There’s a saying when it comes to location scouting in New York City: if you can’t find it anywhere, try Staten Island. While Staten Island often fights for recognition amongst the boroughs that don’t require a ferry for access, it nonetheless features some of the most interesting and unique filming locations anywhere in the city….
Whenever I drive down Bay Street in Staten Island… …I always wonder about the boarded-up movie theater between Union and Prospect. Shuttered for over 25 years, this was once the art deco Paramount Theatre, one of Staten Island’s grandest movie theaters. Built on the site of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s childhood farmhouse, the Paramount opened in October,…
Last weekend, I was scouting some locations on Staten Island, and the last on my list was this church at the southern tip of the island. At first, everything about the 185-foot tall Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne seemed perfectly normal. But as I was taking some angle shots, something started to feel…off….
Last week, I was out scouting a semi-abandoned farmhouse in the outer boroughs dating to the early 1900s. After touring the main house, we came to this barn/shed in the back…
Haha, OK, very funny, Staten Island… Now where’s Jimmy Olsen Drive? I noticed this as I was driving down South Avenue in Staten Island last Friday. Google seems to think it’s Hughes Avenue – then again, they also insist on mislabeling the Perry White Memorial Highway as the FDR Drive, so what do they know?…
Director: I need an upstate New York lake. Foliage. Picturesque, secluded, quiet, and NO city buildings on the horizon. Producer: Scouts! Time to mobilize! But remember – you have to find the lake in the five boroughs or the unions will break my legs. Panicked Newbie Scout: Where are we going to find anything like…
When you first see it, 724 Todt Hill Road seems like pretty much every other house in the Dongan Hills area of Staten Island. And then you see the dinosaur:
At the corner of Richmond Ave and Amsterdam Place on Staten Island… …is a decaying graveyard known as New Springville Cemetery: The deteriorating fence alone gives a pretty good indication of what awaits inside: The first section of the cemetery is in decent shape… As you make your way back, however, you soon come across…
Sea View Hospital is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever scouted in New York, and I’m writing this post in part to encourage other film productions to keep it in mind for future shoots. Covering 350 acres of woodland on Staten Island and comprising of 50 historic buildings, Seaview was once the leading…