For this village, it’s lights, camera, headaches
IN THIS village perched along the Hudson River, boys pedal up to one of the spots downtown for drinks and snacks after school. At a pizza parlour, the owner lets a regular customer walk off with a plain slice with the understanding that she will pay the next time she comes in. Around the corner, the hardware store has set up its barbecue grills for sale on the sidewalk, welcoming spring’s arrival.
Then an unusual contraption creeps down the street: a tow truck outfitted with cameras and light reflectors, tugging a sedan. Actors are sitting inside, being filmed for a scene.
For many, it was just another day in Hastings-on-Hudson, where film crews blocking off streets and celebrities hanging out between shoots have become routine. One week, a movie envisioning life after an apocalypse films in the library; another, an HBO comedy takes over a block downtown.
Hastings-on-Hudson has long attracted commuters with its highly rated public schools and balance between open space and proximity to the city. A small-town vibe is also part of the appeal.
But for film and television producers, the setting is perfect in another way: They see a village just generic enough to defy geography and time, able to stand in as Anytown, USA.
“It can be made to be anything,” said the village’s mayor, Peter Swiderski. “It doesn’t look like it’s in the North, or the East, or the South.”
The Hollywood attention has bolstered the village’s coffers and, to some extent, its ego, but the influx of bright lights and trailers has come with tradeoffs that some residents have not been happy about.
County officials cited a recent survey that showed the economic impact from these projects increased to $30 million last year from $18 million in 2014. The survey also found the number of production days increased to 532 across the county in 2016 from 318 in 2014.
Officials have boasted of a broad diversity of settings within the county for productions to take advantage of, from urban and industrial to rolling farmland. “It’s like a buffet,” Rob Astorino, the Westchester county executive, said. “You can choose any scene you need and film it in this county.”
Communities have reaped the financial benefit from the productions. In Hastings, the village charges $4,500 a day to film. The money has been set aside from operating funds, for whatever the village board decides to spend it on, like sprucing up downtown.
But the increase in filming has not come without headaches. Swiderski acknowledges that as much as the village wants to bring in these productions, officials are still trying to figure out how much they can handle.
Even with the inconveniences, there is a sense that plenty of residents find a certain “cool factor” that comes with being in the spotlight. Many can tick off the productions they remember seeing around the village: the movie The Girl on the Train, or another HBO series, The Leftovers.
Donna Decarlo, a waitress at Hastings Center Restaurant, recalled the surreal experience of showing up to work to find an actress pretending to do her job.
Decarlo said the filming had injected some excitement into village life. The restaurant staff saved a copy of the New York Times with a photograph of Lena Dunham sitting in one of its booths while filming Girls.
Decarlo and another waitress, Tammy Cicalo, described themselves as the real-life version of the characters who work in a diner on the sitcom 2 Broke Girls – “but we’re way worse!” Cicalo said.