The Big Apple is even bigger onscreen. With about 100 TV shows made here annually and 276 movies shot last year, New York reigns on celluloid.
BRIGHT lights, rolling cameras, non-stop action; this city is a blockbuster hit itself in the starry, starry world of TV and films.
From classics such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s to NBC studio's late night comedy Saturday Night Live, Gotham is the most filmed city in the world.
“This is a US$5bil (RM17bil) a year industry, employing some 100,000 workers,” said commissioner Katherine Oliver of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB).
King Kong scaled the Empire State Building here. And Spider-Man fans can’t possibly forget Uncle Ben telling Peter Parker outside the New York Public Library that “with great power, comes great responsibility.”
The 2003 Bollywood film Kal Ho Naa Ho, which is the fourth-highest grossing Indian movie to date, was shot in the borough of Queens, where there is a huge Asian population.
“There used to be many productions which faked New York in their movies but we are changing this gradually,” Oliver told a group of foreign journalists last week. “Now, a lot of films done here are faking other cities.”
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed was set in Boston but made mostly in New York. Sex and the City, which Oliver described as an amazing postcard of New York, faked a big part of Paris in its season finale; most of the scenes were actually shot in the West Village here.
The opening credit should go to the MOFTB, which introduced an incentive programme that includes tax credits and free permits. Shooting in public locations such as parks is free. In other cities, like San Francisco, it could cost US$200 (RM680) a day.
“Films and TV productions that complete at least 75% of their stage work in the city will get up to 15% refundable tax credits,” Oliver said.
To support productions “from script to screen,” the city provides free advertising on phone booths and bus shelters to promote a movie launch.
“We also work closely with the police department to make sure traffic is flowing and pedestrians are safe during a movie shoot,” Oliver said. Such police assistance is free; and plus free parking, would save the productions US$20,000 (RM68,000) per week.
The MOFTB is incredibly accommodating as it believes that these productions are a great boost for the city. It even shut down for several hours Times Square for Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky in 2001.
Each year, at least 50,000 visitors descend upon locations made famous in films. Organised by On Location Tours Inc (www.screentours.com), there are four types of tours – Sex and the City Hotspots (covering 40 locations where the characters live, shop and dine), Sopranos Sites, Central Park Movie Sites, and the New York TV and Movie Sites.
The New York TV and Movie Sites tour takes visitors to the apartment building used in Friends, the bar in Coyote Ugly, just to name a few. Tour prices range from US$15 to US$40 (RM51 to RM136).
Plenty of movie trivia are served during the tour when the bus passes by notable sites.
The Devil Wears Prada made used of the St Regis Hotel; James Gandolfini of The Sopranos lives in Greenwich Village where Jennifer Lopez used to own an apartment in the same building.
“Jenny’s no longer on the block,” said tour guide Roseanne Almanzar.
Central Park, Almanzar said, was the most filmed location, and Plaza Hotel the most filmed building in the world.
She said the MOFTB would place “no parking” signs along the stretch where a shoot would take place.
Law & Order, which has completed 17 seasons, is a New York institution. CSI: NY, despite its name, is made mostly in Los Angeles.
“I’m so offended! CSI: NY is so slick. New York isn’t like that at all. New York is grungier,” said Almanzar, a native New Yorker. The current hit Heroes faked New York as well.
According to her, Sandra Bullock’s Two Weeks Notice in 2002 was pivotal in bringing back film production to New York.
“It was a big deal; it was one of the first to be filmed here after Sept 11.”
Last year, New York City recorded its highest number of TV, film, commercial and music video shoots ever, totalling 34,718 days.
Currently, at least 19 movies, 13 prime time TV shows, 32 daytime and late night shows are being produced.
It is never a wrap in New York.
