At first glance, this small park in Sunnyside, Queens was nothing unusual. A child was running back and forth on a swing. Other kids were running around on the jungle gym and playing basketball.
However, upon closer inspection, I realized that the streetlight that had fallen to the side was actually a prop. So did a police car on the corner and a candlelit memorial at the entrance to the playground. The woman ran up the stairs screaming, “My baby!” she was an actor.
The cast and crew of the CBS police drama “Blue Bloods” invaded the park on a recent afternoon and converted it into a movie set. Actors Donnie Wahlberg and Marisa Ramirez, who star as New York City police detectives, stood ready. The authoritative voice was amplified by multiple walkie-talkies.
“Hush. Rolling. Background. And… action”
Film production is returning to New York City after a hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 and disruption caused by the writers’ and actors’ strike last year.
In the weeks since the strike ended, the number of permits issued by the city for projects filmed on public property has rebounded rapidly, doubling between November and December and continuing to increase since then. Last month, the city issued 389 permits for 88 different projects, including TV series such as “Daredevil,” “Law & Order,” “Elsbeth,” “Penguin” and “FBI,” and major feature films such as “Friendship.” did. ”
“Momentum is building,” said Pat Kaufman, the mayor’s director of media and entertainment. “It’s happening.”
Several large studios are being built around the city by developers hoping to attract a steady stream of film projects.
And efforts to encourage film and television production companies to choose New York over other cities or states received a boost recently with a move to expand the state’s decades-old film tax credit. Although the program is supported by the industry, it has been slammed by critics who say it is unfair. It’s a bad deal for taxpayers. A new report commissioned by the state government found that the tax credits are “at best a break-even proposition and are likely to be a net cost to the state.”
Still, film production generates an estimated 185,000 jobs, $18 billion in wages and $81 billion in revenue, according to New York City. And officials say the industry’s recovery after months of shutdowns is a critical part of New York City’s overall economic health.
For some film industry workers across New York, forced closures and strikes during the pandemic have been devastating.
“I was out of work for six months,” says Alan Pearce, an experienced cameraman who has worked behind the lens on several New York-set TV shows, including “Succession” and “Billions.” Told.
“It’s not like a vacation,” Pierce said. “I was very nervous.”
Rossana Rizzo, a camera operator who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, said it broke her heart to see her colleagues suffering. “I noticed people were selling things like photography equipment,” she said.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lizzo has worked on several New York-based shows, including “Pose,” “And Just Like That…” and “Russian Doll.” Her hometown looked different because of the strike. “It’s strange that a city without a film industry is so depressed,” she says.
Rizzo and Pearce pointed out that film production supports many other businesses. When the movie industry is busy, “everyone is busy,” Pearce said. “Restaurants, delis, hotels, stores of all kinds, schools, churches, rental cars, dry cleaners, lumber yards, etc.”
With its dramatic skyscrapers, distinctive bridges, stately brownstones, quirky rowhouses, and unique characters, discover why New York City has inspired creators with cameras for more than a century. It’s easy to understand why.
“It doesn’t matter which corner of New York you choose and whichever angle you shoot it from, it’s going to be interesting,” said Anastasia Paglisi, executive vice president and co-executive producer of Wolf Entertainment. “Law & Order” series and “FBI”.
“You get more in New York than anywhere else in terms of neighborhoods, different kinds of people, different socio-economic locations, parks, skyscrapers, water, etc.,” Paglisi said. Told. “Cinematically, it’s kind of a dream to shoot here, because it’s never-ending.”
(An exhibit currently on display at the Museum of the City of New York titled “You Are Here” explores everything that’s been produced in New York over the past 100 years, from classics like “Midnight Cowboy,” “Shaft” and “Ghostbusters.” From “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Joker” to new favorites like “Hustlers.”
Before the pandemic and the strike that lasted from May to November of last year, film production was thriving in New York City.
Production peaked in 2019, with more than 80 episodic television series and more than 300 feature films shot that year, according to the city’s media bureau.
A collaborative effort is currently underway to enable New York to compete with Hollywood in attracting television and film projects. A 266,000-square-foot development with a high-tech soundstage called Sunset Pier 94 Studios is under construction along Manhattan’s Hudson River, and an even larger 340,000-square-foot East End Studio is coming to Sunnyside. It is scheduled to be done.
Additionally, several new studios have been announced in Brooklyn, including two from Bungalow Projects, a real estate development company focused on building production facilities.
Co-founders Travis Feehan and Susie Yu have been working in New York for decades and recently explored studio space in Los Angeles to ensure their New York efforts are on par.
Many of the camera cranes and large LED screens used in feature films require very high ceilings, which are difficult to achieve in New York.
“If you compare a studio in Los Angeles or Atlanta to a studio in New York, New York is often much worse,” Feehan said.
“This is big, big, big business,” said Secretary Kaufman. “The more movies and TV shows that come here and use our city, our iconic places, all of it, the more we’ll have one more library to keep open on Sundays.”
Seeing New York on screen is also appealing to tourists. Companies like On Location Tours take fans to the filming locations of scenes from “Sex and the City,” “Gossip Girl,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and more.
In some cases, the connection to New York is tenuous. Following actor Matthew Perry’s death, fans laid flowers in front of a building used as an exterior shot on Friends, even though the sitcom was filmed in Los Angeles.
Even die-hard New Yorkers will admit that they love it when they see their city being used as a set.
Christine Bold runs @olva social media account that tracks filming locations, usually discovered and posted by local residents.
When film crews post brightly colored flyers to secure parking spaces for productions, “people see them and get really excited and want to share,” Bode said. “It’s like peeking behind the curtain and seeing a little bit of how movie magic works and what a movie set is like.”
In December, Ella Morton was lucky enough to find a set in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park neighborhood. “There were so many police cars there, it was hard to tell if they were real cops or if they were like TV cops,” she said. “It was kind of a blend.”
Suddenly, Morton was in awe. “When she saw this dignified woman dressed all in black, she thought, ‘That’s Mariska Hargitay,'” she recalls. “And I thought, well, damn, I just walked into this.”
Morton stood stunned as the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star was told what to do.
Although it was a short scene, it did not disappoint. “I saw her walk confidently from the porch to her car and that was about it,” Morton said. “Her golden captain’s badge was shining in the sunlight. It was pretty perfect.”
