The dozens of film crews shooting building facades and Manhattan street scenes for movies and television shows don’t need brokers to make their exterior arrangements, but it’s a different story when the action moves indoors.
Prudential Douglas Elliman and Sotheby’s International Realty are two real estate companies that work with the city’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, arranging interior locations with production companies for films and TV shows that use Manhattan as their setting.
Both count “Law & Order,” the ubiquitous crime drama that’s has been on the air for 15 years (casting legions of aspiring New York actors as extras), as a client.
Sotheby’s film location program launched seven months ago, and has a client list that counts mainstream studios such as Warner Brothers and small independent outfits such as Trigger Street productions, according to program director Laura Wagner. She got Sotheby’s into show business after leaving the William B. May Company, where she started a similar division.
A list of properties available for filming can be found on the Sotheby’s Web site, and Wagner said her properties in greatest demand include a gallery and theater space in the meatpacking district, a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, a mansion on the Upper West Side and a landmark firehouse in Lower Manhattan.
Douglas Elliman officially began offering its film location services two years ago, and has found locations for “Sex and the City” and “Third Watch” as well as “Law & Order,” according to Adrienne Cleere, who heads the business unit. In the past year, Elliman has worked with production crews for the movie version of the hit play, “The Producers,” as well as the movie “The Interpreter,” both of which are currently being filmed in Manhattan.
Cleere’s busiest properties include highrise lofts (in scarce supply in Manhattan), townhouses, and apartments overlooking Central Park. Large one-bedroom apartments, with enough room for production crews, are also in high demand.
While most properties survive their invasions by lights and lenses, and are heavily insured throughout filming, Cleere says there’s no business like show business for unpredictability. She recalls how a door was accidentally blown off an Upper East Side townhouse that was the shooting site of a “Third Watch” episode guest starring Ann-Margaret as Judge Barbara Halstead.
While small mishaps have occurred during the filming process, Cleere assures her homeowners that their homes will remain unharmed while they are being used. Most owners’ only reminders of their properties star turns is during reruns.