nyc.locationscout.us

New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) | Truck Routes | …via Kurt Wittman (Thanks Kurt!

So… you are a P.A. trying to get a cube truck across the 5 boros OR you are a Producer, Assistant Director or Location Manager trying to get that P.A. where he / she needs to be with that vehicle …or a cargo van with commercial plates …or a tractor / trailer…

Other useful New York City area traffic links:

Nationwide:

Yahoo! Search: New York City traffic information

• DOT’s Real-Time Traffic Cameras |
  Live streaming traffic cameras from the five boroughs of New York City.
• New York Traffic Information - FHWA |
  Collected traffic resources for New York include real-time traffic condition reports, traffic cams, and maps as well as road construction information.
• Trips123 - Get Traffic, Transit, and Trip Planning Info in Real Time |
  Trips123 provides traffic, transit, and transit trip planning in real-time for New York, New York City (NYC), New Jersey, and Connecticut, as well as. […]

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Featured Location: Healthcare Facility 45843

Slideshow
Preview set on Flickr

The Film Zone Map above may not display correctly in some browsers. If the map does not display correctly, use the following link to the static page:
New York City area 25-mile local film zone map centered at Columbus Circle, Manhattan

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# update 8/1/2008 | added film zone map / updated timestamp | original timestamp = June 30, 2008 at 1:31 pm

Puerto Rico El Yunque Rainforest, Beaches & Hotel Guide

Elena: Location Scout, Photographer and Naturalist in Puerto Rico. Exotic Locations around Puerto Rico.

“Did you know? “…The east of the island is where “La Cordillera Central” starts and El Yunque Rainforest is located. Many films have been shot in this area. With five star resorts in the area and a short drive from San Juan, it is one of the best areas to shoot in”. . . Quote: the Puerto Rico Film Commission. See their website.”

…read the rest…

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Nevada Film Office

“In Nevada, every production is important. More than 600 projects a year including feature films, television series and specials, commercials and other media receive attention from the Nevada film office, be it assistance with location breakdowns and scouting, defining and managing logistics, intergovernmental liaison, resource gathering, materials provision, problem solving and more.”

…read the rest…

I was in Nevada in Nov / Dec of 2007 with Team Q-Spheres in the Las Vegas / Lake Mead area - here are some photos. Find out more about Q-spheres.

• Nevada is a paradise for all us location scouts and location managers

• Other Film Offices and related content on nyc.locationscout.us

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Google Answers has a great thread full of info useful if you are interested in having your property used for movies, film and photo and want to know who to contact:

“Subject: rental property for movies and tv commercials
Category: Arts and Entertainment | Asked by: cuccina-ga | Google Answers: rental property for movies and tv commercials: Q: rental property for movies and tv commercials ( Answered, 0 Comments )

Question | Subject: rental property for movies and tv commercials | Category: Arts and Entertainment | Asked by: cuccina-ga | List Price: $10.00 Posted: 29 Jan 2004 19:24 PST | Expires: 28 Feb 2004 19:24 PST | Question ID: 301666

Who to contact to rent your home to production companies for movies or commericals

Answer | Subject: Re: rental property for movies and tv commericals | Answered By: bobbie7-ga on 29 Jan 2004 21:13 PST

Hi Cuccina! How to get your home in the movies:

• Secure Production Permission - Make sure that production is allowed in your neighborhood. If it is:
• Contact your state or local film commission. They’ll help you get your home on the market for shoots. Or
• Get in touch with a location agent.”

…read the rest…

Also referenced at rrhobbs.com FAQS

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updated 5/9/2008 | added map, general cleanup | original timestamp May 22, 2006 at 12:43 pm

…via Robbins Locations (thanks for the invite!

NY Photo Festival 2008 | The First International Photography Festival in the United States

About:
“Photography, one of the most important visual media of our lives, has been surprisingly uncelebrated, particularly in the United States. New York City, home to the most influential commercial and fine art photography community, has lacked—until now—a large-scale event dedicated to photography.”
…read the rest…

• Tickets
• New York Photo Awards
• Curators and Exhibitions
• Events Calendar
• Sponsors
• Visitor Info
• Press
• Founders
• Contact

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New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Production Services Directory
“The Production Services Directory is your comprehensive guide to production related personnel, goods and services available in New Jersey. Search the category index…” …read the rest…

…Get listed…

…My NJ Film Production Services Directory listing (as well as listings of other New Jersey Locations Professionals)…

New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Website Headings
# New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Home Page
# About New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission
# Filming Regulations and Guidelines
# State Info - Weather, Maps…
# New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Location Library
# New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Production Services Directory
# New Jersey Filmography
# Now Filming
# Bulletin Board
# Press Releases
# Contact New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission
# Links
• Save New Jersey Film - at this writing, 4/5/2008, the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission is slated to be eliminated as of July 1st, 2008, per New Jersey state government budget cuts. NJ Film is responsible for economic development in the state of New Jersey by way of film production occurring in the state to the tune of $92m per year and is an invaluable resource for for filmmaking and production professionals statewide.
  · Support NJ Film / More Info
  · Contact New Jersey State Governor Jon S. Corzine’s Office

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• Eric Sherman : Location Scout
  home. sample photo gallery. directors list. bio & contact info. current jobs …
  (tags: locationscout california CA LA location+scout filmproduction)

• SlideFlickr.com
  Create and embed Flickr slideshows in 3 steps.
  (tags: flickr photos embedding presentations web2.0 tech mashups)
• Motion Picture Association of America
  Includes information on ratings system for both movies and television, press releases, and legislation.
  (tags: movies cinema entertainment reference MPAA Film)
• :: PARAMOUNT PICTURES ::
  The Paramount Motion Picture Group is part of Viacom which also includes MTV Networks, … Today, Paramount Pictures is the only major motion picture studio …
  (tags: movies film cinema entertainment Studios paramount television Video)
• Home - SMPTE.org
  An organization for motion picture and television engineers. Resources, job opportunities, conference info and information about membership.
  (tags: television cinema film technology TV Standards)
• Motion Picture Editors Guild - Welcome
  An entertainment labor union representing picture, sound, music, assistant, animation, technical directors, librarian and apprentice motion picture editors.
  (tags: careers editing film-editing filmmaking guilds unions editors post)
• Motion Picture Sound Editors
  The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) is an organization for professional sound and music editors who work in all forms of motion pictures.
  (tags: audio careers film sound sounddesign organizations)
• MPTV - The Premier Resource of Hollywood Celebrity Photographs
  With over 1.5 million images in our collection, MPTV has long been dedicated to the preservation, documentation and promotion of the fine work of …
  (tags: images people photographs film celebrities)
• Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio
  Since 1915, when the studio was first opened for business, an endless string of hard riding shoot-em-ups have been produced at this location. Monogram Studios made 750 “B” westerns before selling the ranch to singing cowboy Gene Autry in 1952.
  (tags: california CA filmlocations locations cowboys westerns southwest rances old-west towns sets)
• Total Immersion | Augmented Reality
  What is Augmented Reality (AR)? | Augmented Reality is the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and “augmented” by the addition of interactive 3D graphic objects.
  (tags: video 3d Augmented_Reality tech tv)
• Amazon.com: Our Smallest Towns: Dennis Kitchen: Books
  Dennis Kitchen thought it would be fun to visit each of the 50 states and take a picture of the entire population of the smallest community in each. …
  (tags: books Dennis-Kitchen photos photographers America culture)
• Appalachian Trail Lodge - Millinocket, Maine
  Located in Millinocket, Maine the Appalachian Trail Lodge is a family home that was originally constructed in 1902 as a boarding house and has hosted Appalachian Trail hikers since 1988.
  (tags: AppalachianTrail Maine lodges)
• Historic Speedwell - Morristown, NJ - Home
  Experience life during the early years of the Industrial Revolution and dawn of a new era in communications. This 7.5-acre National Historic Landmark site preserves the restored estate of Stephen Vail, proprietor of the Speedwell Iron Works from the early
  (tags: farms historic morristown nj locations rural morris -county parks)
• Gateway National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)
  Gateway provides abundant recreational and learning opportunities, from swimming, boating and fishing to team sports, bicycling and nature study. The nation’s oldest operating lighthouse, forts that defended America, and sites that trace aviation’s ea
  (tags: nyc recreation parks NPS National -Parks-Service Gateway NewYorkCity NY)
• Monmouth County Park System - Beaches
  Come experience the charm and diversity of Monmouth County Park Systems three beachfront areas.
  (tags: beaches parks Monmouth-County NJ)

The jury is (and may always be) out on the best solutions for digital file archiving and backup. What follows are some thoughts about same and some solutions I have been exposed to:

• This videoblog post by David Pogue for his weekly tech column in the New York Times arrived in my inbox and I started feeling like I should, probably sooner rather than later, think more about backing up my ever-growing archive of location photos and other data I use as part of my livelihood.
  Pogue’s Pages

  • Decoding Battery Life for Laptops |
    This is a story of truth, greed and the American Way. Oh, and also laptop battery-life benchmarks. Two things about battery-life measurements for lapt. […]
  • What’s in Pogue’s Travel Bag? Literally. |
    I’m always surprised at how many people seem to like reading about what hardware and software I use. Last week’s “Pogue’s Productivity Secrets” e-colu. […]
  • This week’s video: Pogue’s Battery Rant |
    David rants about laptop battery measurements.
• This post on TechCrunch got me doing something about it in an online way.
  TechCrunch

  • Twitter + World Of Warcraft=Tweetcraft | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 7:00 pm
    For all of you World of Warcraft fans out there, there’s a new Twitter client that is worth checking out. TweetCraft is an in-game Twitter client for. […]
  • Amazon Applying For In-Book Advertisement Patent | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 4:33 pm
    Before everyone gets in a huff, let’s consider Amazon’s intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be. […]
  • Interview: Karen Dyer, video game actor | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 3:51 pm
    Dearest CrunchGear readers: I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to Karen Dyer, who is not only the voice of Sheva Alomar, from Resident. […]
• Update 3/5/2008 - Mashable - July 28, 2007 — 04:50 AM PDT — by Sean P. Aune

  ONLINE STORAGE: 80+ File Hosting and Sharing Sites

  “From sending one document to backing up an entire business, data storage is the key to everything nowadays. Due to popular demand, we’ve put together a list of more than 80 of the leading file hosting services, many of which are completely free.” (…read the rest…)

  Mashable!

  • World Domination: The iPhone is #1 in Japan | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 4:40 pm
    Since the release of the original iPhone in 2007, Apple’s smartphone has been on a steady climb upwards, taking huge chunks of the U.S. mobile phone. […]
  • Obama: Does He Pass the Social Media Test? | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 2:59 pm
    He used social media and the web unlike any other presidential candidate in history. Barack Obama’s incredible online presence turned into a grassro. […]
  • 7 Spectacular Fireworks Shows on YouTube | Saturday, 4 July 2009, 12:48 pm
    They sparkle, they shimmer, they explode, and they come out every 4th of July: fireworks! It’s the Independence Day holiday weekend here in the U.S.. […]

Here’s the scenario- as a location scout, I deal with A LOT of photos- individually they are not unusually large files, but between scouting jobs and photos that people send me of their property, I look at and have to deal with organizing a heapo’ pictures on just about a daily basis! Not only that, in the location scouting biz, information is money so there have to be ways to access this visual information quickly(as well as the contact info and notes about each- but more on that later…).

The first place any photos go when I aquire them is a remote 160 GB Firewire (or IEEE 1394) hard drive pretty much dedicated to archiving location photos, shortly after which, especially if the photos were made for an in-progress location scouting job, they get uploaded to my Locamundo account for immediate use in an online location album and archived for permanent reference.

Call me paranoid but what if:

I have many of my files backed up locally on yet another local harddrive partition, but all these files on the same machine take up a lot of hardrive space. The cost is not such a problem in and of itself, harddrives get cheaper every day; however, all these files lying around in partitions on the same local harddrive(s) do nothing to help speed along more mundane tasks such as searching for files, whether they be related to location scouting scouting or not and really increase the time it takes for my anti-virus program to do its daily scan of my system. I defragment my hardrives regularly to help keep them speedy and healthy and lots of files make that go much slower as well.

Purchasing additional removable drives might be the way to go.

In “the real world”, the fact is, once my files are uploaded and keyworded on Locamundo, I may not ever need to touch them again, or if I do it is likely to be a long time before I do, but the fact remains that I cant just delete them.

Enter online storage solutions.

Right now I am trying out MediaMax Streamload. Streamload is the name of a Windows program ditributed by MediaMax which runs locally(on my computer) as a service and provides a secure network link to my private file storage account on MediaMax’s server. At this writing, MediaMax provides a free 25GB account, upgradable to provide more storage space. Then next upgrade level is 100GB for $4.95 per month, which is very affordable and which I might move up to as soon as I figure out why Streamload is hanging when I try to access the local folders where my files are located. I like the online solutions, they do backups on their end as well.

But…like I said, I gotta lotta files, it could be a matter of organizing them differently so the Streamload application doesnt cease to respond. Compared to local drives, an internet connection, from dialup all the way up to heavy-duty broadband connections are pretty lightweight. You can cram just so much info in a data pipe at time. It’s always something…

Update: After opening a free Media Max account and downloading and running the Streamload Beta, when I used it to find my files to upload, the program hung and had to be forced closed. Kinda defeated the purpose of using proprietary software whose stated purpose was to facilitate uploading large numbers of files simply and quickly. When I needed to do a restart my entire system hung. I rebooted to safe mode and to try and uninstall Streamload that way but its uninstaller would not work in safe mode. I had noticed that Streamload was running as a Windows Service so I disabled it there, rebooted normally and uninstalled Streamload. Summarily, it didnt seem to play well with my system, your mileage may vary.

Hmm, maybe there are some Bittorrent solutions out there? In addition to bittorrents typically taking a LONG time (this is my experience- again, your mileage may vary), they rely on a pool of people sharing a file to pass the pieces to each other and the Bittorrent app takes up recources while it is working- I dont wanna share my files with others and sometime I have to have a lot of programs open on my computer that I need to be running full steam- I sure dont need bog-downs and crashes trying to make a deadline! Still, gotta look into that a little more

CD’s/DVD’s you say? Been there, done that. Takes forever, ties up computer resources and the media (the cd’s/ dvd’s) data deteriorates over time. I have two crates of cd’s that I have used to back up files over the years and everytime I put one in the cd drive, if it is more than a year or two old, there is a good chance it is unreadable- corrupted. I have cd’s going on ten years old, I probably have a lot of files I may never again have access to. File recovery is VERY time consuming or VERY expensive. Remember Zip Disks and floppies? What a laugh!

IDE, Firewire and USB Harddrives have become very affordable so, as I mentioned above, this is a road I have followed as recently as the past year or so. Traditional IDE hardrives of very good quality can be bought very cheaply and the prices seem to continue to drop. Cases and USB/Firewire interfaces amke these drives removable and portable. These drives are fast. May be time to buy some new hardware.

I welcome feedback about all this so, for now, I am going to leave comments open for this post, something I rarely do, as I just dont have time (you see me trying to buy just a little time doing backups here don’cha?) to put into housecleaning blog spam. Akismet, do your thing! We’ll see how it goes…

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updates:
• 4/21/2008 update | added map / feeds / general cleanup | previous timestamp: March 5, 2008 at 8:13 pm
• Note: Post updated Sat March 5th, 2008.
• Note: Post updated Sat Feb 17th, 2007.

Crazy UFO Location in Germany! …via Locamundo …via creative location - Thomas Duchnicki:

click image for a better view

This location is kinda like a UFO from a 1950’s b-movie - wild, huh?…

Thomas writes, “Hallo Richard - Hi from Berlin, this UFO is near Berlin.”

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• new york is a friendly town
  new york is a friendly town | new york city through the eyes of a guy in the throes of a love/hate relationship with the city he calls home.
  (tags: photos NewYorkCity NYC blogs photoblogs)
• @LA Los Angeles
  Movie/Filming Locations in Southern California including Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County
  (tags: film filmproduction directories resourceslistings location-scouts location-managers producers production-companies LA losangeles CA california)
• Dale Dreher :: Location Scout and Manager
  Dale Dreher. Location Manager & Scout. Tel: 310/600-5020 Home: 323/777-3410. Los Angeles. portfolio · resume …
  (tags: location-scouts location-managers LA losangeles CA california)
• 303 Digital Filmmaking Solutions - Google Book Search
  by Chuck Gloman - 2003 - Technology - 386 pages | #1 1 How to Location Scout One of the most exciting aspects of a production is seeing the location for the first time. Your mind is wide open and you have a …
  (tags: location-scouting books Google-Books howto filmproduction reference filmmaking film movie)
• Location scout jobs | MySpace Jobs
  Job search for Location Scout jobs at MySpace Jobs. Take a look at our extensive number of Location Scout job listings!
  (tags: location-scouts MySpace jobs listings resources filmproduction)
• outside.in · location scout in Manhattan NY
  outside.in · location scout in Manhattan NY | Latest on location scout in Manhattan
  (tags: outside.in locationscout maps geotagging local news tags Manhattan NewYorkCity NYC NY location+scout location-scout location_scout)
• Property Owner Info | rrhobbs.us
  Location Scout, Location Manager, Location Library + Production Services …. Initially, a film scout will generally come to your location and take photos. ..
  (tags: property-owners info howto faqs location-scouting filmproduction photoproduction videoproduction filmlocations videolocations photolocations information)
• Mapufacture - nyc.locationscout.us map
  Location Scout + Location Manager R. Richard Hobbs (Show More Details) … Squidoo: New York City Area film location scouting and film location management …
  (tags: mapufacture maps geotagging neogeography news feeds mashups locationscout location+scout location-scout location_scout film photo video tv events rss xml nyc.locationscout.us NewYorkCity NYC NY NJ new-jersey 40.863818)
• Google Image Labeler
  Welcome to Google Image Labeler, a feature of Google Search that allows you to label images and help improve the quality of Google’s image search results.
  (tags: google images tagging)
• Passaic County Film Commission
  I recently had the opportunity and pleasure recently to work with our own Passaic County Film Commission, which is an economic development arm of the Passaic County, NJ county government.
  (tags: filmcommissions film-offices filmproduction resources Passaic-County NJ)
• David McKinney :: Location Scout
  Location Scout and Manager. Tel: 310/395-2448 Cell: 310/990-9404. Santa Monica, CA. Location Scouting for Film Production.
  (tags: location+scout Santa-Monica CA california filmproduction)
• Pat Parrish :: Location Scout
  Pat Parrish Location Scout Tel: 310/652-5585 Cell: 310/291-6618 Los Angeles, CA. Location Scouting for Film Production.
  (tags: location-scout LA losangeles CA california filmproduction)
• Aaron Millar :: Location Scout and Manager
  Location Scout and Manager. Tel: 310/278-8957 Cell: 310/780-3547. Beverly Hills, CA. Image Gallery · Resume · IMDB. Location Scouting for Film Production.
  (tags: location_scout location+manager Beverly-Hills LA losangeles CA california filmproduction)
• Location Management & Scouts in LA411
  LA’s only qualified Film, TV & Commercial Production Resource | Home >> Location Services & Equipment >> Location Management & Scouts
  (tags: location-scouts location-managers LA411 LA losangeles CA california filmproduction production crew resources listings)
• The Complete Film Production Handbook - Google Book Search
  by Eve Light Honthaner - 2001 - Performing Arts - 520 pages | Here are the type of items that would be listed on a Prep Schedule: • location scouts • casting sessions • interviews with potential key crew positions …
  (tags: filmproduction film-production film+production film_production books Google-Books reference film-business information)
• The Greater Cleveland Film Commission | Welcome!
  Greater Cleveland Film Commission : TOLL FREE : 888.746.FILM | OFFICE: 216.623-3910 | 1301 East 9th Street, Suite 120 | Cleveland, Ohio 44114 | map | geo= 41.507067,-81.692319
  (tags: filmoffices filmcommissions filmcommunity Cleveland Ohio OH filmproduction resources)
• Weesha Club: Mountain Filming Location HomePage
  Location Scouts: Weesha is a great place to film! It has mountains, forest, river, stream and cabins. |
  Historic Weesha Club | www.weesha.com
  (tags: locations filmlocations Angelus-Oaks CA 92305 rural western ranch wilderness california)
• Hudson Valley Film Commission
  The Hudson Valley Film Commission (HVFC) is fully prepared to act as a conduit for preproduction, production, and postproduction for filmmaking in the Hudson Valley and Catskill region. HVFC attracts filmmakers from around the world to the region and prov
  (tags: Hudson-Valley NY New-York Catskills Woodstock filmcommissions filmoffices resources filmlocations filmproduction)
• Filmgeek - Blog Cinéma un peu geek sur les bords
  filmgeek /?film?ik/ masculin (pluriel : filmgeeks /?film?ik/)
  Personne pris par une passion du bon cinéma, au point que ça empiète un peu sur sa vie sociale. Exemples ci-dessous.
  (tags: filmgeek Cannes film video cinema filmmaking websites people news)

I recently had the opportunity and pleasure recently to work with our own Passaic County Film Commission, which is an economic development arm of the Passaic County, NJ county government.

Passaic County, NJ (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 Passaic County Film Commission also sponsors the Passaic County Film Festival.

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.

As a side note, Deborah’s office works closely with the New Jersey Film Commission. The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission is located in Newark, NJ. The State of New Jersey currently offers attractive tax incentives for film production in New Jersey, which, of course, includes Passaic County.

RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map

These are my links for April 7th through April 8th:

• Adobe Photoshop Express - Made You Look. -
• Production-Now Blog -
• Summary: ‘Richard Hobbs’ -
• Locamundo.com | Q-Sphere Search -
• WordPress Web 2.0 Guide | WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-Er -
• Woot : One Day, One Deal (SM) -
• Companies using Twitter « Fluent Simplicity -

Texas Film Commission | Location Scouting Letter of Intent (Word .doc)

“Production Company Letterhead

SAMPLE #1: MERCHANTS AND BUSINESS DISTRICT

June 14, 2006

Dear Neighbor:

My name is Joe Smith and I am a Location Scout for the upcoming movie, “THE MOVIE”. Shooting will be taking place in Providence beginning in August 2006 and continuing through November 2006.”

…read more…

The Texas Film Office’s sample Location Scouting Letter of Intent is a good general example of a letter of intent (or resident / business letter as it is sometimes known) you could use as a guide for your own letter…

Here are links to the more-often used pages on the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, Broadcast and Television website. On these pages is lots of info (as well as live forms and instructions) that you need when dealing with MOFTB and New York City film and photo permits

Still Photography

Film and Video

Schedule A

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If you are a location scout and you dont know nuthin’ ’bout maps, well then, you aint… well let’s just say you should!

It hardly seems accidental or coincidental that most location scouts and location managers (as well as many directors, photographers, dp’s, producers and pa’s) seem to have at least just a little bit of that “techy gene” that gravitates them towards stuff like maps, organized data, gadgets, electronics, etc, etc… in any case, maps is useful stuff!

I mean, isn’t it pretty much assumed that you are real good at finding stuff? Aren’t you the “go-to” person to get your crew to and from a location as expeditiously and safely as possibly?

You might be a location scout if…

…I rest my case…

…but I digress…

(yummy GeoURL chicklet for this website)

I was very surprised to find there was not a Wikipedia page for GeoURL. Short of writing it myself, in the meantime, I have created a request for a GeoURL page to be added to Wikipedia

Basically, what happens is (using a very useful helper if you need it) you add the supplied metatags to the head (truncated for illustration) section of your homepage*

*this is admittedly somewhat “techy” stuff here… if you don’t already know, then it is up to you to be motivated enough to read and learn for yourself - read: don’t even think about writing me asking for “internet lessons”

If you view the source of my home page you will see the following metatags:

meta name=”ICBM” content=”40.86335, -74.16205″ / (truncated for illustration) (hint: see anything looks just an itty bitty teeny weeny bit like latitude and longitude?)
meta name=”DC.title” content=”nyc.locationscout.us” / (truncated for illustration) DC.title

Voila! - that is how GeoURL indexes your website

If you look on the results page for a GeoURL lookup of this website, you will see quite a bit of useful info:

“last updated 2008-03-21T11:34:54, created 2006-08-29T00:06:04.
atom | rss | Google Maps | MultiMap | Mapquest“

…and you will see all the other indexed websites geographically near this website as well. Neat, huh?

…read more…

nyc.locationscout.us Mapufacture Map

Map Room Blog

“A blog about maps by Jonathan Crowe, The Map Room covers everything from map collecting to the latest in geospatial technology.”

…read more

The Map Room

• The Web Goes Local | Friday, 3 July 2009, 9:47 am
  Clive Thompson’s piece on location services makes a point I was planning on making in a future piece, damn him, as he looks at how location services. […]
• New Digital Elevation Model Covers 99 Percent of the Earth | Wednesday, 1 July 2009, 8:43 pm
  A new digital terrain map for the planet is now available. Based on imagery from the Japanese ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite, the new g. […]
• Derrick Story on Geotagging | Monday, 29 June 2009, 10:09 pm
  A couple of articles by Derrick Story about geotagging went up on Macworld’s website back in April: one that looks at four automatic methods of geot. […]

The Map Room Directory

• Ball State GIS Research and Map Collection | Friday, 26 June 2009, 12:12 pm
  The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is an integrated GIS lab and traditional map collection located on the second floor of Bracken Library. The. […]
• GIS Web Maps | Friday, 26 June 2009, 12:11 pm
  Blogging on the current state of GIS & Web mapping applications out on the Interwebs.
• Geographicus Antique Map Blog | Friday, 26 June 2009, 12:09 pm
  On antique maps and the rare map trade.

The map below uses GeoPress, which has been mentioned elsewhere on this site.

GeoURL Log

• Changed server | Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 4:34 am
  Whoops. Earlier this month server that was running the geourl.org webserver started having hick-ups (also known as crashing daily). It would reboot pr. […]
• GeoURL Reloaded | Saturday, 24 November 2007, 3:31 pm
  Whoot! Excuse the mess, we’re rebuilding. I’ve finally taken some time to clean up the code, optimize some slow paths, implement some new features. Th. […]
• GeoURL meets Google Maps | Monday, 13 June 2005, 10:28 pm
  Leigh Dodds made a super neat GeoURL to Google Maps converter using the RSS feeds. Thanks Leigh, that’s awesome! Thanks for the suggestions for th. […]

RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map

short version:

location scout linkit (locationscout.ning.com):

New York City and Northeast US Film Offices

misc location scouting and film production resources

long(er) version:

I “started an app” (well, actually I “cloned” Amy’s Robot: Linkit) on ning.com, which is a Web 2.0 /php/html/ajax (with rails in the wings) mashup (which probably means nothing to you)…

But I digress: whats very kewl about ning.com is you get to mashup their mashups! …and you dont have to be a programmer to achieve some considerable productivity in the process~ even kewler is, if you *do* know anything about writing code, the source for all their applications (”apps”) is available right on the site in true open-source fashion. More info here (if you’re the technically inclined type).

It took me about an hour to create locationscout linkit, it’s just links to most of the film offices and some of the production resources I call on fairly regularly, but since locationscout linkit is based on social bookmarking, folksonomy and tags (in the old days I think it was called “collaboration” I hope others will contribute their own bits of location scouting information so we can all become more productive.

My Network Creator Profile on Ning

My Developer Profile on Ning

related content on this site about Locationscout Linkit

updated 3/13/08 added related content / feed / ning profiles
original timestamp: May 27, 2006 @ 17:58

-RH

From time to time I get film location services requests regarding filming in the NYC Subway.

Here is some info that might help you get started and understand some of what is involved.

Note - 2/17/2008: Some more editing and another bump
Note - 2/16/2008: this post was originally from April 19, 2007 @ 11:39 from the old locationscout.us.

I am bumping this post up because it accompanies the current image on the front of the website.

Full disclosure: The photo is NOT from a film shoot, it is a simple “passerby” photo of a train platform in Grand Central Station sans tripod, using available light, which, to the best of my knowledge, is an “allowed activity”. Just in case anybody is wondering, additionally, I believe the photo serves to illustrate this post, which I believe is of valid news, informational and redeeming social value, under which freedom of the press allows a number of rights to individuals engaging in such activities.

To the best of my additional knowledge, a “proper” film or photo shoot (i.e. including a number of crew, talent, electrical, stationary lighting, tripod, sound equipment, etc.) under most circumstances, would likely NOT be allowed by MTA on the Grand Central platform, although the Wikipedia page for Grand Central Subway Station states, “This station was used in a famous scene in the 1971 film The French Connection.” and this page on the MTA website lists a number of “film/TV productions featuring NYC Transit Subways or Buses” my own personal experience is that filming is only allowed, as MTA might deem appropriate, at a disused or otherwise secluded platform, presumably, with regard toward maintaining a high level of service for the transit system’s actual intended purpose of getting people from point “A” to point “B” safely and quickly as well as with the MTA ridership’s personal privacy in mind.

So if you would like to close Grand Central for your shoot (some food for thought?):

1. Bring lots of cash
2. Assume you will be filming in the wee hours, if at all
3. Would doubt seriously if it would hurt if your production was a popular tv show or big-budget mainstream feature with a household-name director and/or star(s) on the roster

Further disclosure: Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy(s) of MTA or the City of New York.

Contact MTA for more info.

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In New York (as well as most, if not all, states), there are specific requirements regarding use of children as performers / actors / models / talent.

I had to contact the New York City Mayors Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcast (MOFTB) for this info. Here is the New York State Department of Labor web page they directed me to.

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Primospot

“About PrimoSpot: In a congested urban environment, parking can be difficult. This site can save you time and money by letting you find the best place to park for free. Using google maps and an extensive database of Manhattan parking signs, its easier than ever to find the most primo spot.”

…read more…

About Primospot

About PrimoSpot

“After living in Manhattan for years and racking up several hundred dollars of parking tickets, the site creator decided there must be a better way. After asking other drivers what their methods were, we heard that a few people were keeping hand-drawn maps in notebooks in their cars. As a programmer, he decided to create the map online. He opened the site to allow people to add their own streets and neighborhoods, and in June 2007, PrimoSpot was born.”

…read more…

Primospot

• PrimoSpot featured on CBS Radio Show Dishin Digital | Thursday, 2 July 2009, 11:01 am
  We were featured on the CBS radio show Dishin Digital. Paul Murnane explores a new Web site that helps New Yorkers search for parking options in the c. […]
• Compare Garage Prices in Real Time | Sunday, 28 June 2009, 3:31 pm
  We are proud to announce our newest feature on the site, the Real-Time Garage Price Chart. While browsing the map for parking garages, the left hand c. […]
• Park Yourself at Katz’s | Sunday, 28 June 2009, 2:17 pm
  You can now find a place to park using one of our embedded parking maps on the Katz’s delicatessen website. If you have never heard about Katz’s, chec. […]

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Here is a way to imbed your Flickr photos on your website using the Mapsack Flickr Widget, which could be useful for a location scout wishing to present locations to a client at the same time illustrating said locations’ geographic postion(s).

You will need a Flickr account (and some photos in that account that have been geotagged).

Unless you have some experience working with Wordpress don’t bother. If you have no idea what the term “javascript” means, then don’t bother.

Use the links and info given in this post to explore for yourself and complete your project to your own end. DO NOT contact me for support and please understand that I accept no responsibility for anything you do (or undo) to your website playing around with any of these toys. Otherwise- have fun!

MapSack Blog

• Mapsack widget now on widgetbox.com | Sunday, 29 January 2006, 5:38 pm
  
• Embed mapsack in your site! | Friday, 27 January 2006, 7:01 am
  
• New Mapsack flickr widget at widgetbox.com | Friday, 27 January 2006, 2:02 am
  

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Shoot Online | Meet The Commish | Filming Incentive Program Takes Hold In Connecticut | By Robert Goldrich

“July 21, 2006 — Heidi Hamilton became Connecticut’s Film Division Director last December, after having worked under the previous director. She brings to her position a broad-based background in law and filmmaking.”

…read more…

CT Film | Connecticut Digital Media & Motion Picture Tax Credit

“What happens when you combine majestic shorelines, quiet meadows, old world architecture, bucolic town greens, mill town grunge, skilled crew base and 30% tax credits?”

…read more…

CT Film | Welcome Message from Film Division Director Heidi Hamilton

“…In the closing days of the 2006 session, the General Assembly established tax credits for the production of digital media and motion pictures in Connecticut and renamed the division the Digital Media and Motion Picture Division (effective October 1, 2006). In an effort to encourage increased economic activity in the state and job growth, the legislation calls for a tax credit equal to 30% for qualified digital media and motion picture production, preproduction, postproduction and distribution expenses incurred in the state that exceed $50,000. The production tax credit is among the most aggressive programs in the country and will be administered by the Film Division. On our website you will find detailed information including a pre-application and instructions. Check frequently for updated program information.”

…read more…

Connecticut In-State Production Tax Incentive info links:

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FilmCommissionHQ.com | About | What is FilmCommissionHQ?

“FilmCommissionHQ is intended to help Film Commissions (and all other regional media support offices) communicate with and serve the needs of media professionals seeking expert location assistance. FilmCommissionHQ provides a growing solution set of services and products for Film Commissioners that attract business, increase local revenues, reduce costs, streamline operations, and increase productivity.”

…read more…

FilmCommissionHQ has lots of film commission news and information of interest to film production and location scouting professionals. free.

AFCI is yet another good film office website.

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RICH’S QUICK GUIDE TO POSTING PICTURES TO A WEBSITE

also here: http://rrhobbs.com/postingyourpics.html

It’s good to know how to post pictures to a website- whether you are an artist or you have some other tangible object or property you need to illustrate. A lot of people go about this task using email, but there are a few reasons this IS NOT a always a good idea. Consider this: You have a dozen pictures (of anything) that you need to have someone see. Depending on the resolution of the pictures, you could spend HOURS emailing these pictures.

AND

1.) If you get ONE letter or number or other character in the recipient(s) email address wrong YOU GOTTA START OVER
2.) If your ISP limits the message size (my isp limits each email msg size to 2mb) and you go over YOU GOTTA START OVER
3.) If you need for someone (else) to see the pics later on then YOU HAVE TO SEND THEM AGAIN
4.)If you forgot to cc: someone YOU HAVE TO SEND THEM AGAIN
5.) If you left out a picture you have to figure out which one it was and email everybody again.
Doesn’t it make a lot of sense to only have to go thru these hassles once?

FIRST THINGS FIRST- WEB BASICS

A basic understanding of how the www works is needed. For instance, what happens when you look at a web page is that your computer (browser/client) sends a command over an electronic network (the web) to another computer(server) asking it to let you look at some files. (The computers have to understand each other but that’s a story for another day) The spot on the network AND on the other computer where the files are stored is known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The spot that you are “calling” from is known as your IP address (Internet Protocol address). Provided everything goes well, you are sent the content that you requested and you will see a web page(text and/or pictures, etc.) That’s all the web is: FILES ON COMPUTERS! Proper software and hardware on your end makes VIEWING these files possible.

So the next question is: “How do I become the computer (server) on the “other end“?

Answer: Unless you are a REAL techie (in which case you would not need to be reading this) you have no business running a web server. BUT there ARE plenty of techies in this world, and there are many servers, AND there are many servers you can USE to display your info to the world. In most cases servers are Unix operating system computers with a direct, very fast connection to the web. Some are free to use, some you pay for.

Next question: “So how do I get my files to a server?”

Answer: Several ways, to start.
Since you are probably new to this you may want to try one of the many “free web space” services available. Several popular ones are: Geocities ( Geocities ), Tripod ( www.tripod.com ), I’m not going to go into detail about using these services, if you go their site(s) plenty of info is available. One way or another the files you wish to display are UPLOADED to the server (More about this later)
NOTE: The reason these services are free is because you almost always have to display some advertising on your web pages for them. Often you can pay a fee and forego this duty.
ANOTHER NOTE: You probably use an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to “get on the web”, like AOL, Earthlink, Concentric, RCN using a DIAL UP CONNECTION or maybe you have a DSL or ISDN or CABLE MODEM connection, or maybe you are affiliated with a learning institute or have a a job with a company that is “wired” and they provide you with access to the web. Anyway the point is, if you have an ISP that you pay for you often get web space to use as part of the service.
You can also get your own DOMAIN. This has a certain amount of appeal because you it’s YOUR domain, and its often easier for people to identify you, which can be a huge boon, especially if you are in business. (i.e. www.rrhobbs.com is MUCH easier to remember than www.tripod.com/rrhobbs or www.geocities.com/broadway/6247/ (these are real url’s however they have not been updated for some time) Getting your own domain involves checking availabilty of whatever domain name “dotcom, net, org” you have in mind, (i.e. rrhobbs.com), and registering the domain with the INTERNIC. The INTERNIC is: “US Department of Commerce regulated organization provides public information regarding Internet domain-name registration services.” See the INTERNIC site for all the details ( www.internic.net )

Once you have your own DOMAIN alas, you still need a HOST (a server to use). Often your present ISP offers WEB HOSTING SERVICES, and there are many companies who do nothing but web hosting. www.ispcheck.com is a good starting point for finding a web hosting service. Your web host can assist you in registering your domain, too.

GETTING YOUR FILES ONLINE- REALLY

If you get your own domain and web host, most likely the way you will be getting your files on the server is to FTP (FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL) them to the server. Your webhost will most likely have plenty of details about this (the parameters,settings and password needed by your FTP PROGRAM (your webhost will probably have some suggestions, a couple I know of are WSFTP ( www.ipswitch.com ) and Cute FTP ( www.cuteftp.com ). There are Mac OS ftp programs (clients) at www.macosarchives.com .
A user friendly way to present your pictures is to use THUMBNAILS. A program I use is Thumbnailer . It will not only create thumbnails, it will automatically generate web pages, saving a LOT of time and headaches.

NOTE:Unfortunately, (at this writing) Thumbnailer is available for Windows only. I’ve heard that Extensis Portfolio is a good thumbnailer for Mac OS. I don’t know whether it will generate web pages on the fly or not tho. You can also make thumbnails in Photoshop.

This is not, nor is it intended to be, a be-all / end-all for web publishing. In that vein, please don’t email me with questions about any of this unless I specifically requested you do so. Use your ingenuity and search for more info about stuff you dont understand or would like to know more about on the web. There’s A BUNCH of stuff! Good luck!

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: The reader uses information obtained via this document at his/her own risk. The author is in no way responsible for damges incurred in any way from use of any information contained in this document.

RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map

# updated 6/7/2008 - some clean up / added map

Please note: The most currently updated info is available here: http://rrhobbs.us/locproc.owners.html

Excerpt:

PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION BELOW CAREFULLY. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE IS A LINK TO A FORM YOU MAY USE TO LIST YOUR LOCATION WITH US.

(INFORMATION FOR ALL HOME/ PROPERTY OWNERS)

LOCATION PORTFOLIOS:
a. We create a digital photo portfolio of your location. Initially we might request that you send us some photographs of your location (dont have to be professional) to give us an idea of what it looks like. We may also request to come out to scout ourselves.
b. We promote your location by emailing an internet link of pictures of your property we have on file to clients when an enquiry is made for locations of the type for which your property may be suited.
c. Once a client shows interest in your location we will call you to:
1. give you what details we have and find out if your property might be available.
2. discuss fees, restrictions, rooms to use, etc.
3. set up a time for the client to come and do an initial “go see.”

…Read the rest…

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About Filming Permits | Information for Production and Property Owners:

Additional Info:

Helpful links:

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FilmMakers.com - The Art and ShowBiz of Film Making

“FilmMakers.com features articles and info on filmmakers, filmmaking, film festivals, film schools, indies, short and feature length films for sale; database, distribution, production, and much, much, more.”

…read the rest…

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bigscreenbiz.com

About bigscreenbiz.com | Who We Are

“What is this place and what are we doing here? Simple. It is foremost; a place for you, wherever you may be, and in whatever part of the film industry you might call home, to talk about whatever subject you want. If you don’t like talking; read and learn.”

…read more…

• Directories
• Film Release Chart
• Forums
• Industry Links

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