A 17th century French playwright once declared that all roads lead to Rome. In today’s 21st Century New York City, many streets, avenues and boulevards lead to film and video productions. In 2004 alone, productions in New York racked up 23,321 shoot-days. Here are some favorite locales.

Manhattan, the star of the show, leads the tally. The smallest borough—its 23 square miles is just 6% of the city’s 301—offers a boundless variety of moods and milieus: majestic office towers, luxurious townhouses, forlorn blocks, dead-end alleys, global finance.

The Upper West Side is a favorite locale. From the high W. 60s to the mid W. 90s (some maps say 106th St.), from Riverside Drive paralleling the Hudson, eastward to Central Park West, see tree-lined streets and grand apartment buildings, an unsurpassed array of vintage townhouses and brownstones, and of course bustling Broadway. The stately Greco facade of the Museum of Natural History dominates several blocks opposite the rectangular oasis of 800-plus Central Park acres. Westward, Riverside Park flows with just one gap (125th to 135th Sts.) from W. 72nd St. to Sugar Hill in the W. 160s—and is part of a longer green strip that terminates at the north end of Manhattan Island in Inwood Hill Park. To W. 121st, the park abounds in swirling pathways, river and sunset views, basketball and tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields, a skateboard arena, secluded niches, the 79th Street Boat Basin, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Grant’s Tomb at 123rd Street—and one of the city’s great, unsung construction feats, the massive stone retaining wall along much of the length that girds the pitch to the park beside and below the Drive. Within the wide Upper West Side swath productions will find a surplus of restaurants, stores and shops along Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues and four-lane two-way Broadway, and a picturesque diversity of 19th-to-20th century residential architecture along Riverside Drive and West End Avenues.

Central Harlem (officially, 114th to 156th St., from St. Nicholas Avenue to Madison Avenue) is experiencing another renaissance. Many circa 1900 brownstones have been restored; new housing rises; community gardens abound. Harlem is bisected by legendary 125th St., where the famous Apollo Theater has regaled audiences since 1913. Some blocks of and near 125th are now malled and multiplexed, even as facades retain fine old-world detail along wide boulevards named for Malcolm X (a/k/a/ Lenox Ave.) and Adam Clayton Powell (7th Ave. below Central Park). Productions seeking downcast environs, known wryly as UCLA— "University at the Corner of Lenox Avenue"—will still find them, as well as echoes of the great Jazz Age: the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom, 150 W. 138th St. at Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., Small’s Paradise at 7th Ave. and 135th St., and the original Cotton Club at 644 Lenox Avenue, at 142nd. Scope out Sylvia’s, the Lenox Lounge, and the large apartment palace at Graham Court. These and other landmarks of American and African-American culture are near arboreal and architectural gems such as Strivers’ Row on W. 138th and 139th St. off Frederick Douglas Boulevard, 130th between Lenox and 5th Avenues, and Mount Morris along the square of Marcus Garvey Park. Whatever the project, Harlem—and points northward, to Sugar Hill—has grace and grit to spare.

The villages of West, Greenwich, and East span nearly river to river, and from 14th to Houston. The homes and ‘hoods embrace brownstone, bohemian and barrio. The midtown grid ends at the northern edge of the West Village maze. From Waverly Place to Washington Street, Horatio to Houston, see period homes (Victorian, colonial, et al), iron gates and cobblestones, not far from the contemporary glass tower condos along the highway of West Street/11th Avenue, nor from the new bistros and clubs dotting the small, moody but rapidly modernizing meatpacking district just below the far end of W. 14th: Hotel Gansevoort, Pastis, Soho House, Meet, and Lotus, for starters. But don’t forget Hogs & Heifers, the rowdy and bawdy landmark known for bikers, beers and celebrity bras on the elk antlers. East in the heart of Greenwich Village presides New York University (NYU), from a core campus around Washington Square Park and The Arch, from 6th Ave. to Broadway, 8th St. to W. Houston, to far-flung satellite buildings. The classic, social heart of the Village beats between Macdougal St. and LaGuardia Place, W. 8th St. and West Houston. Farther on, the global East Village begins at the famous Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art at 3rd Avenue and St. Marks Place, to compact Tompkins Square Park at Avenue A and across Alphabet City, to end at Avenue D. The tableau of cafes, clubs, old tenements and ever-evolving life in this symmetry of streets is by turns upbeat and sullen. Vivid murals abound; gardens thrive; community organizations and extended families rule. Bright or brooding, it’s one of the city’s most vibrant and mysterious sections!

Years and decades before the ‘90s’ boom, the neglected section of SoHo (South of Houston Street, once called South Village, or the Cast Iron District) was zoned largely for the work and residence of artists. By now, mid to late 19th century buildings of fine pedigree, many of them former textile warehouses, have been converted: luxury lofts above furniture showrooms, designer boutiques and art galleries. Old cobblestones add texture and charm to such streets as Mercer, Greene and Crosby. Legions of young cosmopolitans descend on Broadway, Prince, Spring and West Broadway to visit venerable and new upscale restaurants and world-brand shops. A more laid-back residential/industrial section spans to the west, beyond 6th Ave. from Varick to Washington Streets. And on West Houston, near Varick, sits the blue-neon marquee of Film Forum, a leading venue for independent, topical and classic cinema. Revitalized SoHo is a unique domain, and is always a popular location.

TriBeCa—for Triangle Below Canal—passes south to Vesey Street (just above Ground Zero), and spans from Broadway to the Hudson River. By now, TriBeCa is well known as a main cog in the NYC production machine. Many stars and producers live or work here. Families, too. (Ergo, it is also dubbed "Triburbia".) Hungry indies, well-fed studio films and permanent companies work prep to post. Classic brick exteriors contrast but complement the production offices and creative media within. Several cobblestone alleys and streets echo bygone eras; add period cars, Fedoras and flappers to conjure up the Roaring 20s. Because of its hybrid beauty and creative vitality, TriBeCa is frequently a backlot. Now, fittingly, in the post-9/11 world, it is also the home of the TriBeCa Film Festival.

Consider also Chelsea; Clinton (formerly Hell’s Kitchen); the resurgent Lower East Side; Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters; and the fabled Upper East Side. Special mention is made of the unique, unoccupied and shoot-ready former Coast Guard station of Governor’s Island in the harbor. Southeast of Manhattan, its 172 acres—92 of which are both a National Historic Landmark District and a New York City Historic District—hold nearly 225 structures, including 18th and 19th century fortifications, pre-Civil War arsenal buildings, and Victorian and Romanesque Revival housing. They sit among trees, fields and lawns; the Great Lawn is 14 acres of grass. A 2.2 mile esplanade with spectacular Manhattan, Brooklyn and harbor views bound the island.

For decades NYC was short of studio production space, limiting local opportunities even during the indie film boom. At last, new, capacious and modern square footage signals that a mini-major film/TV company can shoot and headquarter here. Brain trusts and investors, actors, writers and crews, and certainly the locations, are all here in abundance. Now include facilities; nearly four dozen film, TV and video production facilities have been upgraded or built (www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/resources/studios.html). Nestled in Brooklyn between Williamsburg and Vinegar Hill is an industrial dynamo of WWII, the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard. Within it is Steiner Studios, a self-contained 15-acre complex of five sound stages totaling nearly 100,000 square feet—three of 16,500, one 22,000, and a 27,000, all with 35’ or 45’ ceilings—as well as production offices, design shops and post houses. A back lot is planned, and productions needing a "college campus," industrial or waterfront settings have a number of choices right at the Yard. A second building of up to 120,000 square feet may grow on the success of the first.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, across the East River from lower and mid-Manhattan, share history and architecture, and increasingly mix the industrial hulks of their past with current residential demands. In Williamsburg—subdivided into Southside (from the BQE and Navy Yard to S. 1st) and Northside (Grand St. to N. 15th and McCarren Park)—Hasidic and Hispanic, art and night-life communities thrive amidst a wide variety of enterprises in 1860s-to-1940s warehouses and workshops that many share with or near lofts, clubs and galleries. (A.I.R—Artists in Residence—is a sign on many buildings.) Everywhere a visitor can sense daily commerce locked in push-pull with alternative culture. Several north-south streets pass under the Williamsburg Bridge, and on their beguiling blocks one can glimpse lonely small-town corners; forklifts and fine restaurants; and upgrades to remnants of the late 1800s when Williamsburg was a pump of the U.S. economy. Stretches of Kent Avenue near the river offer grand Manhattan views— which soon may be blocked by high rises. To the north, in sprawling Greenpoint, once a shipping and shipbuilding center, several production facilities have sprouted in former warehouses or factories. Like Williamsburg, many edifices of this mixed-industry and multi-ethnic area are artifacts of vanished eras. Some blocks, like those along West Street near the Greenpoint Terminal, can be eerily deserted; others, at Manhattan Ave. are lively with commerce.

North of Greenpoint sprawls Long Island City and Astoria, Queens. Two facilities are mighty engines of film/TV production. Silvercup Studios is a former bakery, and Kaufman Astoria Studios (KAS) a pioneer film factory (where Edward G. Robinson, the Marx Brothers, and Paramount Studios began). Fittingly, KAS also houses the Museum of the Moving Image. Kaufman will be adding an 18,000 sq. ft. stage. Silvercup’s sister, Silvercup East, opened in 1999 with three 16,800 sq. ft. stages and two of 15,000. In the area, the facades of former warehouses and chemical plants now house other stages, design-build shops and equipment/lighting rental houses. There are vistas of Roosevelt Island and Midtown and Upper East Manhattan on the East River at Rainey Park and Gantry State Park in nearby Hunters Point. (Near the site of a planned Olympic Village.) Here also is a solo and incongruous green sentinel, the tallest NYC building beyond Manhattan. The area is accessible via the Queensboro Bridge, the Midtown Tunnel and Long Island Expressway. Just to the north, spanning Astoria Park is the overpass of Rte. 278/Triborough Bridge, and the impressive Hell Gate Bridge that bears trains above a swift-current fork of the East River.

Also in Queens: affluent Douglaston; picturesque 150-acre Fort Totten; semi-suburban Forest Hills; the industrial intensity of Maspeth; and the long boardwalk at Rockaway Beach.

Park Slope, Brooklyn, less than half an hour from lower Manhattan, is similar to the Upper West Side. A large tract of The Slope—once dubbed "the Gold Coast"—is a National Historic District, and is also rightly proud of the many elegant brownstones and townhouses on its tall-tree streets. The artery of 7th Avenue, from President Street to 14th Street, is a pleasant strip of shopping, food and cafes. Flatbush Avenue and Grand Army Plaza—near the Brooklyn Museum and Botanic Garden—anchor the northern end of Prospect Park, at 526 acres the second gem of city parks. It extends down Prospect Park West to 15th St., and within its hilly topography—sculpted by the landscape masters of Central Park— will be found one of the largest urban meadows in the U.S., stands of old forest, a sizable lake and many hidden corners. History-minded filmmakers should know that The Battle of Long Island, the largest of the American Revolution, was fought in and near the Park on August 27, 1776, and focused at Battle Pass near Flatbush Ave., on the Park’s present East Drive.

The tri-part area of Prospect Park South/Ditmas Park/Flatbush stretches south from Prospect Park and the Parade Grounds on serene, leafy streets, largely bounded by Ocean and Coney Island Avenues, and Albemarle Road and Foster Avenue. Here are found many fine Victorian, Italian Renaissance and other style homes with lawns and wide porches. A portion of Prospect Park South is a Landmark Historic District. Productions seeking early 1900s’ suburbia, where families now live in spacious splendor a dimension away from tight high-rises, should explore these wonders. A classic campus, replete with brick halls, green lawns and a bell tower will be found in Flatbush, at Brooklyn College.

Also in Brooklyn: for semi-suburban, sea town, old-world industrial, or small historic district, visit Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, Red Hook and Vinegar Hill. And see revived and trendy DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass); brownstone Fort Greene, and ever popular Brooklyn Heights and the unsurpassed Manhattan view from the Promenade.

Riverdale, Bronx seems a world away from NYC. Just north of Manhattan, bounded to the west by the Hudson River and eastward by the Henry Hudson Parkway, some of the area is a charming hybrid of city and town. Superb hillside homes, new and old, overlook the river; humbler abodes nearby are nonetheless a fine haven from the urban fray. Blackstone Avenue, Dodgewood Road and Ploughman’s Bush—names typical of serene suburbs—adjoin numbered, Big Appleized streets. Wave Hill House, amidst 28 acres on Independence Avenue, is a former residence of Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and other notables. Parties and receptions are held in the 1843 mansion and gallery; from the lawns and gardens one has sweeping views of the Jersey Palisades. North Riverdale has the lovely College of Mount St. Vincent. Eastward in Fieldston, a landmarked hamlet of Tudor and Colonial homes on well-trimmed lawns, is Manhattan College. The campus and section border Van Cortlandt Park and Route 9—known south of the Bronx as Broadway. Also, see vast Van Cortlandt Park abutting the Westchester County border; the grand apartment block rows along Grand Concourse; the classic subway el on White Plains Road; an early incarnation of NYU now called Bronx Community College, and its literary Hall of Fame; and the splendors of New York Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo near Fordham University.

Also in the Bronx: the industrial sprawl of Hunts Point, the seaside village City Island, the bay-view mansions of Country Club and Spencer Estates...

Staten Island, the western rim of which almost kisses New Jersey, is nearly a city unto itself. The third-largest but least densely populated boro has several golf courses, wooded tracts—Fresh Kills Park, for one—and a long seaside boardwalk beside Lower New York Bay from Fort Wadsworth Gateway National Recreation Area to Miller Field. The Historical Society of Richmondtown maintains old homes and a very old (1695) schoolhouse. In "rural" Charleston, near Outerbridge Crossing, grand homes on large plots adjacent to state and city parkland are less than two miles from oil terminals and with views to New Jersey across the Arthur Kill waterway. The Botanical Gardens and Snug Harbor Cultural Center are nestled near the classic older homes in the middle-class sections of Livingston and Randall Manor. Todt Hill and Grymes Hill, adjacent to Saint John’s University, are upscale communities. A Yankees’ minor league team plays in St. George, near the Ferry terminal and the Landmark Historic District, on the north shore facing the tip of Manhattan.

New York City has countless faces—and many more neighborhoods, parks and properties worth scouting in addition to those sampled here. Before doing so, call the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting at 212.489.6710 to learn what popular production areas are on the Hot Spot List (and therefore temporarily off-limits). Shooting permits and information can be found on-line: www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/index/index.shtml.

Finally, despite ongoing security concerns, New York City remains the world’s greatest and safest big-city host for domestic and international productions, and welcomes crews with the free permit and police assistance that thousands of television episodes, commercials and feature films have come to know and to love. Action!

Mark D. McKennon
The Location Station
Location scout and manager
Brooklyn NY 11215
(718) 768-5539 (917) 744-8730
scoutman12001@yahoo.com
www.scoutman.com