The pandemic shut down outdoor film shoots for months, but now the production trucks and crews are back and some New Yorkers are soaking it all in.
Ashley Psirogianes, a 26-year-old who works in fashion marketing, is a big “Sex and the City” fan. “I’ve been watching it a lot during lockdown,” she said. “I rewatched all the old episodes.” So on a Tuesday morning in July, during an ordinary coffee run to Starbucks, she was surprised, thrilled even, to run into the cast and crew making the reboot. The team of hundreds of people were taking over Crosby Street in between Prince and Spring. No one was allowed on the street unless they lived there or had business dealings that day. A crowd had gathered to catch a glimpse of Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Sarah Jessica Parker, and speculate over what was happening in the scene (Miranda’s hair is blonde! Was Charlotte not wearing her wedding ring?) “I just walked around the corner, and there they were,” Ms. Psirogianes said. “I got a peek of them right before they went to lunch.” As someone who lived a few blocks away, she was excited to have such valuable intel to share. “My group chats were all blowing up,” she said. “A bunch of my friends work in the area, so everyone was trying to walk by, trying to get a glimpse of them.” But it also made her feel like SoHo and New York City, more broadly, was back in action. “It’s really cool they are starting things like this again,” she said. Well into the second year of the pandemic, New York City streets are once again alive with the buzz of movie and television filmings. In 2019, the film and television industry supported approximately 185,000 jobs, $18.1 billion in wages, and $81.6 billion in total economic output in the city, according to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Last year, however, all film permits were suspended on March 21 and did not resume until July 1. This year, in April and May alone, there were around 360 projects. In 2020, there were a total of 732 film and television projects shot in the city, a significant decrease from the 2,214 projects in 2019. Even with the recent return of activity, the Mayor’s office does not anticipate this year’s number to match 2019 levels. Film crews take over streets and city corners for days at a time, crowding the spaces with trailers and trucks and limiting cars from parking and pedestrians from walking. While some residents who live in the area complain about the hubbub or lack of parking spaces, many others delight in living in a movie set for a short time. Some lucky New Yorkers are asked to be extras or are paid by the production crews to do small, helpful tasks like keeping a particular light on or off in their apartment. The pandemic has either made living on the street where a filming is taking place a delight or a terrifying experience. Some people panic at the sights of large crews descending on their block. Others find it exhilarating to be part of this action after such a quiet year. Back at the end of March, plays, concerts, and other performances were still banned in New York City. But Kate Walter,72, an author and retired college professor, appreciated the live entertainment just outside her door. The cast and crew of the Amazon television series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, ” about a Jewish housewife in the late 1950s who becomes a stand-up comedian, was filming season four on the streets of the West Village where she lives. They were using the courtyard of Ms. Walker’s apartment building, on Bethune between Washington Street and West Street, for hair and makeup. For several days she watched actors going in and out of trailers, the women getting decked out in pencil skirts and pearls, and the men in vintage suits and fedoras. “It was so funny because they were all wearing these ’50s outfits with masks,” she said.
