If you can make it here…

louie ck subway
Louie CK filming at Randall’s Island Fire Academy’s Subway Simulator in 2013, from thecomicscomic.com

Hi, all!

Just to take a quick break from some of our longer posts, I came across this in the New York Times today and thought it was cool:

Popularity of Filming in NYC

I’m sure you’ve seen the crew trucks and food tables and, sometimes, vintage cars parked along side streets near FIT. Chelsea is a popular area for filming because it has lots of older buildings, bodegas with flowers, and it just looks “New York”. Shannen Lindsey, my student helper, says she saw “Gotham” near the Kaufman dorm the other day, for example.

The Ansonia residence-hotel, filmed in "Gotham" in 2014
The Ansonia residence-hotel (UWS), filmed in “Gotham” in 2014

I don’t know what your favorites are, but some of mine include “Person of Interest”, “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (go, Tina Fey!!), “Orange is the New Black”, “Inside Amy Schumer”, “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” , and “The Mysteries of Laura”.  Ok, and “Louie CK”, of course. Shannen Lindsey, and Rachel Emrich (two of our student aides) added “Girls”, “Broad City”, and “The Family”to the list.

NYC Strategic recruitment of film and TV projects

A break in filming "Kimmy Schmidt" in 2015
A break in filming “Kimmy Schmidt” in September, 2015.  Image by Steve Sands for Getty Images

 

 

 

In 2004, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg created tax breaks in order to make New York City more attractive as a filming location. City and state administrations pursued the entertainment industry for its revenue and job creation. Successfully: the industry has brought more than 4000 related side industries to the city as well. For the first time in decades, New York has become more popular as a film and television location than Hollywood. According to a recent study, New York’s entertainment sector has expanded by 10,675 jobs, or 25%. In the same time frame, California has lost 16,137 jobs, an 11% decline.

New York courts film industry away from LA

The popularity of New York as a film and production location was carefully cultivated. When Bloomburg initiated the program, the city provided free police presence on film sets, discounts for using local vendors, training to low-income workers as film crew assistants, and tax cuts to certain production-related expenses. Since 2008, the state of New York raised the tax cuts to 30% of many related expenses, creating a business boom that has many studios searching for space to expand.

NYC Booming Mecca for Film and TV Studios

poi at times sq
“Person of Interest” filming in Times Square, August 2015. Photo from dreamaboutlifeagain.tumblr.com

 

This sort of creative industry creates a wealth of potential jobs for FIT students. Production companies are taking applications for Summer 2016 internships now! I’ve put together some job site listings that specialize in the entertainment and digital video industries:

Backstage production-jobs listing

ProductionHUB Film, TV, Digital Media Internships

Internships.com NYC Film/Video Internships

NYC Film Crew Job Listings

Linkedin Summer Film Internships

Then, in my noodling around, I found out that Lucasfilms (now a division of Disney) is also hiring. I thought you might want to look up those internships or jobs as well:

Lucasfilms offers internships

Lucasfilms hiring for Star Wars jobs

The library has tons of resources to help you polish up your resume and present yourself well. We’ve put together a research guide to get you started:

FIT Library Guides: Careers

You can also do a StyleCat search on terms such as Careers or Resumes or Job Search as well.

StyleCat search

We wish you good luck and happy celebrity watching! Remember us in the library when you’re a famous director or producer!

(just in case you are curious, this last is the recent consultant report advising the city on the success of the entertainment-industry support and plans for the future: bcg-report-10.15)

Comments

3 responses to “If you can make it here…”

  1. Flash Michaelbarry Avatar

    Wonderful, thanks for this piece

  2. School film Avatar

    Am also a film producer and I find this helpful thanks,

  3. Noun Online Avatar

    Certainly, Chelsea always seem to the hire city for world filming! It’s almost and always amazing to see the vintage cars, actors and actresses, and so many people acting just a single movie. The work put to make one movie is huge!