Dear DR DakotaCelt: Earthquakes are, by and large, less dramatic than you have seen in the movies, particularly in California. For one thing, while there is constant tremoring, the vast majority of the tremors are too faint to be detected by humans. When the tremors are strong enough to be felt, most of the time it's a little jolt, and people look around and say "Oh, we must have just had an earthquate, tra-la!" and go on their merry way.
When the quakes are sizable, which doesn't happen that often, there can be some structural damage, but most buildings in California are built to withstand the shaking. This includes the film studios. If you've seen buildings falling down in films, it's because special effects wizards have designed sets to do that. They rarely fall down and go boom in real life.
This is not to say that buildings don't fall down. It's just that the buildings that fall down are usually located in Japan or the Middle East.
A side note: when I lived in California, which I did for most of my life, I rarely met anyone who was afraid of earthquakes. Now that I've moved to Delaware, I've met several people who are afraid of them. One of those people, Dixie (a front-end manager where I work) has repeatedly said how terrified she is of California's earthquakes...and then took a week's vacation in Las Vegas. They have quakes in Nevada, too! I had to laugh.
