Film, televison, video, and photography Producers, Assistant Directors and Production Designers will surely find the NJ Film Location Scouts and Managers Directory a useful resource when working in the Garden State. Many of the film production crew pool in New Jersey are actually part of a greater five-state (New Jersey / New York / Connecticut / Pennsylvania / Delaware) and New York City media / production market and are accustomed to often working outside the actual state lines of New Jersey. Several unions and guilds are represented in the New Jersey production workforce, such as DGA and Teamsters Local 817 as well as others.
Hire a New Jersey Location Scout for your next shoot! You will be glad you did!
New Jersey currently offers these financial incentives to filmmakers, and the US Government has an incentive program as well:
20% TAX CREDIT PROGRAM
New Jersey offers a tax credit in an amount equal to 20% of qualified production expenses, available to production companies meeting certain criteria, chiefly:
(1) At least 60% of the total expenses of a project, exclusive of post-production costs, will be incurred for services performed and goods used or consumed in New Jersey
(2) Principal photography of a project commences within 150 days after the approval of the application for the credit
(I live in Clifton, NJ, which is in Passaic County) is a very viable resource for location scouts, location managers and producers of film, video and photo media, given its proximity to New York City (most, if not all of the county is in the NYC film zone), population density and subsequently, diversity of potential locations and other resources of likely value to production.
The film office is headed up by Deborah Hoffman, Director of Economic Development for the county. Deborah, if by no other virtue than her job, knows LOTS of people around the county and is well connected in the local business community. What this translates to is Deborah is the initial point person for “making things happen” if there is interest in making use of production and location resources in Passaic County. Deborah’s contact info can be found on the Passaic County website.
– Complete info here Moderator: David W. Schoner Jr. – Production Coordinator / Associate Director NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission Guests: Richard Hobbs (Rich Hobbs Locations), Mark D. McKennon (The Location Station), Tony Pemberton (Filmmaker), Bill Jennings (Filmmaker) Place: Montclair State University, Art & Design Film Area Calcia Bldg Rm 135 Date/ Time: Wednesday, February 2nd , 6:30pm til 9:15pm Admission: FREE
Interested industry professionals, students of all study areas and the general public are invited.
The Garden State Film Festival was born in 2002 after a chance encounter in a Sea Girt, NJ Grocery store by 25 year film industry veteran Diane Raver and the well known Hollywood actor Robert Pastorelli.
“Baristanet was born in May 2004 and soon after emerged as a leader in both hyperlocal blogging and the online citizen journalism movement….
Debbie Galant and Liz George, co-owners and editors of Baristanet, run the site, assisted in great part by daily editor Annette Batson. The biggest contributors to the site are our readers — their active participation has turned Baristanet into a true online community and the destination for breaking local news, airing opinionated views, and yes, poking fun at suburbia whenever possible.”
Montclair is very popular for filming iconic American suburban scenes due to its mostly traditional to contemporary local aesthetic and middle to upper middle class demographic. Montclair’s proximity is well within the local limits of all known NYC film zones and provides relative ease of access from Manhattan by film crews and photo crews. Montclair contains lots of dining options as well as plentiful shopping and other possibly production-related resources in Montclair itself and nearby, its northern New Jersey locale being a densely populated suburban area. The local government is knowledgeable and experienced with regard to dealing with production and filming. The Montclair, NJ Municipal Clerk’s Office oversees film permit applications.
Blogs like Baristanet, Brownstoner or Gothamist are very valuable for location scouting as they will typically contain recent very locally focused news, opinions (and sometimes even facts 😉 and often contain local photography useful for visual references of places or properties in the area.
brightly colored fall leaves are always gorgeous and usually help a location scout “sell” his / her exterior location scouting photos (if the script calls for outdoor locations and / or Fall leaves, that is 😉 although, depending on weather during a given Fall season, i.e. wind, rain (or lack thereof…) hail, etc., some Fall seasons are more picturesque and striking than others.
One’s geographic location can affect the existence of a classic picturesque Fall scene. You basically need plenty of hardwood trees. The Fall seasons you usually see represented on calendars and such are often from New England (in the USA…) I lived in the state of Florida for a time but don’t really recollect any spectactular Fall seasons, in the “picturesque calendar” sense, nor do I suspect Albuquerque, NM all of a sudden looks like NH come September / October ;).
Well, anyway, I was out walking around location scouting one day in the Fall so I photographed the Fall leaves below…
Wikipedia
Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, one or many colors that range from red to yellow. The phenomenon is commonly called fall colors and autumn colors, while the expression fall foliage usually connotes the viewing of a tree or forest whose leaves have undergone the change. In some areas of Canada and the United States, “leaf peeping” tourism is a major contribution to economic activity. This tourist activity occurs between the beginning of color changes and the onset of leaf fall.
