology will encourage pirating and cut into compact disc sales.

A Novel Book Store

Book reviewers around the country are cashing in by selling thousands of complimentary copies of new books to the Strand Book Store in New York.

“We buy thousands of review copies a month,” said Richard Devereaux, vice president of the store that claims to have “eight miles of books on all subjects.”

If you sell your books within 90 days of the publication date, Strand pays 25% of the published price. This means, if a book you read and don’t want to keep sells for $19.95, Strand will pay you $4.98 to take it away. And, they pay the shipping costs to New York. Better yet, if you live in New York and have more than 100 books to sell, Strand will send someone over to pick them up.