A loft-style apartment in Manhattan was needed for a television pilot, and a very determined man named Dan Pollack set out to find one.
After an apartment hunt lasting two weeks, Pollack found a great penthouse unit at 304 Spring Street. That was after scouting out 23 Manhattan places including the Setai New York at 40 Broad Street, 455 Central Park West, two Trump buildings, 505 Greenwich Street, 169 Hudson Street and 51 Warren Street.
Although he knows a lot of great New York City locations, Pollack is not a real estate agent.
He is a freelance location scout and was assigned to find the residence for the main character in a Barry Sonnenfeld pilot, “All Rise,” which has not been released.
A couple of factors complicate his searches, making it different from the typical apartment hunt: The sites are often off-market and occupied. To find them, Pollack goes door-to-door in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey, talking to building managers, owners and renters. If the location is suitable and the people are amenable to filming, he snaps photos of it.
Although some movie and TV location scouts turn to real estate brokers to gain access to properties on the market, most prefer not to.
“We stay away from brokers,” Pollack said. “They don’t [generally] know the type of space we need.” Still, in his search for a loft space for the TV pilot, Pollack did enlist two brokers.
“Part of the problem is, it’s apples and oranges,” added location manager Rob Striem. He worked with Pollack on the TV pilot, on the movie “The Brave One,” starring Jodie Foster, and on two yet-to-be released films, “Revolutionary Road,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and “Duplicity,” with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
Brokers don’t consider the size requirements of an apartment — the rooms have to be large enough to accommodate the camera, crew and lights — sound issues, site lines and whether equipment can make it in and out the building and elevator, Striem said.
A couple of real estate companies, Sotheby’s International Realty and Prudential Douglas Elliman, have film location services and brokers specializing in that niche.
For the most part, Striem said, “I find that most brokers don’t really want to do this because it requires a lot of time and energy, for not that sizable a payoff.” He said it’s the same concept at work in the overall real estate market.
Plus, brokers charge a commission. And that’s on top of the fee that is allocated for the landlord, and tenant, if there is one. And for shoots in co-ops, there is typically a large fee — it could be $5,000 or $10,000 or more — that the board generally demands.
It can be a challenge filming in co-ops, for example, which make up the bulk of New York City’s owned housing stock.
“In a co-op situation, it’s the most complicated because the co-op board has the most control over what shareholders can do with their property,” Striem said. “You may find someone who’s dying to do it and the co-op board will thwart the deal.”
For big budget movies with big-name designers and directors, the scouting process is more laborious.
“In a movie we’ll labor over the details in such a way that it’s incredibly meticulous and specific, trying to evoke something that’s real,” Striem said. “We’re always looking for the Holy Grail in movies.”
For one scene in “Revolutionary Road,” a movie set in the 1950s, Pollack had to find a restaurant for an upscale power lunch. So he looked at Eleven Madison Park Restaurant, the 21 Club, Ouest Restaurant, Café Loup, the Women’s Republican Club, the Yale Club, El Quijote Restaurant and Jumeirah Essex House. The producer selected the Essex House.
Other locations he has scouted include apartments, parties, courtrooms (the city has to approve usage), hospitals and garages.
Specifically, he found a mini-mart for the New York-set movie “The Brave One;” rooftops for the “Bourne Ultimatum” and the not-yet released film “Motherhood,” starring Uma Thurman; a military community with a park nearby for “the Messenger” — an Oren Moverman movie with Woody Harrelson that is under production; and a trailer park for the upcoming movie “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke. (Pollack got chased out of one trailer park.)
“Every once in a while you use Craigslist, but mostly you schlep around,” Pollack said.
Pollack has an MFA in directing from American Film Institute’s graduate film school and has written and directed short films that have screened in various domestic and international film festivals.
Pollack worked full-time on the set of the New York-based TV drama “Third Watch” between 2003 and 2005, which gave him ample time to navigate the city.
“Third Watch was cool because you got to see some interesting places in the city,” Pollack said, like Coney Island in the off-season.
Once Pollack and other scouts hand over the photos of the interior and exterior of a location with a few notes, Striem handles the logistics before presenting the best location options to the production designer and director.
“It’s not just about everything looking pretty. It has to be feasible,” he said.
A native New Yorker, Striem said he appreciates that he can “preserve the image [of New York] in film, which is forever,” and forge a “more intimate relationship with the city.”
No matter how many sites he and his scouts see, there are always more to uncover.
“You’ll always find something new that’s been there for 100 years that you never knew [of],” Striem said.