SNOW!! (notsomuch)

The are filming Mr Popper's Penguins around the corner from my house.   

Snow is never that neat.  

Montgomery Pl looking from 8th Ave to
Prospect Park Westat 9AM. Calm

Montgomery Pl looking from 8th Ave to Prospect Park West
at 3PM.  Not so calm

I got yelled at for
using my flash

This is a big movie.  Jim Carrey has been spotted and Angela Lansbury is in it too.  


I have lived here for over 20 years and would find it hard to list all the movies and TV shows that have taken over the street.  This Summer it was Boardwalk Empire and In Treatment.  Maybe HBO was sharing some equipment by shooting both within a few blocks at the same time.  


When I moved in it was Smoke and Blue in the Face.  They both star Harvey Keitel and William Hurt.  It was written by Park Slope local boy Paul Auster.  Smoke was a great "little film" and you can actually see the side of my building in it.

Duplex was filmed on the next block in 2002. That spot it 2 short blocks from my house.  For a week a giant truck ran its engine 24/7 at my front door.  The guys that live in the house that Danny Devito is pointing to  had a huge banner on it thanking the Firemen of Rescue Squat 1.  (More than a third of the company died in the World Trade Center.)  I thought it was part of the set.  It was not.  It was the way the men in the house were trying to piss off the movie producers.    I heard they were offered $40K to take it down but they told Devito to got to Hell.  Nice.


The Age of Innocence was the first movie that I saw them make a block from my house.  It was cool.  I skowered the interned looking for a photo to steal by notsomuch  But I did find this interview with one of the producers.  Barbara De Fina in Wide Angle / Close Up liked filming in Brooklyn  

"We shot for three, three-and-a-half weeks. It worked out really well. It's a city where they've had a few movies, actually SCENT OF A WOMAN was shooting in the area, but not downtown where we were. They were very cooperative, we did a lot of big snow scenes, we closed streets, we put in dirt and snow, took out air conditioners and lamp posts and all the usual stuff, it worked out really well, though."

I don't know abut that.  First of all, Scent of a Woman was filmed in DUMBO, that is downtown.  Park Slope is Park Slope.  And she goes on to say how nice Brooklynites are.

The people in the city had at some point I guess decided to really preserve everything, and they buried all the overhead wires, and there wasn't that much work to do, it would have been impossible to do those scenes in New York City, for example, even in Brooklyn. People were very cooperative, and enjoyed having us film, and we used local extras, which is always helpful for the community, and we spent a lot of money there, and the people in the Town Hall especially from the day we arrived couldn't have been more helpful and happy to see us. I think we really enjoyed it, a lot of people were sorry to leave. It's a real town, it's not just some houses and a shopping mall — very interesting architecture and restaurants, and an opera house. There were a lot of people sorry to have to go.

Come on.   They taped signs to people doors telling them they were required to remove their air conditioners.  I remember that some old ladies were freaking out. They also towed cars to the middle of Grand Army Plaza and they got towed and ticketed for blocking the the farmers market.  We were glad to see them go. Anyway, they covered the street in dirt, then put bleached sawdust on it to make it look like snow.  They also had 3 or 4 dudes on cranes making more snow fall from the sky.  Big Production.

Thanks Fanpop

War of the Worlds was filmed all over Prospect Park and Park Slope.  This is Carroll Street as seen from Fiske Place.  I never saw the movie or Tom Cruse.  (But that Fall I beat his wife in NYC Marathon).

Thanks Hugh Crawford.

A year later they filmed Ugly Betty on the same block











In the Summer of 2009 I thought helicopters were landing in Prospect Park .  It turned out they were using a half a dozen giant fans to blow the duckweed off the lake so they could film A Couple of Dicks.  That movie was renamed and released as Cop Out with Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan.  Noboday Saw it. But I can tell you with confidence that they filmed on July 1st 2009 in Prospect Park because I documented it here.


In March of 2009 I had some snacks of the set of the "Untitled Nancy Meyer's Project".  That turned out the be It's complicated.  I like the fact that the producers brought in their own snow plows.

There were more.  I can't even remember.  I used to get really pissed off when they shut down MY STREET so they can make a movie.  I mean WTF, why don't they just build a set.  


Well I recently befriended a movie producer.  He asked me to look at a soap opera on TV.  They used sets.  Movies look much better than that.

Look, they even towed a car an moved it to an alternated side spot at a meter.  WTF

What is this.  That is the front of my house.  Last night my wife had to park 3 blocks away.  She left the house at 5am.  I took this picture at 9am.  WTF. What the Fuck.  Why do they have to do that.


Why, because if the trucks can't park there when they roll in, they will block up the whole street.  That is why. Anyway, at 3PM the cones were gone and that area was full of movie trucks.








and Why?Why?Why?Why?Why????


Why are they filming here, why in my neighborhood.  For the same reason I live here.  Because it is nice here.  Nick Carr said it much better.......




Well I found out why. I read this.  Nick Carr is a Film Scout that has a great blog.  Scouting NY

We’re really fed up in Park Slope with the constant film crews (and cops milling about when they could be doing more productive work). Is this because the scouts are so lazy they can’t find other locations? I really wish the film industry would get out of New York.

— Posted by Gerry

I’ll make you both a deal – get a bulldozer, tear down all the aspects of your neighborhood that make it beautiful and completely unique to our city, and replace it with bland, modern construction. I guarantee film productions will stop bothering you.

Here is my philosophy on NYC: It’s a tight place, we all share it, and if you don’t like sharing, you shouldn’t live here.

Two days ago, the most bustling portion of Fifth Avenue was closed on a busy Wednesday for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, undoubtedly annoying thousands of locals interrupted in their daily commutes and hurting numerous businesses. Every year, the same occurs for such events as the NYC Marathon, the 5-Boro Bike Ride, street fairs and so on. Yet somehow, life seems to go on. Meanwhile, that five-minute annoyance to you often means a LOT to the people who benefited from it.

That said, overshooting certainly happens, and if you feel your neighborhood has been inundated by filming, just call the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting, and complain. Ultimately, if enough shooting has been going on, your area will be put on “the hot list” – a list of streets that are off-limits to filming for a certain period of time. I agree, there’s nothing more annoying than having a pushy P.A. tell you to wait a few minutes before going down your own street. But you know what? He can’t legally physically stop you, and if you really feel like your 30 seconds are that important, go right by him and head on home.

Finally: Sorry, Gerry, but I disagree – the day the film industry disappears from New York will be a very bad day for the city, and I’m not just talking in terms of film jobs lost. If you weren’t born here, your impression of New York was primarily formed from movies and TV shows. I fell in love with New York when I first saw “Ghostbusters” at about 6 years old. Today’s kids are falling in love with it because of movies like “Enchanted” and “Night at the Museum.” Without a doubt, our industry promotes a tremendous amount of growth and tourism, and I promise you don’t want this prestige falling to any other city..

Once a year I shut down the city for my marathon.  On Halloween my kids shut down Park Slope. When the Mets win the World Series they will shut down Lower Broadway.  It is OK, I get to live here.