Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

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Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/9/09 at 11:05pm

I'm watching a Law & Order and the crime scene is right in front of the Marriot Marquis, and the AIDA marquee is up across the street, now my question is... do they close off the area? The street seems to be packed with extras.

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re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/9/09 at 11:25pm

I was in Times Square when Amy Adams was filming her entrance into the regular world via a manhole in Times Square. There were signs on lamp poles that said that they were going to film there.

I think that when they are filming in Times Square they don't use extras because Times Square is normally filled with people and it would cost to much and be too much trouble to rope off that entire area just for filming. They would usually film around the tourists there.

However, if it were another part of the city, then they would most likely close down the street.

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re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/9/09 at 11:31pm

Oh, because they scanned the street and showed spectators, and none were waving like you think the public would be.

That must have been quite an interesting thing to witness, the Enchanted scene. How did they do the man hole part? She didn't actually go in one, did she?

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/9/09 at 11:36pm

I've been on location at filming of LAW & ORDER: SVU, ENCHANTED, SPIDER-MAN 3, and some foreign film -- all in various locations of Manhattan (Central Park, in front of Sardi's, etc.). In each and every instance, they used extras and didn't just film candidly.

It's done this way often because you don't want spectators to steal focus, either by walking into the shot, noticing the camera and looking into it, etc.

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re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 2:27am

Agreed that they more than likely use extras for those scenes. I worked on a set for a short film once in the Village, and actually was put on traffic control one day. I had to make sure people would not walk through while we were shooting scenes. So, probably any set that uses outdoor shots has to do that.

The other thing about just having random people around while filming is that some people will not want to be filmed or might not be allowed to for various reasons. And, you have to respect their privacy.

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Updated On: 3/10/09 at 02:27 AM

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 3:04am

I don't think the privacy of a person randomly walking down a public street has to be respected much at all, as long as the camera doesn't linger on this person or make them the focus in some way so the movie could be said to be profiting from their image. Otherwise documentaries would be in deep ****, no? It really doesn't seem to fall under any of the privacy torts - but I could be wildly wrong about that. Statutes get interpreted all kinds of ways in actual courts.

Updated On: 3/10/09 at 03:04 AM

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 3:52am

Although New York is used to film plenty of things (it's the number one filmed location in the world), to the best of my knowledge the only time they've been able to actually shut down Times Square itself for filming was for Vanilla Sky. With a normal movie there are extras as well as wranglers making sure no one walks by who shouldn't be there. But I think for an area as difficult to maintain as Times Square, they just post the signs.

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 4:54am

They will often shoot those scenes at bizarre hours to cut down on the number of people to worry about...and just use lights to make it seem like daytime.

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re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 8:06am

If they shoot random people they have to get them to sign waivers allowing them to use their image.That is why on some reality shows where they show people walking down the street some of the passer-bys will have their face blurred. If they are using random people in the background you will see large signs posted that state they are shooting and by entering beyond this point you are agreeing to allow you image to be used in their production. Shows like SNL, LAte Night and Lettermen have those types of postings so that they don't get sued if they pan the audience.
When they shoot scenes like that they will have PA's on either ends holding up the pedestrian traffic you will usually see all the extras on their marks ready to go when cameras roll.

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#10

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 8:17am

They didn't close the streets when they were filming the bus scene in "Enchanted." They were filming that the same week "Lestat" premiered on Broadway. I was going to opening night and staying at a hotel just down the street on 47th. I walked past the movie set numerous times while running to Starbucks or taking care of some last minute errands. They'd only blocked off a small section of the street immediately around the set, but the sidewalks were open and clogged with tourists who were gawking and trying to figure out who and what was filming.

#11

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 10:22am

I know that when I was walking by the Enchanted shooting in Times Square, I didn't know exactly what they were filming until I saw the movie.

I remember that they put a circle of police barricades around the manhole and the area that they were filming. But, for the most part it wasn't large enough to close down the entire street and there were police directing traffic to move around where they were shooting.

Also, (now I don't remember if they did this in any of the scenes filmed in Times Square in Enchanted, it's been a long time since I saw the movie) But, one thing that they sometimes do is have the background blurred out, and have the focus be on the people that they are filming that way you can't make out faces but rather just have a bunch of bodies walking around.

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#12

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 11:01am

I would imagine that in a scene like those in Enchanted, you'd expect people to stop and stare. And in fact - that's what happened. Can you imagine how odd it would have looked if this Disneyland princess suddenly crawled out of a manhole (or a Disneyland prince jumped up on a bus with sword drawn) and NOBODY stopped and stared?

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#13

re: Filming a TV show on Broadway- closing the streets?

Posted: 3/10/09 at 11:11am

They're not just "real" tourists or "actual" tourists. They're "actual real" tourists. Impressive!
In the scene where Edward is on top of the bus, the people riding on tour buses next to him laughing and pointing at him weren't extras, but actual real tourists.

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