There is something about walking around New York City on a beautiful fall day that makes you want to take pictures.
Maybe it is the light. Maybe it is the architecture. Maybe it is the people. Or maybe it is because so much of New York already looks like a movie.
Take the 7 train through Queens and look toward Manhattan. The train curves along the elevated tracks with the buildings of Midtown rising in the distance. Walk through SoHo and you have cast-iron buildings, restaurants spilling onto the sidewalk, fire escapes, delivery trucks, pedestrians, bicycles and people going about their day.
Put a camera almost anywhere and you have a shot.
But if you keep walking, there is also a pretty good chance you are going to run into people who are actually making a movie or television show.
Filmmaking Is Happening All Around the City
New York continues to be one of the busiest production centers in the world, and a surprising amount of that filmmaking happens right out on the streets.
The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment recently listed productions including Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, FBI, Elsbeth, Dexter: Resurrection, The Morning Show, NCIS: New York and numerous feature films as productions working on the streets of New York.
That means the row of production trucks you see parked along a street may not just be another group of trucks blocking your parking space.
There may be a film set around the corner.
Look for the signs taped to poles announcing parking restrictions for filming. Look for cables running along the sidewalk, lighting equipment, wardrobe trucks, camera carts and crew members with radios.
Sometimes you can figure out what is being filmed. Sometimes you cannot.
That is part of the fun.
And You Never Know Who You Might See
Just this week, Dwayne Johnson was photographed filming Lizard Music in Brooklyn. He was so heavily transformed for the role, with gray hair, makeup and prosthetics, that you could probably have walked past him without realizing you had just walked past The Rock.
The film is being directed by Benny Safdie and also includes Rachel McAdams, Colman Domingo, Regina Hall, Jeff Goldblum and Alicia Silverstone.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel McAdams and Dermot Mulroney were also photographed in New York this week as production began on a sequel to The Family Stone.
That is New York.
You can leave your apartment to get coffee and discover that someone is shooting a television series down the street.
Watch the Crew, Not Just the Actors
For filmmakers, there is something even more interesting than seeing a celebrity.
Watch the crew.
Where did they put the camera?
Why did they choose that particular corner?
Where is the sun?
Are they adding light or taking light away?
How are they controlling pedestrians and traffic?
Look at where the actors are standing in relation to the background. Look at the lenses, camera support, reflectors and lights. Watch how many people it takes to create something that may eventually become only a few seconds on the screen.
You can learn quite a bit just by paying attention.
The street becomes a classroom.
Then Look at New York Like a Cinematographer
Even when there is no production crew around, New York gives filmmakers an endless supply of locations.
Walk through SoHo and look at the shadows created by the buildings.
Walk through Greenwich Village and look at the brownstones and narrow streets.
Ride an elevated train through Queens and watch Manhattan appear and disappear between buildings.
Look at reflections in windows. Look at people sitting alone in restaurants. Look at steam rising from the street. Look at construction sites, old signs, new buildings, bridges, rooftops and subway platforms.
Then start asking yourself a filmmaker’s question:
Where would I put the camera?
That changes the way you see the city.
You stop simply looking at a street and begin looking at foreground, background, composition, movement, color and light.
You Are Walking Through Film History
There is another wonderful thing about exploring New York with a camera.
You are walking through more than a century of filmmaking.
Somewhere around you, somebody has probably shot something.
The streets have changed. Buildings have disappeared. Neighborhoods have changed completely. But many locations that filmmakers used decades ago are still here, and new filmmakers are using those same streets today.
That gives New York a strange connection between filmmaking’s past and present.
A street can be part of an old movie you watched years ago, the location of a television production being shot today and the setting for a student film tomorrow.
Take a Camera and Go Outside
This may be one of the best times of the year to explore New York.
The temperature is comfortable. The fall light can be beautiful. People are outside. Productions are working throughout the city.
Take your camera.
Or take your phone.
Walk a few blocks somewhere you have never walked before.
Look around.
You might find a film crew. You might see someone famous. You might discover a location for your next film.
Or you may simply find a great shot.
New York has been photographed and filmed millions of times, but that does not mean your photograph or your film has already been made.
You still have to see it.
