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June 17, 2009

No, They're Not Building a New Boat House in Prospect Park

boat-house-061609.jpg
If you're a Forum visitor, you may have noticed Bob Marvin's post on Monday about a strange building rising on the peninsula in Prospect Park. Turns out it's part of the set for a Tina Fey/Steve Carell movie that's scheduled to be filming today. Prospect Park is standing in for the Central Park Boat House, it turns out. To see a photo of the behind-the-scenes construction click through below.

boat-house-061609-b.jpg




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:00 AM | Comments (20)
Categories: Parks

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Comments

If only the city could get things done this quickly.

Posted by: Biff Champion at June 17, 2009 11:03 AM

Bunch of Liars! What with all their fancy hollywood mumbojumbo and zippitywhooha!

Posted by: tybur6 at June 17, 2009 11:03 AM

ok - is that real brickface????

Posted by: gemini10 at June 17, 2009 11:13 AM

It's moovee magic... you're not allowed to know unless your a member of the union.

Posted by: tybur6 at June 17, 2009 11:15 AM

you're

Posted by: tybur6 at June 17, 2009 11:16 AM

Couldn't these faux facades be erected in the front of Fedders buildings????

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 17, 2009 11:30 AM

DIBS, that faux facade costs as much as a fedders building. Though slightly less sturdy.

Posted by: tybur6 at June 17, 2009 12:38 PM

You can have your drywall painted up to look like "exposed brick" and then the next owner won't be saddled with real "exposed brick" and can simply paint over it.

Does anyone remember all that photo Contac paper of brick. There used to be a good line of Contac-like paper (a heavier vinyl than the Contac brand) from Europe that had photos of Delft tiles and the like. It could be VERY convincing from a distance. I guess the boom (i.e. neurosis) in home/dwell furnishings the last bunch of years has led to many versions of photo-realistic wall and floor treatments.

I kind of like those photo tiles of riverstones but in the end, it all looks pretty ugly when installed.

And...there's the nostalgia of the photo wall mural...which I do happen to think is funny. Certainly the faded, low quality printed forest wall murals of the 60's - 70's are kind of ugly but I'm sure with today's high resolution imagining and printing, "they" are creating some good murals.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at June 17, 2009 1:00 PM

I've been looking for years for sea & sky & so far I haven't found one that's any good.

Posted by: Arkady at June 17, 2009 1:03 PM

I agree with the first part of tybur6's statement; one of the crew members told me that they could only afford to do this because it's a big-budget film. However, I'm not so sure about this faux building being less sturdy than your typical Fedders [also faux?] building. After all, it's made of REAL plywood--no particle board at all, although there is the slight problem of there being no foundation.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 17, 2009 1:31 PM

Do all Fedders buildings have foundations?

Posted by: tybur6 at June 17, 2009 1:49 PM

There IS a foundation. It's called SONY Pictures!

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at June 17, 2009 1:53 PM

The artistry that used to go into designing and constructing real buildings is now limited only to movie sets.



Posted by: sam at June 17, 2009 2:08 PM

tybur6,

AFAIK they're SUPPOSED to have foundations. Perhaps, after a few years of crumbling they won't.

Sam,

Too true (sigh) :-(

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 17, 2009 2:18 PM

How much do they pay the City for the exclusive use of this portion of the park for several weeks? The path on either side of this new building has been roped off for a couple weeks already, and who knows when they'll be done?

Posted by: Sparafucile at June 17, 2009 4:02 PM

I wonder why they couldn't just film at the real Central Park boat house. Is it that hard to get a permit?

Posted by: Lesloaf at June 17, 2009 4:04 PM

Sparafucle,

The path through the peninsula is one of my regular running routes. It's only been closed since last Saturday--although I ran through anyway on that day and, when challenged, yelled back--"it's a public path"--I can sometimes be an a**hole that way :-)

I wouldn't be surprised if everything is gone by the weekend, or earlier. Nevertheless, I hope the City, the PP Alliance, or both are getting plenty of $$s for this. I have mixed (and largely negative) feelings about closing off public spaces for filming, despite the jobs and revenue generated (and how nice the members of this crew have been --when I'm not acting like an a**hole).

Lesloaf,

I was told that they did shoot some scenes in Central Park, but that there was a problem (unspecified) with the CP boat house. I'm sure any permit would have been far less costly than building this set. The attention to detail was phenomenal. In this photograph you can see them putting in plants:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25605294@N00/3633296183/sizes/o/in/pool-83336891@N00/

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 17, 2009 4:32 PM

Has it really only been since Saturday? That's also part of one of my usual running routes, but I thought it started last week.

I'm still bummed that they paved some of the paths back there and in the middle of the park. Plotting out a mostly soft-surface running route isn't as easy as it was back in the day.

Posted by: Sparafucile at June 17, 2009 4:40 PM

I'm pretty sure it's only since Saturday, but some days I run through the Ravine, so it could have been a little earlier. There are so many alternate (mostly unpaved)paths through the Peninsula that it was easy to run around the set on Monday (and for me to walk there to take photographs yesterday).

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 17, 2009 4:45 PM

I hate the low level film guys that try to stop the city from going about its business. It's like a tourist who makes everyone wait while they take a picture, and then they are assholes when someone gets impatient and walks through.

I moved away from Kensington because there was a constant stream of movie crews claiming the streets so they could film in the subway station.

Posted by: slick at June 17, 2009 10:52 PM

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