Taking Questions
Ask a Film Location Scout
Nick Carr, who runs the Web site ScoutingNY, responds to readers.
Following is the first set of responses from Nick Carr, who for the past five years has worked as a film location scout in New York, combing the streets for every type of locale imaginable for use in feature films and on television.
How does one become a film location scout? What would you recommend to people who feel they know most nooks and crannies in the city and would be interested in this career?
— Posted by Sarah K
Call the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and and Broadcasting, and ask for a list of movies currently shooting in the city. Then, send off résumés and brief cover letters addressed to the Locations Department of each film saying you would like to get some locations experience, and were interested in working as either a locations production assistant (on-set position doing mainly grunt work) or locations coordinator (office job dealing with contracts, scheduling, billing, etc.).
These are the two typical entry jobs into locations, and while you won’t be scouting in either position, you will learn a lot about how a movie works, what requirements are needed for a shooting location (easily as important as having a grasp of New York), and make valuable contacts. Once you’re in the film world network and have shown that you’re a reliable employee, the job offers will continue, and you’ll soon be scouting.
When approached with a location request, how often do you think “I know just the place” versus “I need to hit the road and actively look”?
— Posted by Jeff Keesee
While I rarely feel confident to say I know a perfect place, I usually have a pretty good idea of where to start. Most screenplays shooting in New York are almost guaranteed to have the usual array of locations we’ve all scouted for again and again — office building, luxury apartment, apartment with view of the elevated subway train, dank alley, etc. — and within the locations department, we pool a list of “film friendly” options we know from experience to start our search with. If the director passes on those, we do more research, eventually going neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street.
Personally, my favorite locations to scout for are those that don’t come readily to mind. I had to scout old train cars on one film, which took me to a collector in New Jersey who owns dozens of beautiful old cars. On another film, I was asked to find a castle to stand in for medieval England — you’d be surprised how many great options there are within an hour of New York!
What’s the best abandoned place in New York City you’ve discovered in your travels? (And is it still there?)
— Posted by L.W.
A few favorites: First, I love the building at 4 East 43rd in the heart of Midtown that is thankfully being saved in the next few years. Fort Totten in Queens, a former Army base, has some amazing properties, including a farm house in sorry shape. Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital also has some impressive ruins that have been dying for decades now. And the state of the old Boyce Thompson Institute in Yonkers is tragic.
But my favorite “almost-abandoned” property is Alder Manor in Yonkers — the inside is incredible, with a second-floor indoor pool and a main level that seems to recreate the Clue board game layout.
I have to be honest: when I first started scouting, all I wanted to do was get into as many abandoned places as possible. After seeing a few, the mystique quickly wore off, and I started to see them for what they are: once beautiful, vibrant buildings that have been left, forgotten, to die a slow, painful death. Sounds melodramatic, but when you see the typical modern construction in New York, it’s pretty depressing.
Have you ever found yourself in any danger while out scouting? Details, please!
— Posted by mary v.
I’ve never been directly threatened, thankfully, though I’ve run into my share of questionable situations. A few years ago, I went to scout a large rundown building in East New York looking for an apartment with a view of the elevated subway train (see Question 2!). I had spoken with the landlord, who assured me that I could photograph any of the apartments, and that they’d be very open to filming.
Only problem was, he hadn’t told any of the tenants. To make matters worse, it was a freezing winter day, and the heat had gone out in the building. The landlord took me around the building, literally unlocking doors at random and telling me to go in while tenants screamed at us for barging in, and hey, what the hell happened to the heat? The landlord just ignored them as if they weren’t even there, calmly telling me to take pictures of whatever I wanted as they hollered at us to get out.
Needless to say, we didn’t film there.
I work on Water Street and John, across from what still is, but will no longer identify itself as, the A.I.G. building. Frequently assembled there are the various trucks you see at movie shoots, yet I can’t imagine what fascination this area would hold for anyone; and it only becomes more of a corporate wasteland as you proceed down Water, toward the Battery. What are they doing here?
— Posted by Red Olent
I wish there was a more exciting answer, but Water Street just happens to be the largest and most permit-friendly place to park trucks when shooting in Wall Street, the South Street Seaport, or the Battery.
As a side note, if a shoot is in fact looking for a corporate wasteland-type building, the Battery actually has some of the best options in city. The wideness of the street allows enough space to actually step back and get the entire thing into the frame, whereas you less commonly see more than a piece of anything farther uptown.
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Any places completely off limits?
— save