Bright lights, big gripes as filming comes to Nyack
NYACK, N.Y. – The village is currently playing a starring role in HBO's The Leftovers.
Lately, however, an even bigger drama has been playing off-screen as Nyack residents grumble that their neighborhoods are overrun with trucks, trailers and film equipment.
Complaints reached a peak last week during the filming of Louder Than Bombs. Producers selected the area around St. Ann's School of Religion on Jefferson Avenue and a stretch of First Avenue between Broadway and Franklin Street to shoot scenes for the $4 million family drama starring Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne.
Film crews showed up at 3 a.m. Wednesday, blocking businesses, commandeering streets and causing a headache for homeowners, who turned to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration.
"Only in downtown #nyack does a movie producer ask you to not leave your apt for another 10 minutes because they're filming on your doorstep," a village resident, Christina Wolfe, wrote in a Twitter post.
The movie is just the latest high-profile production to have set up shop in the village — a list that includes The Grief of Others, an adaptation of the 2011 novel by Nyack native Leah Hager Cohen, and indie drama The Skeleton Twins starring SNL alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader.
Local municipalities charge film producers for permits.
In Nyack, village officials said film and television productions bring in more than $250 an hour, or between $5,000 and $7,000 a day — enough money to repair roads and buy new playground equipment. They also generate excitement and buzz.
"For the most part, it's been very positive," said Mayor Jen Laird-White. "I think it's cool to see us represented on the big-screen. And from a tax standpoint, it definitely helps."
White said the Louder Than Bombs shoot was an exception, and that the majority of film and TV productions follow regulations on traffic, parking and the hours of filming is permitted.
The crew later appeared before the Nyack Village Board to try to straighten things out.
Speaking to The Journal News, producer Joshua Astrachan apologized for any inconvenience and said they would make every effort to limit the hassle to local residents for the remainder of the shoot.
"I know we wrong-footed a couple of people," he said. "Part of it was just the logistics of filming that day."
In addition to the permit fees paid to the villages and the money earned by homeowners and merchants, local catering, trucking and staging businesses can benefit by helping film crews on location.
But some residents and businesspeople said the cultural cachet and glitz of star sightings come at a price — hordes of technicians, noisy film trucks and klieg lights.
"Some people may love the fact the they can see Nyack in some films or series on TV or in the theaters," Cris Spezial, the owner of Nyack Gourmet, wrote in an email. "But this is my home and the place I run my business."
He added: "The film crews come and go, but we have to live here all year long."
Tensions between residents and production crews are nothing new.
In 2000, Nyack changed its laws when NBC took over a bakery and coffee shop on North Broadway to film scenes for the television show Ed. Village officials called it a "wrap" after one season because of traffic and parking problems.
Hit dramas like the The Leftovers have been drawn to the village's Anytown, U.S.A, vibe and proximity to New York as well as generous tax credits.
The HBO series, which follows a group of people left behind in a New York suburban town after the Rapture, was renewed for a second season in August.
The Leftovers has attained something of a cult following in the village. Fans like Brandon Beachamp, the organist and choral director at Grace Episcopal Church, watch to see if they can identify the locations in each episode.
"It's kind of like a scavenger hunt," said Beachamp. "You see a landmark like the Runcible Spoon and then try to figure out when they shot there. There's a deep pride that goes with it."