I'd assume that the board would need to approve. The board would probably require adding the corporation to the production company's insurance as hold harmless or whatever the legal term is. Check the by-laws and house rules to see if anything states how the unit is to be used - i.e. not for commercial purposes unless approved by the board.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at October 29, 2009 10:01 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

The maintenance is $703 according to Corcoran.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at August 17, 2009 12:51 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 358 Eastern Parkway, #8

Bar Toto actually has a sign that says laptop use is ok when it's slow and you want to linger but come busy time, put them away. (not a quote just my recollection). That seems like a win for all. Else use that password system that some places put on receipts. You want wifi access? buy something to get the password. these places are businesses not public libraries and if you are really doing work then go to the library, do the work, get it over with and then go get a coffee/drink and watch people go by or actually have a talk.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at August 6, 2009 10:20 AM in response to Thursday Links

here's how DC handles some of the issues mentioned earlier:

resident parking, visitor parking, rental car parking, healthcare provider parking...

http://dmv.dc.gov/serv/parking.shtm

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at May 18, 2009 12:42 PM in response to Residential Parking Permits Pushed for Brooklyn Heights

DC has residential parking permits. The DC street parking rules for residential streets limit unmetered parking to 2 hours M-F from something like 7 am to 7 pm. (They chaulk your tires and loop back after 2 hours to see if you moved). The neighborhoods are zoned and parking permits allow you to park your car on the street without having to move it every 2 hours during the week. It does force the owner to register the car rather than use out of state plates.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at May 18, 2009 10:32 AM in response to Residential Parking Permits Pushed for Brooklyn Heights

red horse cafe (on 6th Ave @ 12th street) makes their iced coffee using frozen coffee cubes.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at May 8, 2009 3:14 PM in response to Streetlevel: New Coffee Place Opening on 7th Ave.

I've gotten herbs at BBG that did well. Their plant sale is next week.

http://www.bbg.org/vis2/2009/plantsale/

Shannon's also had good stuff at decent prices.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at April 30, 2009 3:27 PM in response to herbs in brooklyn

Rob - just pay it and be happy that you didn't give the gov't an interest free loan all year because that is what a tax refund amounts to. keep your money yours for as long as you can and pay at the last minute.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at April 15, 2009 9:54 AM in response to Open Thread

there are some relatively inexpensive things to do to make it nicer without major overhauls. you can put up willow fencing on the chainlink fence. this will hide that fence and give you a nicer backdrop. you can hide crumbling cement by doing some arrangement of large container pots. if you are going to be there for several years and you have full sun, you can plant some climbing vines along the fence and in a couple of seasons, poof fence will be hidden. there are many types of clematis you can choose from. some bloom earlier in the season, while others bloom later in summer. a nice combination could fit.

also, bamboo fencing can be run to separate the shared space. it'll create a temporary divider that you can pull down when needed.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at April 9, 2009 3:27 PM in response to backyard and proprety value

i second B&H video. That's where I got mine and they had the cheapest price for the model I wanted. Their price was about $300 less than all others. Bought it on Sunday online and they had it delivered on Monday. The guy carried it up to my apartment and left it on the floor in the box for me. Got my cables at monoprice, as well. do get them in advance as I was without cables for 4 days with my new TV sitting on the floor taunting me. I got 6' cables for a setup where the cable box and the dvd player were in a cabinet under the tv. 3' would have been too short after fishing it through the hole in the back of the cabinet, up the cable tie in the back of the tv, and over into the HDMI slots. So, factor that into your setup when buying cables. if you have kids, pets or are afraid about the tv falling (assuming you are not wall mounting it), you can anchor it to the wall through the holes used for wall-mounting. You'll need to buy the chain separately from a hardware store.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at April 6, 2009 3:19 PM in response to buying a flat screen TV

mr. angelino

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at March 16, 2009 12:46 PM in response to Checking In On The Dewitt

I agree with CWB's assessment on Kensington. I'd add that the block has minimal street parking with all the curb cuts and this house doesn't have a curb cut. A problem if someone had a car.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at February 27, 2009 2:48 PM in response to Open House Picks

yes, browser resizing is annoying.

windows vista, firefox 3.0.6

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at February 26, 2009 12:18 PM in response to Help Design the New Restaurants Section

snarkslope: "letmegooglethatforyou.com" should absolutely be the QOTD.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at February 17, 2009 2:01 PM in response to House of the Day: 615 3rd Street

10th street house faces the subway. fun to rock you into your morning.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at January 30, 2009 1:24 PM in response to Open House Picks

Used it in a room that had dark blue on the walls and was going to a lighter gray. No primer but I had to use 2 coats even though the guy said I'd only need one. It also took some getting used to rolling out without going back. Next time I'd just go with regular BM paints and skip the Aura.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at October 29, 2008 3:10 PM in response to Aura paint

Don't forget to consider the people who move into these areas at the time their kid is ready for school to establish residency and get their kid in the school. Then after a year they move away to somewhere where they can afford a bigger space but keep their kid at the school. Add to that the sibling preference policy and you can easily have more kids enrolled in a school than the number of kids that actually live within its zone.

Posted by: GeorgeAppo at September 3, 2008 10:48 AM in response to Condo Growth Imperils Schools

They will also show up earlier than they say. While they didn't break anything in my house, it was more disruptive than I had realized- you will not be welcome in your own home. I also never got a copy of the film, but my neighbors didn't hate me, and my coop was fine with it.

Posted by: harriet at October 29, 2009 10:23 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

My brother did this years ago in Manhattan. He said it was an absolutely horrible experience and would never do it again. It lasts longer than expected and the crew will completely disregard your home, belongings etc. And, they will completely piss off all your neighbors so that your neighbors ultimately resent you for allowing it in the first place.

Definitely don't do it!!

Posted by: BrianR at October 29, 2009 11:07 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

We had units scouted in our building...I believe the payment offered was $1500/day for the apartment owner and $500/day payable to the co-op directly. Fell through in the end (production company changed their mind about the shoot locations).

Posted by: arches at October 29, 2009 11:14 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

Here's something very telling - people who work in film never let film crews use their home as a location. Because they know what happens.

Posted by: traditionalmod at October 29, 2009 11:15 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

We've had our interior and exterior used twice by "Law & Order" (admittedly not a full-blown movie shoot, but you'd never guess it by the massive incursion of rigs and equipment), and they were WONDERFUL--so careful to replace your stuff that they used a Polaroid to re-situate the knickknacks. They were also just real nice folks, considerate and engaging; they have to be, given how much location shooting they do and how much "L&O exhaustion" some oft-used areas develop. Can't speak to movies or commercials, since we haven't had one of those (yet).
We did turn down two offers, btw: one for a Metallica video (that wanted to shoot on a Thanksgiving day and pitched us desperately the day before--now that would've been an amusing Turkey Day!), and one for a cheap ambush-style reality show called "I Hate Your House" (we don't,thank you very much!)
And of course, we aren't co-op'ers, so we don't have to worry about a Board...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 29, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

jeez brenda. you turned down metallica? ;-)

Posted by: CGmodern at October 29, 2009 12:02 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

Interesting CH5! What are the details? I also liked reading the selection of horror stories and good reports. Do you think you'll pursue it? I guess I think that in a coop, the coop itself does deserve a fee, since most buildings are for residences (only, or pretty close to it), and film shoots can be pretty disruptive.

Posted by: Minmin at October 29, 2009 12:28 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

A film crew used the interior of our parlor floor to shoot street views for that recent Al Pacino/Carla Gugino movie. There is usually a standard contract. It went later than expected, but then we asked for more money and got it. At my BIL's advice, we made the bathroom off-limits for crew usage.

Posted by: tiptoe at October 29, 2009 1:16 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

I work in the industry and I wouldn't do it. The damage that kind of equipment can cause is huge. It may be little things but they are bound to scratch floors, ding up walls, etc.
If you do decide to go for it put hours restriction as part of the deal, make them pay you overtime. Any studio would do the same thing. If they aren't paying hourly they are bound to take longer.

Posted by: jo84 at October 29, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

In my professional capacity I've hosted ~15 shoots in various properties (all historic, all with busy schedules) and in my personal life, we've had a 7 day indie release shot in our house. From my perspective, here's a short list of good/bad:

BAD: HUGE numbers of people on your site. A small/mid size motion picture unit is 5-10 trucks plus 50-75 crew. A large is 15 trucks and double the crew. Not all of the crew will be in your space at the same time but all of them will need access to your surroundings. Streets, sidewalks, stairwells, whatever. They'll need it and take it.

BAD: Many film people tend to ask for forgiveness instead of permission while they are doing their job. This comment isn't meant to be slanderous to the profession, it's just the nature of their job. They're under a serious time crunch and chances are that when they're on location, they're working 16 hours out of 24. Anything that slows things down is a problem that they want to solve in the shortest/quickest way possible.

GOOD: For the most part, the first offer of cash is the low ball. Even indie shoots budget much higher than the $1500/$500 offers. For the indie shoot (with major stars) in our house, we got $3k/shoot day plus $1500/prep day. Majors, depending on how invasive they are (I'm thinking special FX here. Pyro, blood, stunts) commonly settle for a LOT more than that.

GOOD: It's fun. Crazy but fun. And you'll have a momento for your grandkids to laugh at later.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is that you should never assume that their understanding of terms is equal to your understanding of terms. If you're not in the business, you won't have the same context for terms as they do. See my note about unit sizes. You might hear them say small unit and think a couple of trucks and they might actually be saying much more. Don't be afraid to ask many, many questions. The location folks that approached you will be more than happy to answer them and unless they're bad, they'll be inclined to give you a clear and honest (ish) answer. After all, there's nothing worse than having to talk a panic ridden location owner down from the ledge as their units are pulling up to the door.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: fauxvic at October 29, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie