Since I have no tips for today, I’ll instead point you towards a post I put up yesterday on examiner.com about Brooklyn Councilwoman Tish James’ quest to get some kind of recognition – a name change, a plaque – for the place where the bulk of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video was filmed.  (You can watch the entire “Bad” video over on my examiner post as well.)  Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in downtown Brooklyn wasn’t the only location for the shoot, however.  Does anyone know where the exterior brownstone shots were done?

Councilwoman James told me that Michael Jackson also filmed a video at the Brooklyn Museum several years ago (I couldn’t find any information online about Jackson filming a music video there, but he did cause quite a stir when he did a photo shoot at the museum for Ebony Magazine in 2007 – that’s most likely what she was referring to).  Councilwoman James told me she spoke with a Brooklyn Museum guard who had a conversation with Michael Jackson about the museum’s mummies, a subject Jackson was fascinated with.

Any other Jackson connections with filming in Brooklyn?

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn. Have a location shooting tip or some on location pictures? Please email Amy, or text the pictures to Amy@FilmingInBrooklyn.com, or tweet the pictures to @FilmingBrooklyn.  Amy also blogs at SelfishMom.com.

The new plan also limits how long television shows can enjoy the credit. A show would get the full 4% for three years, but the credit would drop to 3% in the fourth year and to 2% the following year.

To me that seems completely counter-productive and counter-intuitive.  TV productions that show their commitment to the city should get more of an incentive to stay as time goes on, not less.  Productions that film here for years provide long-term jobs in a business where employment is largely transient.

What am I missing?  Why would the city create less of an incentive for TV shows to film here?

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn.  Have a location shooting tip or some on location pictures?  Please email Amy.

I just posted over on examiner.com about the Sorcerer’s Apprentice stunt car that lost control yesterday in Times Square, injuring two pedestrians.  I’ve watched the amateur video a bunch of times (it’s posted on examiner.com), and given what was happening, I still can’t believe that people were allowed to walk on the sidewalk next to the action.

I’ve been on over a hundred movie and TV sets, and people are almost never allowed to walk down the sidewalk as a scene is being shot.  This is usually for the sake of the picture, though, not safety.  I’m curious whether or not the producers of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice tried to get permission to shut down that stretch of Seventh Avenue to pedestrians or not.  The street was closed to vehicular traffic only, so either the producers wanted the camera to capture the crowds without having to pay extras, or the city decided that closing Times Square to pedestrian traffic would be too much of a hassle.  Either way, I’m sure the guidelines will be revisited now.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

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A couple of commenters on the brownstoner website confused the fire with the movie shoot.

Filming on the Nicolas Cage movie, based on the dancing broomstick scene from Fantasia, is scheduled to resume Thursday at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 9th Street.

Photo courtesy of IMBY.blogspot.com

Originally posted on Examiner.com

The Post article also reports that two local costume companies have had to cut back.  Odds Costume Rental had to cut its five employees’ pay by 20%, and Manhattan Wardrobe Supply had to lay off one of its seven workers.  This comes close on the heels of the announcement that Props for Today had to lay off 12 of its 42 employees and will file for bankruptcy.  Jeanette Oleksa, owner of Props for Today, said that the almost total loss of this year’s pilot season hit her company hard.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Ms. Klein hopes that filing for bankruptcy will help save the company. “I believe I will be able to implement necessary changes in reorganization in Chapter 11 and emerge as a much stronger, healthy company that will continue to be the leader in prop rentals in the industry for years to come.”

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

NYS Tax Incentives For Filming Still Lack Funding [Filming In Brooklyn]

According to Crain’s New York, members of the crew were informed today.  “We’re all fighting for our livelihood and nobody understands the rational,” said Beth Kushnick, set decorator on the show. “Why is there collateral damage when they don’t even have the word about the tax credit?”

You can read the entire Crain’s article here.  And if you haven’t signed the petition to restore the tax incentive, please do.  Thousands of local jobs depend on it.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Top Shows May Be Leaving NYC [Filming In Brooklyn]

The February 6th article in the NY Post spelled things out pretty clearly:

Since the program began, the state and city combined have issued $690 million in tax credits and have collected $2.7 billion in taxes from movie and TV productions, according to a study by Ernst & Young.

The study also found that during 2007, New York’s movie and TV industry created 7,031 jobs directly – and an additional 12,481 indirectly.

After reading the NY Post article, a film worker and a political aid started a Facebook page and an online petition addressed to Gov. Patterson, asking him to fund the tax incentives.  So far, about 11,000 people have signed the petition.

Filming In Brooklyn spoke on the phone with one of the petition’s creators, Alex Zablocki, aid to New York State Senator Andrew Lanza and candidate for New York City Public Advocate.  The petition’s co-creator, Derek Yip, works in the film industry.  Mr. Zablocki’s friend Anthony Pizzuto, who owns an independent film company in Staten Island, put up a website to support their campaign to help save New York’s film industry.

“I’ve been doing all I can, staying up until two in the morning sometimes and printing out these petitions and mailing them to the governor’s office, spending my own money” Mr. Zablocki told FIB (the tracking numbers are on his campaign website). “The governor has to decide whether or not he will put money into this fund so that it can continue”

According to Mr. Zablocki: “You can actually see that it’s not just centered in Manhattan.  It actually affects smaller communities in Queens and Brooklyn, all over New York City, so it has a micro and a macro impact.  What if the studio in Queens stops filming, how does that affect the neighborhood around them, the delis and the restaurants.   So to not fund this thing is just beyond me.  I can’t see how they could just walk away from this and say there’s not enough money.  If they can increase money for Medicaid and social programs, they could put the money into this program to keep people employed.  Especially at a time like this, when the economy is reeling.  This is not the time to be playing with fire like this.  It’s a shame.”

Mr. Zablocki continued, “Eventually what’s going to happen is, like all things, other states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Ohio, I think Quebec just did it last week, they’re going to raise their incentives to try to compete.  You don’t have a place to go?  We’ll give you everything you want.  Because it is such a successful program.”

Now more than ever, in this harsh economy, smart decisions need to be made, and made quickly.  Since this program funds itself, I asked Mr. Zablocki if he knew why the governor was waiting so long to make a decision.  He was as confused as I was. “The state legislature could always put a line into the budget and say ‘I think this program is important, let’s fund it.’  I think what’s happening right now is there’s so many issues in New York State regarding money problems that this is probably not on anyone’s radar screen.  This is such a downstate issue…a lot of the upstate senators and assemblypeople are not too in tune to what’s going on yet.”

Well, they need to tune in fast.  According to an article on Variety‘s website yesterday titled Golden State vs. Empire State, New York’s biggest competition may be a lot farther than New Jersey.  “California’s program, which goes into effect July 1, will likely strike at the heart of the New York production industry. Even though California’s tax credit rates are far below those in some other states — Michigan offers a whopping 42% credit — the presence of Hollywood’s existing infrastructure and the desire to stay close to home has the potential to reverse more than a decade of runaway production.”

The website of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development still lists the tax credit applications, with no mention of the program’s current suspention.  Empire State Development, which administers the tax credit through the Governor’s Office, gave FIB this statement:

In 2008, New York State’s film and television production tax credit was raised to 30% of qualified costs, which was three times larger than the credit it replaced.  More than 125 projects (feature films, television pilots and television series) have taken advantage of the increase in the tax credit program.  Due to the program’s enormous success, the allocated funds for this tax credit incentive have now been exhausted.

The State continues to receive applications for film and television tax credits, which will be placed in a queue should additional funding be made available to applicants qualified under the law and regulations of the program.

New York City will continue to accept applications for the NYC Made in NY five percent credit.

The New York State Film Production Credit is administered by the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, a branch of Empire State Development.

So what can you do to help keep film industry jobs in New York City?  You can go to the online petition and sign it.  You can join the Facebook group.  You can go to the Save NY TV and Film website and get help contacting your state representatives.  Let them know that this tax incentive program is good for New York.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

In a nutshell, thanks to the economy being in the dumps, the money for the state tax incentives that brought so many productions to New York recently has dried up, and the state legislature isn’t planning on deciding the plan’s fate until April at the earliest.  But waiting that long won’t wait for most productions.  According to the article, shows like Fringe, Damages, and Life on Mars are making plans to move if the issue isn’t settled very soon.  They can’t afford to stay without the tax incentives, and moving these huge productions to another city takes time – they have to make their decisions very soon.

This would be devastating to the local filming economy.  Not only would local crew members lose their jobs, but all of the businesses that the productions support would be hurt also.   Some film workers have started a petition to try to help save their jobs.  You can read and sign it here: Save New York State’s TV and Film Tax Credits

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

You can find out more info about the contest at FlightLipDub.com.

I found out about this contest from Free Williamsburg, a great site about…wait for it…Williamsburg!  FotC films in Brooklyn a lot, and often in Williamsburg.  And the stars are just about the friendliest to fans I’ve ever seen.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Conchords Fly On Vanderbilt [Filming In Brooklyn]

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It also backs up our premise that having productions shoot here really does benefit the borough and the people who live here.

Ms. Ryan, who recently worked on a pilot for Fox shot in Williamsburg, noted that it might not generally be cheaper to film in Brooklyn, but that “everything was more convenient and we were able to get a lot more locations shot in a day. Another plus, better and cheaper food options for the crew and half of the people working on set lived in Brooklyn.”

And the article ends this way:

And whether filming for YouTube, television or the big screen, film production has brought local jobs not just to out-of-town actors, but to Brooklynites. A partnership between the city and nonprofit Brooklyn Workforce Innovations has trained 150 New Yorkers for free to be production assistants over 13 four-week cycles. A new public service announcement that the Office of Film will start running next week thanks New Yorkers for hosting film crews in their neighborhoods. One version of the ad reads: “Rebecca is a camera assistant and lives in Brooklyn. She is one of the 100,000 of your neighbors employed by the television industry.”

“It was totally by chance that we started interviewing these people and the majority of them are living in Brooklyn,” Ms. Oliver, the film commissioner, said. “To your point about the creative community there, it’s amazing.”

Heading up the article is a picture from a recent Life on Mars shoot that was sent to us by FIB reader Frank G. Had they contacted me I would have given them the proper credit.

Check it out, it’s a good piece.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

]]> http://filminginbrooklyn.com/2008/12/05/the-observer-show-some-love-for-brooklyn-filming/feed/ 0 http://filminginbrooklyn.com/2008/11/18/help-save-lipstick-jungle/ http://filminginbrooklyn.com/2008/11/18/help-save-lipstick-jungle/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:57:44 +0000 Amy/FIB http://filminginbrooklyn.com/?p=979 I mentioned the other day that Lipstick Jungle had been canceled.  I had based this on reports from just about everywhere, all of them citing sources from inside the show.  Well, I have my own source inside the show who says that NBC has not told them yet whether they’re canceled or not, so reports of the show’s death may be premature.

I have to admit that I’ve never seen Lipstick Jungle, but I know a lot of people who love it, and I’m all for anything that films in Brooklyn.  When they’re not filming in their Brooklyn studio, LJ is usually on location somewhere in Brooklyn, often in Greenpoint.  There’s a brilliant grassroots movement underway to save the show: fans are sending tubes of lipstick to NBC/Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker.  The address is 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 2502-E, New York NY 10112.

Let’s all help to keep a Brooklyn-based production going, employing people and spending money in our great borough!

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

I’m a bit overloaded with interviews and screenings from the New York Television Festival, so I’m going to do things a bit out of order and jump right to Saturday night’s screening of Tuesday night’s episode of Fringe.  There’s really no sense in going to an advance screening if I don’t write about it before it airs, is there?  This post will contain my exclusive interviews with a few of the cast members.  Next up I’ll be posting a partial recap of Tuesday’s episode over at FringeTelevision.com.  And last I’ll post the post-screening Q&A with cast members and a couple of key production people back on this site.

The evening started with one-on-one red carpet interviews of some of the show’s main characters.  Sadly, neither Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv, nor J.J. Abrams could make it, but I was able to speak with some fabulously interesting people who also star in the show.

First up was Jasika Nicole, who plays junior FBI agent Astrid Farnsworth.  She’s absolutely beautiful in person, as well as incredibly enthusiastic.  She has the shortest bio of all of the main actors on the show, and seems to really be enjoying this moment.

Filming In Brooklyn: In the pilot you were mostly in the lab, assisting.  We want to know if your character is going to be more in the thick of things in future episodes.

Jasika Nicole: Oh my gosh yes. I know she was kind of ancillary in the first episode which was totally fine because there’s a really big story that they’re trying to get across.  But Astrid is so smart and she is such a smart alec.  And she has such a nice connection with Dr. Bishop just because she’s around the age of his son and he doesn’t have a good relationship with him.  And there’s a little bit of…he’s trying to educate me because I’m new at this and I want to learn things so Astrid ends up having a lot of tricks up her sleeve.  She’s really really gonna pull off some surprises within the season.  And I wish I could tell you more, but you’ll see.

FIB: Do you ever get to shoot scenes outside of the lab?  Do you ever get to go on location?

JN: Not so much. I wish that I did.  Because I live in Brooklyn and we shoot a lot in Brooklyn actually.  Which is really really neat and I would love to see more parts of Brooklyn.

FIB: Do you ever get grossed out by the things you have to shoot?

JN: You know, I thought I wasn’t [going to] because I’m totally into gore and blood and I figured if I could see the behind the scenes part it’s really not going to freak me out, but we did this one scene with an eyeball and I could not believe how real it was! I mean we did another one with a beating heart on a tray – it was just incredible! And each time the very first take is me going [sucks in her breath]!  I mean I really can’t control myself ’cause it’s shocking.  It’s so good. They’re really good about keeping it as real as they possibly can.

FIB: So there aren’t many special effects added to the lab scenes afterwards?

JN: No! There’s a lot of very in-the-moment stuff that’s happening that we just have to navigate ourselves around and act like it’s everyday work for us, but it’s still blowing my mind. Every single episode.

Next we spoke with Blair Brown, who starred in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd as well as about a thousand other TV appearances and movies.  She looked stunning in a simple black dress and jacket, and a necklace by a Brooklyn designer (she couldn’t recall which one).  She brings an incredible amount of depth and gravitas to the character of Nina Sharp on Fringe, whose life was saved by her employer, Massive Dynamic.

Blair Brown: Filming In Brooklyn?  We were just filming in Brooklyn the other day.  We were in an area called Ditmas Park on Thursday and the edge of Prospect Park and it was spectacular.

FIB: Have you been doing a lot of on location shooting so far?

BB: Actually all of my work has been on location except for one day at the studio.  But the best part about working in a place like New York is, I didn’t even know about Ditmas Park, and now I want to go back.

When we were shooting in the park the other day Joshua Jackson and I were shooting a scene, and we couldn’t see [what was going on behind us], but the crew was in fits of laughter. It was like the history of transportation behind us. At one point a girl on a horse came by, then a father  with a girl on a tandem bike, and then a young Hasidic Jew on roller blades. You couldn’t have planned to have those extras.

FIB: How far back does your character’s history go with the other characters?

BB: Well, I know John Noble‘s [Dr. Walter Bishop] goes way back.  I think we’ll come to discover that there is something there between John’s character, William Bell, and myself. That we are peers, and something went down. We’ll find out what that is. I think what’s so interesting is how J.J. [Abrams] plays with what’s happening on a macro scientific level and what’s happening just person to person.  And that’s really just the fun of it all.

FIB: Since the pilot have you filmed any more scenes with any other parts of you being robotic?

BB: No we haven’t.  But I’ve developed a glove fetish.

Next to cross my path was Mark Valley, who plays the recently deceased (or is he?) FBI agent John Scott.  If someone could please make sure that my husband is out of the room, I’d like to comment that Mark has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen and a jaw worthy of a Flintstones character named something like Rockjaw Quartzstone.

FIB: OK, all I’ve seen so far is the first episode, and we all know how things end for your character.  And yet, here you are…

Mark Valley: Yeah, I don’t know why they keep inviting me to these parties. My character’s dead!  It’s strange.

FIB: How far back does  your character’s history go with the other characters?

MV: I think the main character Olivia is going to find some things out about John Scott that she wasn’t aware of. Whether or not he’s a good guy or a bad guy. Who is he actually working for, is it Massive Dynamic or is it a government agency?  Is it the FBI or somebody else, we don’t really know yet. All in all I think John Scott is a very simple guy caught up in some complex circumstances.

FIB: Well, that’s how you have to see him.  You can’t see him as a bad guy.

MV: You know, I was watching this one interview with Javier Bardem and he had this one acting teacher who said [doing Javier] “You have to be your character’s lawyer.” So he’s innocent until…

FIB: Going back to the relationships between the characters, how far in advance do you find out?  Like are you told in the beginning that you have this history with this character? Or do you find out as you go along?

MV: Really the only thing you can count on is the script.  And the subsequent rewrites which are inevitable.  You don’t really get this lecture where somebody calls you in to their office, where J.J. [Abrams] says “Let me show you the special path of your character’s life.” What I find kind of interesting is that even if I did know that stuff, it’s more fun to imagine it.

FIB: But do you ever get to a point in a script where you say “Oh wait, I would have played that scene differently three episodes back had I known that this scene was coming, had I known that I had this prior relationship with this person?

MV: Oh yeah.  Yeah, that definitely happens.  But then again it kind of inadvertantly makes the actors’ performances a little more complex, because you think “Wait a minute, if that was that, then why did he act like that?”  And it raises even more questions so we all end up kind of winning in the end.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

It sure is pretty!

The listing states that the home offers a triple parlour, 6 fireplaces, and Tiffany stained glass windows.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Gossip Girl in Flatbush [Flatbush Vegan]

Flatbush Vegan Covers Gossip Girl [Filming In Brooklyn]