Movie Productions in New York

[Edward]

New York, Sure as Shootin'

By ROBERT DOMINGUEZ
Daily News Feature Writer

Get ready for the return of Hollywood-on-the-Hudson — and the glamor and disruption that comes when the city's neighborhoods are turned into movie sets.

Starting this month, the city will be the backdrop for a half-dozen big-budget movies shooting some or all of their scenes here.

Stars who will be waking up early and staying up late to work the streets include Manhattan movie icon Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez and Sandra Bullock. In addition to major studio releases, shooting will start on eight independent films in the coming weeks.

The feature films being shot in New York include:

"Analyze That." Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal reprise their roles from "Analyze This," the hit 1999 comedy about a harried psychologist (Crystal) and the anxiety-prone mobster (De Niro) he is reluctantly treating. Several scenes will be shot in the city in March. The movie is scheduled to open Dec. 6.

"Anger Management." Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson star in a comedy about a quiet, reserved man (Sandler) who is arrested and sentenced to an anger-management course run by Nicholson. Slated for a 2003 release, its New York scenes will be shot this summer.

"Duplex." In this black comedy directed by Danny DeVito, Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore play a couple plotting to kill the little old lady who lives upstairs so they can expand into her apartment. Production begins this month; it is set to open Sept. 27.

"Catch Me If You Can." Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio in the true-life tale of Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio), a con man who became the first teenager on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list (Hanks plays an FBI agent). Some scenes will be shot here in the spring.

"Chambermaid." Jennifer Lopez stars in a Cinderella story about a lovelorn woman hoping to find her prince by working as a cleaning lady. Filming begins in the spring; it opens in December.

An untitled romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock as a neurotic lawyer pining for Hugh Grant, her rich and handsome client. It begins shooting later this month for an expected Dec. 12 opening.

Production also begins in April on "Angels in America," a pair of three-hour films for HBO based on Tony Kushner's award-winning AIDS-themed plays. It's directed by Mike Nichols, with a cast that includes Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright and Emma Thompson.

"It's a healthy amount of films being produced for this time of year, especially with last year being an off-year," said Patricia Reed Scott, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.

"New York has always had the largest independent feature film community in the country, [but] it's good to see a lot of big Hollywood films being made here."

New York is also enjoying a surge in television series production. Twelve prime-time shows — including three "Law & Order" series, "The Job" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" on ABC, and HBO's "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" — are being produced in local studios. That's the most at one time in the almost 40 years since networks moved most of their activity to Los Angeles, according to Scott.

Several New York-based TV pilots are in the works as well, including "Queens Supreme," a law drama set in a Queens courthouse — it's co-produced by Julia Roberts' production company. There's no guarantee the test episodes will become series, or that once a show starts it will be made in New York, but it's an encouraging sign.

The heavy production schedule is coming off a lull that resulted from last year's entertainment business labor negotiations. Hollywood studios, fearing work stoppages by actors' and writers' unions, stepped up production in the first half of 2001.

The threat "made everyone stockpile [films and TV episodes]," said Scott. "So for six months nothing much was happening here."

Until now.

Some New Yorkers may bristle at how film crews disrupt neighborhoods — trucks and trailers squatting on valuable parking spots, the bright lights at night, the constant noise — but Scott said their increased presence this spring will provide a financial boost the city needs.

"Entertainment is a central player in the city's economy," said Scott of New York's $2.5 billion film and TV business. "The money spent here keeps people employed."

[i]Original Publication Date: 2/7/02

[Fabb]

How about the sequel of MIB ? Did they shoot that already ?

[KingKrunch]

Those are great news for New York.
The movies will draw back attention to the positive sides of this wonderful City and hopefully let people overcome the tragedy of 9/11.

[Kris]

Shooting In New York (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20040223/200/879)

[BigMac]

How about the sequel of MIB ? Did they shoot that already ?
The sequel was released in 2002. Actually, the climax was originally to take place at the World Trade Center.

[BigMac]

Celluloid Skyline is an exploration of two cities, both called "New York." The first is a real city, an urban agglomeration of millions. The second is a mythic city, so rich in memory and association and sense of place that to people everywhere it has come to seem real: the New York of such films such as 42nd Street, Rear Window, King Kong, Dead End, The Naked City, Ghostbusters, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, and Do the Right Thing. A dream city of the imagination, born of that most pervasive of dream media, the movies. (from Celluloid Skyline)

Celluloid Skyline (http://www.celluloidskyline.com/main/splash.html)
List of movies set in New York City (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_movies_set_in_New_York_City)

[BigMac]

New York Times
May 26, 2004

Hollywood Clobbers Manhattan. Again.

By RANDY KENNEDY

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/26/arts/26TOMO.1.583.jpg
New York suffers in "The Day After Tomorrow."

A gigantic wave swept across New York Harbor, nearly submerging the Statue of Liberty. Then it raged through the streets of Manhattan, destroying everything in its path and drowning or crushing tens of thousands of panicked New Yorkers in minutes.
When the waters finally leveled off, there was silence, and then a huge round of applause.

"Wow," one man said, clapping like a basketball fan after a half-court shot. "Wow."

Granted, most of the people at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday night who watched the premiere of the environmental disaster thriller "The Day After Tomorrow" had some connection to the movie or its makers, and they were generally applauding the stunning results of millions of dollars of special effects.

But still, it seemed as if a kind of moment, minor but worth noting, had passed in the city's post-9/11 history: New Yorkers were finally ready to watch Roland Emmerich destroy their city again on the big screen.

Mr. Emmerich, the director of this $125 million movie (which opens on Friday), has wreaked havoc on the city twice before, once with the help of aliens in "Independence Day" (1996) and two years later with a big lizard in "Godzilla." But those movies were made before the Sept. 11 attacks forced movie producers to rethink plots involving deadly mayhem. (After the attacks, for example, Warner Brothers delayed the release of "Collateral Damage," with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Los Angeles firefighter tracking down Colombian terrorists.)

But on Monday night an audience that included longtime New Yorkers like Sydney Pollack, Tina Brown, Andrew M. Cuomo, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Peter Boyle left the theater with animated smiles after the movie ended with Manhattan flash-frozen and encased in an iceberg, no thaw in sight.

Emmy Rossum, a lifelong New Yorker and one of the movie's stars, said she hoped New Yorkers would be able to enjoy the movie because, of course, it's just a movie. But also, she said, because it shows strangers in the city banding together to help one other, as they did after Sept. 11.

"It shows that there can always be hope," she said.

Thomas M. Hammel, a co-producer of "Tomorrow," a 20th Century Fox film, said that the makers were always aware that the film had no villain, unless you count very bad weather or general human disregard for the environment. Because of this, they said, they hoped it would be easier for New Yorkers to watch. (It is also worth noting that while New York buildings are flooded and frozen, none collapse in the movie.)

Paul Iaffaldano, a senior vice president of the Weather Channel, who lives in New York and Atlanta, said he was sitting with lots of longtime New Yorkers at the screening and noticed that everyone reacted almost with glee as parts of Los Angeles, including the Hollywood sign, were decimated by tornadoes.

"But we were all a little more subdued when it came to the New York scenes," he said, adding: "I have to admit, when that tidal wave came in, I looked really close to see if it was going to hit my building on the East Side. I had a little bit of personal reaction."

Darryl Spence, an unemployed telemarketer who had joined the crowd of stargazers across the street from the premiere, said he thought his city had been a stomping ground for cinematic murder and mass destruction for so long that it almost comforted people to see it back in that role.

"If people were squeamish, they wouldn't all be out here like this, going crazy over this movie," Mr. Spence, 42, said, as snow-making machines blew strange, apocalyptic-looking flakes over sunny Central Park West. "Look at them."

He added: "If the ice age comes again, you know, I'll deal with it. I'll get by. It's always something."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/26/arts/26TOMO.2.184.jpg
"Godzilla" (1998).

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

New York is making a comeback as film production ramps up

L.A. finds itself ever more vulnerable as TV and movie jobs shift to other cities and states.

By Richard Verrier
Times Staff Writer

February 16, 2006

Start spreading the news: After years of watching cheaper locales stand in for New York, the city that never sleeps has become a fierce competitor in the race to lure film and TV productions.

Last year was New York City's busiest production year in more than a decade — a remarkable comeback after a steep slump deepened by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In 2005, the city's location shooting days increased 35% over the previous year to 31,570, according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. That figure covers television and film shoots that are on location, not in studios or soundstages.

Although New York still ranks second in overall production to Los Angeles, where shooting increased 4% last year to 54,876 days, the Big Apple is gaining ground.

"New York has become a serious competitor for feature films and even television production," said Steve MacDonald, president of Film L.A. Inc., which coordinates film permitting in the city and county. "We need to be concerned."

New York attracted $600 million worth of movies and television programs and more than 6,000 additional jobs last year as a result of a new "Made in NY" incentive program that went into effect in 2005, said Katherine Oliver, the city's film commissioner.

Those incentives, which include a 5% city tax rebate over and above a 10% state tax credit, are modest compared with those offered by some states.

Nonetheless, they have given a leg up to a city that already is a major media center.

Many stories take place in New York, which is home to top writers and directors such as Martin Scorsese and to Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" franchise. Wolf's new show on NBC, "Conviction," is already shooting in New York.

New York's production gains come as Los Angeles finds itself increasingly vulnerable to poaching of production jobs by other U.S. cities and states, more than 20 of which now offer tax credits and other incentives.

Thanks to the weakening of the U.S. dollar, filming in Canada and other countries is less attractive to producers than it once was. But the rise of other domestic rivals has led California union and industry officials to push for state legislation that would offer tax breaks to productions shot here.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also has proposed waiving film permit fees at city-owned facilities.

In 2005, New York drew more than 250 independent and studio films and 100 new and returning TV productions, including "The Sopranos" and "Love Monkey."

This year looks to be even busier. Lisa Rawlins, Warner Bros.' senior vice president of studio and production affairs, said New York's tax incentives were "a significant factor" in her studio's decision to shoot six feature films there in 2006.

"Anytime you offer up New York City with added economic incentives you've got a winning combination," Rawlins said.

In the lucrative area of TV production, New York lured seven TV pilots last year, up from the typical one or two. This year, Touchstone Television is shooting four of its 25 pilots in New York, in addition to the popular series "Hope & Faith."

Again, New York's tax credits helped clinch the deal, said Barry Jossen, executive vice president of production for Touchstone Television.

Most of the shows and movies being shot in New York are set in the city, with a few exceptions. An upcoming Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson movie called "The Departed," for example, is set in Boston.

Although New York has long been a major player in production, which contributes $5 billion annually to the local economy, for years it was perceived as too expensive.

As a result, producers on a budget would often grab a few exterior shots of the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge and then take their production to another city.

Los Angeles has played host to innumerable stories set in New York. On TV, even series such as "Seinfeld" and "NYPD Blue" that drew their inspiration from the city were shot in Los Angeles. Similarly, "CSI: NY" currently shoots here.

On the film front too, New York often has lost out even on movies with the city's name in the title. When Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made the 2004 film "New York Minute," for example, most of it was filmed in Toronto.

"We were lucky if they were here a minute," joked Oliver, who set out to change that after Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed her in 2002. "We just want to have an opportunity to host the projects that should be here."

To stem the outflow, Oliver and top entertainment executives crafted the Made in NY program, which gives tax refunds on film and TV shows that are produced at least 75% in New York. Qualified productions also receive promotions on city bus shelters and the city's TV channel, and discounts on services provided by local vendors.

The city extends free parking and police services and waives permit fees for film and TV shoots.

The city has encouraged development of large-scale sound stages, such as the 280,000-square-foot Steiner Studios at the historic Brooklyn Naval Yard. Two other leading stages, Silvercup Studios in Long Island City and Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, are both expanding.

The changes have been especially welcome among independent filmmakers, whose small budgets used to make shooting in the city prohibitive.

"New York was never really a viable option for us because it was so expensive, but now these incentives have come into play, it's made it very competitive," said Randall Emmett, a veteran indie producer who is considering shooting several movies in New York.

Leslie Holleran, a producer on the upcoming Richard Gere movie "Hoax," agreed. The $25-million film, shot in New York last summer, will earn as much as $3 million in tax refunds.

In a city renowned for its red tape, Holleran said she had few complaints. "They bent over backward to try to make things work," she said. "It was a walk in Central Park."

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

[HeyLynny]

Hi there! I'm looking for any information on the location of filming for the movie "August Rush" in Manhattan. Filming began on 2/13/06. The movie takes place in Central Park, but I'm not sure if it actually will film there. I am looking forward to heading into NYC to see if I can spot any of the actors (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Robin Williams) and it would help if I had an idea where to look. Any inforamtion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Clarknt67]

Hi there! I'm looking for any information on the location of filming for the movie "August Rush" in Manhattan. Filming began on 2/13/06. The movie takes place in Central Park, but I'm not sure if it actually will film there. I am looking forward to heading into NYC to see if I can spot any of the actors (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Robin Williams) and it would help if I had an idea where to look. Any inforamtion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Kind of tough as they try not to let that info out cause gawkers can interfer with production. Here's a few suggestions:

The mayor's office on Television and Film may be able to help you out, but I'm not sure how forth-coming they'd be about releasing information (I'm guessing not). You could get tricky and try to make up a legit reason to need that info.

If you pick up Backstage or a Ross Reports (sold at newstands around the city) they are likely to the production office contact information, who may or may not tell you.

Papparazii WILL know. They usually tipped off by photo agencies like wireimage. Here's a trick, if you want to get all sneaky, you could call them and tell them you're a freelance photographer, they might tip you off where you can find celebs.

Read the NY Daily News & NY Post gossip columns when you get here. They often run pictures of productions shooting in town. They'll probably say where, and if they are shot there on Tuesday, it's a good chance you can still find them there on Wednesday. If they're shooting outdoors the good light time is short so go early, most productions start early and wrap the day's shooting early.

It's a very good chance they are NOT filming in Central Park, as many less crowded, less high-visible parks (like Prospect Park in Brooklyn) could easily stand in for CP for most casual viewers.

[HeyLynny]

Thanks for the tips! I'm going in tomorrow and I'll see what I can find out. I'm not getting my hopes up...but I'll see what I can find.

Anyone with any info please post!!!!

[Kris]

March 14, 2006
Bid to Lure Films Works So Well, It's Nearly Broke
By DANNY HAKIM

Spurred by tax credits from the city and the state, the film and television industry has become the fastest-growing employment source in New York City, creating 10,000 jobs over the last year and pressuring California to consider similar incentives.

The industry has grown so quickly since the incentives, which provide a 15 percent credit on much of a production's expenses, began in 2004 that city officials are now considering reining them in. Officials are concerned that they are too costly and often going to productions like "The Sopranos" that were already being filmed in New York.

Since 2002, the number of production shooting days in the city has more than doubled and the number of television pilots rose to 14 in 2005 from one the year before, according to the city. Now New York even occasionally stands in for other cities. Martin Scorsese's coming film "The Departed" is set in Boston but was mostly shot last year in New York.

But the good news for the city's film industry is a mixed blessing for the city's treasury. In 13 months, the city has exhausted the $50 million it had allotted for four years' worth of tax credits for the industry, while the state has used up most of the $125 million it has allotted over five years. It is not clear if new business spurred by the program is making up the difference.

State officials want to increase financing for the credits, but city officials, concerned at the overruns, are now seeking to limit the tax breaks. Under the city's proposal, television shows would get the credit for no more than three years, while there would be a cap to the overall city funds made available each year, according to an aide to of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's who spoke on condition of anonymity because revisions to the plan were still being negotiated.

One concern is that "The Sopranos" and the three "Law and Order" series have received nearly a quarter of the tax credits, the aide said.

The prospect of limiting the tax credits in New York has alarmed producers, studio executives and state legislators from New York City. They say states like New Jersey are now offering competitive tax credits of their own, leading to the kind of gamesmanship between states more typically seen for manufacturing plants.

"First of all, the 'Law and Order' franchise single-handedly supported production in New York City when there was virtually no one else here," Jeff Zucker, chief executive of the NBC Universal Television Group, said in an interview on Friday. "To penalize them because they were holding up their end of the bargain long before anyone else seems patently unfair. In addition, there is another state next door that is begging for the 'Law and Order' productions."

Michael N. Gianaris, a Democratic state assemblyman from Queens, home to the Kaufman Astoria Studios, said, "It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The city's position is, 'If it ain't broke, let's break it.' "

In a March 1 letter to Josh Sirefman, the chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, Ed Lammi, the executive vice president of production at Sony Picture Television, wrote, "If there were an interruption in that tax credit program, it would severely affect our plans to shoot a show in N.Y."

That New York is in a position to consider cutting back the incentives reflects a remarkable turnabout for an industry that was struggling locally just a few years ago.

Signature New York shows like "Seinfeld" used to almost always be shot in Los Angeles or somewhere more bucolic like Vancouver. The 1996 Jackie Chan picture "Rumble in the Bronx" was notable because its version of the Bronx was nestled among Canadian mountains.

Now, local studios are prospering. Silvercup Studios in Queens, where "The Sopranos" is shot, recently announced a $1 billion expansion plan that would create a sprawling new complex called Silvercup West in Long Island City.

Of New York City's 3 million private-sector jobs, roughly 100,000 are in the film and television industry, according to the city's estimates, and it pumps $5 billion into the city's economy annually.

This month, the state's Office of Economic Affairs said that New York City's job growth of nearly 2 percent over the last year was led by a 6.7 percent job growth in motion picture and video production and 9.2 percent job growth in radio and television broadcasting. Officials in Los Angeles are even considering sweetening their own incentives to counter New York's success.

Mayor Bloomberg has won praise among budget experts for his fiscal discipline as he grapples with swelling pension and health care obligations. And his administration says that it does not want to eliminate the incentives, only contain them.

"All I can tell you at this point is there are a wide variety of options that are being considered," said Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting. "There are a lot of ideas being considered."

The incentive program gives productions that do at least 75 percent of their filming in New York a state tax credit equal to 10 percent of a production's expenses, with the exception of the salaries of the actors and directors. The city added an additional 5 percent. People familiar with the program said it appeared to recoup its costs by generating new economic activity, but city officials declined to detail such figures.

Though $25 million per year was budgeted by the state over five years and $12.5 million per year for the city over four years, the money was drawn from future years, quickly draining all the allotted funds.

In January, Governor Pataki proposed making the program permanent and increasing its annual financing to $30 million, and allowing the city the option of budgeting $30 million a year as well.

State Senator Martin J. Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, said the Senate wanted to abolish any ceiling on the program.

"We've been able to take an industry that was leaving New York in droves and not only retain it, but build it with thousands of jobs," he said.

City officials are considering increasing the annual amount budgeted for the program, but because they want to put a ceiling on annual spending, their changes could shrink the city's incentives. Industry executives say that could force productions to go elsewhere, given the local costs.

"Historically, New York would have been last from a cost perspective even if it was first in the hearts of our creative executives," Mr. Zucker said.

But the credits have helped lure the industry. After the credit program was instituted, NBC hired its first senior television production executive for New York, Katie O'Connell. She has developed three pilots, including one based on Candace Bushnell's "Lipstick Jungle," and a sketch comedy series teaming a "Saturday Night Live" star, Tina Fey, with Alec Baldwin.

Lisa Rawlins, a senior vice president of Warner Bros., said in a March 1 letter to the mayor that productions like "The Departed," the Scorsese film, would have gone to Toronto were it not for the program. "These projects are directly tied to the ability of your city to compete," she wrote. An expenditure breakdown of "The Departed" said the studio spent more than $23 million over 75 days in the city, including $647,372 on hotels, $218,635 on car rentals and $11.8 million paying local workers, including carpenters and electricians.

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat, said, "Hollywood has learned the lessons that manufacturers did." Giving tax credits to a vibrant industry like entertainment can pay off more than other incentive programs do.

"In manufacturing, the jobs often don't materialize," he added. "Here, it looks like it actually brought productions back to the city."

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles has taken note. In a statement last year, he cited the incentive programs in New York, Illinois and New Mexico in calling for more incentives in California. "We cannot stand idly by while other states enact incentives to lure jobs away from California," he said.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[antinimby]

Deal in Albany on Budget Gives New School Aid

By DANNY HAKIM and JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: March 29, 2006

...The Legislature also rejected requests by officials in Mayor Bloomberg's office to curb tax breaks for film and television productions. Instead of cutting back the program, which exhausted its allotted funds more quickly than anticipated, the Legislature is proposing to expand the credits to commercials and increase the state funds available to $60 million annually, from $25 million, and city funds to $30 million from $12.5 million. The city can opt in or out of the program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/nyregion/29fiscal.html?pagewanted=2

[Kris]

April 30, 2006
New York City as Film Set: From Mean Streets to Clean Streets
By JOHN CLARK

OVER the last several years, New York has become a kind of permanent film set, a glorified back lot, replete with enormous trailers, groaning craft-services tables, blazing lights and barking production assistants. A partial list of coming films that were shot or are scheduled to shoot in the city includes "August Rush" (starring Robin Williams), "Pride and Glory" (Colin Farrell), "Perfect Stranger" (Bruce Willis), "Che" (Benicio Del Toro), "American Gangster" (Russell Crowe), "Michael Clayton" (George Clooney) and "The Nanny Diaries" (Scarlett Johansson).

It's a far cry from the lean days when the director Sidney Lumet shot Times Square through a car windshield for "Stage Struck" (1958) and filmed street dancers for the shattering finale to "Fail Safe" (1964). "I grabbed those shots at the end of 'Fail Safe' from streets around the studio, on 10th Avenue and 54th, where the Puerto Ricans sat on the steps in the summertime," he said in a recent interview in his small theater-district office. "We didn't have any money."

Now, of course, entire blocks would be shut down to film those exteriors. The city has changed along with the budgets and scale of today's studio films. Times Square, once home to drug dealers, prostitutes and beleaguered theaters, has morphed into a Mickey Mouse mall. The West 50's, formerly part of the notorious Hell's Kitchen, have sprouted condos, fancy restaurants and the Comedy Central studio. Nobody knows this better than Mr. Lumet, who grew up on the Lower East Side, around Second Street and Avenue A.

"When I was kid," he said, "you didn't dare walk on an Irish or Italian block, and they didn't dare walk on our block, which was Jewish. But that is gone. It's getting very chic down there."

It's gotten very chic almost everywhere in Manhattan. And while that may be good for those who live in the city, it's not necessarily a good thing for filmmakers seeking qualities that can't be found anywhere else. "As America has gotten more like New York, New York has become more like America," said James Sanders, editor of "Scenes From the City: Filmmaking in New York, 1966-2006," to be published by Rizzoli this fall.

Even as more and more movies and television shows are being shot in New York, the city that turns up on the screen is far more likely to be the teeming, terrifying, exhilarating, unforgiving New York of the popular imagination. Kevin Lima's coming film "Enchanted," for example, is about a peasant girl who is banished from her fairy-tale world to a New York that is both gritty and romanticized. As Mr. Lumet put it, "If a director comes in from California and doesn't know the city at all, he picks the Empire State Building and all the postcard shots — and that, of course, isn't the city." To many filmmakers, the postcard is all that's left.

David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, said: "There's been a sea change. I can remember well into the 70's films where there is the terrific sense of New York as being this adventurous place. Certainly if you go back to the 30's and think of a film like 'My Man Godfrey,' New York is a great, dangerous playground. Those films really had a sense of how jazzy and exciting it was to be in New York. I can't think of the last film I've seen that had that feeling."

Paul Mazursky, the Brooklyn-born director of New York films like "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" (1976) and "An Unmarried Woman" (1978), echoed this view: "I'm trying to think of the last good New York movie." (He's still thinking.)

For Mr. Sanders, the essential challenge facing today's filmmakers is: "Can you make character stories in a city without character? There is a sense that the city is an ordinary place."

To a large extent, the driving force behind the flood of productions is less creative than pedestrian: New York offers competitive logistics and cost efficiencies. There been a big expansion of studio space, thanks to facilities like Silvercup Studios in Queens and Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, and the state and city offer tax rebates of 15 percent to filmmakers who shoot at least 75 percent of their movies in New York City.

These new economies have opened the door for films that might have been shot elsewhere in the past, notably in Toronto, which has long been a cheaper substitute for New York City exteriors. In fact, the stories nowadays don't even have to be specific to the city: Martin Scorsese, a quintessential New Yorker, let the city stand in for Boston in some scenes for his next movie, "The Departed." (And some recent films set squarely in New York have been shot elsewhere, as when Peter Jackson used technical wizardry to reconstruct Depression-era Manhattan in New Zealand for "King Kong" and Oliver Stone repaired to a set near Marina del Rey in Southern California to shoot ground zero for his coming 9/11 project, "World Trade Center.")

Even now, though, shooting a big-budget movie is still expensive enough that most filmmakers need a good reason to shoot in the city. Robert Greenhut, who has produced more than 20 Woody Allen films and is currently an executive producer of Kirsten Sheridan's "August Rush," said that reason is often the city's character, which endures, even in muted form.

"New Yorkers' personalities are different than Chicago," he said. "It's a different kind of hard-edged. There's a certain kind of vibrancy and tone that you can't get elsewhere."

Mr. Greenhut, who recently presided over a scene in Irving Plaza that featured 300 extras, added: "The labor pool is more interesting than elsewhere — the salesgirl with one line, or the cop. That's who directors are looking for."

Traditionally, one of the most cinematically exploitable aspects of New York has been its reputation as a cauldron of organized crime, corruption and narcotics. The author and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi ("GoodFellas") said Hollywood reflected, or at least dramatized, this reality in the 30's with gangster films like "The Roaring Twenties." In the 50's, he said, it was "the corrupt city exemplified by 'Sweet Smell of Success,' " with its malevolent gossip columnist, J. J. Hunsecker. In the 60's, "narcotics arrive and the city becomes a horrendous place." The director William Friedkin memorably hammered home this point in 1971 with "The French Connection," in which the hero cop, played by Gene Hackman, is nearly as corrupt and brutish as the criminals he's chasing.

Eventually Mr. Friedkin and other filmmakers were deprived of much of this subject matter (unless they were making period movies) by, among other things, the success of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Of course, there's still plenty of New York crime, especially on television. "Law & Order" and the proliferation of "Law & Order" spinoffs are all shot in the city, but Mr. Sanders emphasized that the word "order" in these titles suggests that "crime is treated as an aberration, and it's corrected."

"Order" had another meaning in the New York of the 60's and 70's. It also referred to the social order, which was seen as threatened by crime and by transit, newspaper and garbage strikes. A slew of films, many of them black comedies, documented this period: "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), "Little Murders" (1971), "Death Wish" (1974), "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), "Taxi Driver" (1976). As the film critic Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker in 1971, "I doubt if at any other time in American movie history there has been such a close relationship between the life on the screen and the life of a portion of the audience."

The city, of course, has since prospered, as has much of the audience. As Mr. Pileggi put it, Ratso Rizzo, the slimy hustler in "Midnight Cowboy," "wouldn't be hanging around those Disney joints" in Times Square. Still, Mr. Sanders said, living in Manhattan has always been a struggle, at least for some people, and on-screen characters have been squabbling for ages about certain subjects — like New York rents. " 'Rosemary's Baby' opens up with a discussion that they can't afford the apartment," Mr. Sanders said of the Roman Polanski film from 1968. But it's worth noting that the most visually aggressive recent exploration of the subject, Chris Columbus's "Rent," was shot in no small part on a soundstage in Burbank; a fable about the eternal battle between bohemians and the bourgeoisie found its look on the Warner lot.

Certainly some local directors — in particular Spike Lee, most recently with "Inside Man" — continue to make movies that display an intimate knowledge of New York. And independent filmmakers, who have a long pedigree in the city dating back to John Cassavetes's first film as a director, "Shadows" (1959), have stepped in to tell small stories about daily life, or about figures too marginal to merit the big-studio treatment ("Basquiat," for example, and "Pollock," both about New York artists). The directors Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale") and Dylan Kidd ("Roger Dodger," "P.S.") have continued the tradition of depicting quirky, neurotic New Yorkers. The Tribeca Film Festival, which closes May 7, has an entire series consisting of 13 independent films about New York.

But many filmmakers have to burrow deeper or look farther afield for fresh perspectives on New York life. Mr. Mazursky has devised an idea for a New York film about, he said, "this old guy, somewhat like me, who goes back to New York and can't find it; he meets his old friends, who are doddering wrecks, and their kids, some of them doing well, some of them not."

Mr. Sanders foresees a new crop of filmmakers who will chart new territory in movies about the crosscurrents emanating from ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. "We are going to see the story of a Pakistani kid meeting the Hindu kid," he said. In fact, he added, because the very nature of the city forces people into close contact with one another, New York still transcends the malls, the box stores and the coming of Trader Joe's. "There is no rival for the life of the street," Mr. Sanders said. "You run into lovers, ex-lovers. There are so many ways for different kinds of people to meet each other. That has never changed."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

May 11, 2006
Expansion for Film Program
By DIANE CARDWELL

The city is planning to expand a tax incentive program for the film and television industry that was so successful it nearly ran out of money, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday. Created in 2005, the program set aside $50 million to cover four years of tax credits and other incentives for productions that do at least 75 percent of their work in the city. But the industry, which Mr. Bloomberg said generated about $5 billion in economic activity and supported 100,000 jobs in New York, nearly ate through that money in the first year. Mr. Bloomberg said his administration would work with the City Council to provide $30 million each year for the program, in addition to the $60 million the state has agreed to provide.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

AM New York
June 13, 2006

Movies

'The End' for parking perk

BY CHUCK BENNETT
amNEWYORK STAFF WRITER

http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2006-06/23876759.jpg
Even the sidewalks are crowded as crew trucks for the movie "Spider Man 3" line Broadway.

http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2006-06/23876764.jpg
No parking: filming.

Lights, cameras, feed the parking meter.

The free ride is over for film location scouts and some other key industry workers who for 40 years have enjoyed parking anywhere in the city without paying.

The Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, citing abuses of the privilege, has scrapped the free parking tags effective June 30, when current permits expire.

While shooting permits that allow film crews to take over whole city blocks will not be affected, industry insiders say the change will make their jobs harder.

"It will change, on a nuts and bolts level, how we go about our job," said Dana Robin, a local production manager with 24 years' experience working on big studio flicks. "There is a significant uproar."

Generous tax breaks have lured more productions to New York City -- active "shooting days" for film and TV doubled between last year and 2002 to 31,570. More than 250 independent and studio films were made throughout New York City last year, up from 200 in 2004.

But with this increase have come more gripes from the public over streets and sidewalks clogged with trailers, trucks and sometimes rude film crews.

"Every day is a balancing act between production crews and communities," said Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner for the city office that tries to lure Hollywood bucks away from Los Angeles and Toronto. "We want to ease the impact of parking in neighborhoods to keep the locations film friendly. Parking is a premium in the city."

Abuse of the parking privileges was another serious factor, Cho said.

The surprise move to end the parking perks caught the local film industry by surprise.

"What am I to do? Get six parking tickets and send them to a producer?" said Gary Gasgarth, a film production teacher at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. "At the very least, it is an annoyance and irritation that we don't need."

Location scouts have long been granted special tags to hang from their rear view mirror that allowed them to park anywhere. Scouts have to run around the city to find ideal indoor and outdoor locations. Set designers and wardrobe personnel also use the permits to ferry props and clothes to and from sets.

But not everyone was upset by the decision.

The neighborhood "will be very happy to hear this. They want their parking spaces," said Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3 covering the East Village, Lower East Side and Chinatown, where film crews are a common sight.

Copyright 2006 AM New York

[lofter1]

Signs (No Parking) are up for "SPIDERMAN 3" shoot in the area of Broome between Broadway / Lafayette to take place on Friday June 16 from 6A - 12 Midnite

[milleniumcab]

AM New York
June 13, 2006

Movies

'The End' for parking perk

BY CHUCK BENNETT
amNEWYORK STAFF WRITER



Lights, cameras, feed the parking meter.

The free ride is over for film location scouts and some other key industry workers who for 40 years have enjoyed parking anywhere in the city without paying.

The Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, citing abuses of the privilege, has scrapped the free parking tags effective June 30, when current permits expire.

Maybe now I'll be able to find an empty spot at a taxi stand, just before I am about wet my pants..:)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Grand Central Terminal as a set for I am Legend.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/2230/iamlegend01gp5.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iamlegend01gp5.jpg) http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3312/iamlegend02fi1.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iamlegend02fi1.jpg)

They had this post-pandemic desolate landscape thing going on 41st and 42nd Sts. Broken windows, cars covered in dust and dried leaves, weeds growing out of the sidewalk cracks.

Laugh out loud moment: During a break, pedestrians were permitted to walk past on the east side of 42nd. One of the crew said, "Please don't step on the plants; they're part of the set."