Obviously, following us, @olv, on Twitter is the one of the best ways to find movies and TV shows filming in NYC, but there are a few other things to look out for, on the street and on the web.
No Parking Signs
The New York City Mayor’s Office posts temporary No Parking signs on the streets of NYC about a week before a movie or TV show is going to film in that neighborhood. The signs let locals know they need to move their cars to make room for production trucks and trailers. No Parking flyers are usually bright orange, yellow, pink, or green so they can be easily spotted. They also list the name of the production that will be filming.
The most important (and confusing) information on the No Parking signs are the “shoot” and the “move cars by” dates. If you pay close attention to the flyers, you’ll notice the top date is the date by which cars must be moved off the side of the road. The second date is the date when filming will actually take place. Most of the New York tips I’ve received at OLV have come from readers who’ve spotted these signs, so be on the look out!
Popular Filming Locations
There are also a number of NYC landmarks that are used as filming locations over and over. If you can’t find out for sure where a movie is filming in NYC, these filming hot spots are a great place to start: The Plaza Hotel, Trump Tower, Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, Flatiron Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Battery Park, Washington Square Park, Gramercy Park, City Hall, Grand Central Terminal.
Neighborhood-centric Websites
Luckily for movie fans, there are plenty of websites that track what’s going in their neighborhoods, including upcoming film shoots.
BoweryBoogie.com and DowntownNYC.com keep track of all the recent happenings in downtown Manhattan. Evgrieve.com is a good resource to find out what’s happening in the East Village and MyUpperWest.com lets locals know what’s up on the upper west side of Manhattan. In Brooklyn, DitmasParkCorner.com, DumboNYC.com and BrooklynHeightsBlog.com keep locals updated on when streets will be closed for filming.
To learn more about about finding NYC filming locations, set layouts, filming schedules, and on-set etiquette, purchase a copy of OLV’s FIELD GUIDE TO CELEBRITY SIGHTING: NYC!
