And we all become extras in campaign ads, and our homes turned into locations for shoots:

Hizzoner wanted a blue-collar house in Queens for his newest TV ad — and paid an eye-popping Manhattan rent to use it Thursday for just seven hours.

Bloomberg’s campaign shelled out $3,000 to a Forest Hills homeowner to shoot scenes in the garage, living room and bathroom of his 2-1/2-story, single-family residence on a tree-lined block.

. . .

[The homeowner] wouldn’t say how much he was paid. But location scout Robert Chemtob, who was hired by Epand Media to find a working-class home for the mayor’s ad, estimated the fee at $3,000.

. . .

[The homeowner] insisted he didn’t know the content of the ad.

Chemtob would only say it included a scene with a man singing in the shower. He said the spot is expected to hit airwaves in a few weeks.

I don’t know, but I doubt it would involve setting off firecrackers in front of Starbucks, as is alleged:

When a homemade bomb constructed from fireworks explosives, a plastic bottle and electrical tape was set off outside a Starbucks coffee shop on the Upper East Side early on May 25, the police initially thought the explosion might be linked to three others with similar profiles.

But on Wednesday, after the arrest of a Chelsea teenager in the Starbucks attack, the police said there was no connection between that attack and the three others. Instead, the Starbucks bomber had his own agenda, the police said: to emulate the assaults on corporate America planned by a character in the movie “Fight Club.”

The teenager, Kyle Shaw, 17, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with first-degree arson and first-degree criminal possession of a weapon, the authorities said.

“His statements indicated he was launching his own ‘Project Mayhem,’ ” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference on Wednesday, referring to a plan hatched by the protagonist of “Fight Club,” played by Brad Pitt, to sabotage corporations by destroying property. Mr. Shaw had told a friend to “watch the news on Memorial Day,” May 25, Mr. Kelly said.

. . .

Mr. Shaw’s affinity for “Fight Club” was well known.

“He saw the movie and he read the book,” Mr. Lewis said. “He wanted to watch the movie in our English class in the 11th grade. We were discussing existentialism in class, and he suggested we watch the movie as an example. We ended up watching ‘I Heart Huckabees.’ “

The tax credits (although as of this morning temporarily tenuous) have really paid off:

The only thing Mayor Bloomberg’s new tough-on-crime ad is missing from “Law & Order” is that goofy noise you hear when they change scenes.

Bloomberg’s new commercial features him chatting up authentic-looking police officers whose insignia and patrol car identify them as members of the NYPD’s 27th Precinct.

The NYPD has no 27th Precinct — except on the long-running crime show.

Bloomberg spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker says the officers in the spot are off-duty cops — although not in official uniforms — who volunteered to appear in the ad.

Government workers and property can’t be used for political purposes, she said, so the campaign rented the fake NYPD uniforms and squad car.

Similarly, Bloomberg’s new ads touting his support of public schools were actually shot in the private Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

When the next big terrorist attack happens we will be as unprepared as we were on 9/10/01, lulled into a dangerous complaisance by the Old West Main Street facade that New York has become:

Awakened residents thought it was a gas explosion, maybe a sonic boom. Others figured an espresso machine inside the Starbucks had blown up. One woman, walking by the dozens of official-looking law enforcement folks inside the crime-scene tape, explained to her young daughter how similar shows like “C.S.I.” are filmed before realizing the asphalt was no stage.

“This is the real deal?” she said with a gasp. “I’m explaining it like it was a movie.” She grabbed her daughter’s hand and hurried away.

The growing realization that the commotion at 92nd Street and Third Avenue on Monday morning derived from a small explosive device rather than a script left nearby residents stunned, curious and ultimately frightened.

. . .

Some noted how much it looked like television, while others experienced an odd collision between fiction and fact.

“It sounded like a bomb, to the extent that I know what a bomb sounds like,” said Casey Mallinckrodt, who was awakened with her family in their apartment one block north on 93rd Street. “It’s confusing. Obviously we don’t live in a bomb-riddled city most of the time. And bombing a Starbucks doesn’t seem like a terrifically pointed act of terrorism towards a community. It seems as though it might be a statement towards Starbucks.”

Manhattan as one big photo shoot, not only B-roll for major motion pictures but also fashion shows, and not just in Bryant Park, either:

Critics are calling foul on a plan to rent the fabled West Fourth Street Courts today for a private gala.

Clothing designer Joseph Abboud is paying the city $14,100 to rent the Greenwich Village playground, affectionately known as “The Cage,” for the private launch of a fashion line with JCPenney and the NBA.

. . .

The Cage is widely known for hosting hardcore playground basketball games and helping the pro games of Hall of Famer “Dr. J” Julius Erving and other NBA greats

Paul Lerner, a Joseph Abboud spokesman, said “the setting of the legendary street basketball court really helps us depict” the designer’s new JOE collection — which is tailored for the regular guy.

And in a time when there is much confusion about what’s real and what’s not you can’t be too sure what you’re seeing:

A movie chase scene got too realistic early today when a car jumped a curb during a film shoot and smashed into the entrance of a Times Square restaurant, injuring two people, police and witnesses said.

The action scene gone awry unfolded at the Sbarro at 47th Street and Seventh Avenue shortly before 1 a.m.

Street closing notices posted by the police indicated the shoot was for the Nicholas Cage film, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

. . .

Mark Watkins, a tourist from Birmingham, England, watched the live action chase from the top of the new TKTS booth.

“A black Ferrari and a silver Mercedes were chasing each other,” he said.

“The Ferrari took a route down the center of the road, swerving between cars. The Mercedes took the outside lanes.

“The Ferrari took a sharp right to the left and lost it, swerving across the lanes, taking out a lamppost and a news stand.

“One lady was knocked to the ground and a lamppost landed directly on top of a chap.”

Horrifying video at link.

It’s changing how we see the world:

Erick Pulido, 29, who lives in a condominium three buildings down, said he measured his shock over the killing with the realities of city life. “Things happen all the time, it’s a big city,” Mr. Pulido said.

Mr. Pulido said that while on his way to work on Monday morning he noticed the police swarming around Ms. Lee’s building.

“I thought they might have been filming a movie so I just left,” he said.

See, tax credits work! They give good jobs to deserving New Yorkers! Though there is something absurdly circular about someone getting laid off from an industry that is probably as responsible for reestablishing New York City’s on-screen persona than anything else in the city for the last couple of economic cycles who then gets work as an extra in those films. It’s like Old Tucson* or something:

Laid off in December from a private equity firm downtown, Trent Calabretta, 26, found himself last month within a cubicle’s length of Angelina Jolie on a Manhattan set for the movie “Salt.”

“I’m not one to get star-struck, but it was a bit surreal,” Mr. Calabretta said. “There were thousands of people there, and we were going up and down Park Avenue for this one parade scene. People were playing military officials and past presidents, and everyone was in different uniforms, and we were all trying to come together to shoot this one scene. When I saw Jolie, my first thought was, ‘Well, she’s definitely not ugly.’ ”

The $8 an hour Mr. Calabretta earned as a nonunion extra — more recently, he was on the set of the CW’s “Gossip Girl” — will not cover the $1,750-per-month rent on his Upper East Side apartment, but he hopes the money he saved during three and a half years in finance will last until he finds a similar job.

“I’ve gotten a few paychecks as an extra, but I haven’t even looked at them yet,” Mr. Calabretta said. “My intention is to get back into finance, and in the interim, I’m going to keep doing these fun little side jobs.”

Managers at casting agencies around New York said they were seeing increasing numbers of people like Mr. Calabretta who have little experience in, or even aspirations for, acting, but are filling hours they used to spend at office jobs with gigs as extra, also called background, talent.

At Extra Talent Agency, a Manhattan firm that casts extras for commercials, television shows and documentary films, the actor database swelled to 9,680 in March from 6,850 in December. Fleet Emerson, assistant casting director at Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick and Associates Casting, has seen correspondence from aspiring extras triple over the past several months, something he called “quite a phenomenon.” And Grant Wilfley Casting, also in Manhattan, had open calls for new background talent in February and March that yielded 1,500 and 1,300 people, respectively.

*Location Scout: Old Tucson.

Downside is that Star and US Weekly have to travel a lot farther to stalk Ed Westwick. The television industry plays the school library card:

Television shows shot in New York will be going the way of the Betamax if lawmakers don’t allow for film and television industry tax breaks in the new state budget, industry folks say.

“If this program is curtailed in any way, it will force shows to re-evaluate their future in New York,” said one industry executive.

See also: I Don’t Care If You’re Filming, You’re In My Goddamn Way.

The film set fakeout catches Queens foodies off guard, resulting in culinary blue balls:

The opening of a new Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights may not raise eyebrows — that is, unless it does not actually serve food and its owner is “Daily Show” correspondent and actor Aasif Mandvi.

For several weeks, the Tandoori Palace has been open (and closed) for business along a busy strip of 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights as Mandvi and director David Kaplan (who shot the 2007 Sundance Film Festival entry “Year of the Fish”) filmed “7 to the Palace,” an independent Tandoori comedy in which the diverse neighborhood acts as a character.

. . .

Producer Lillian LaSalle said the film’s crew set up shop at neighborhood eatery Ashoka, at 74-14 37th Ave., one month ago, designing a sign for the film’s fictional restaurant and using local businesses as office space.

“If you’d drive by, you would see our awning,” she said. “The locals kept wanting to go into the restaurant and check it out, so we had to put a sign on the door that said, ‘This is not a restaurant, it’s a [movie] set.’ But we’ve been honored to shoot here. The business owners have been very enthusiastic and incredibly accommodating. On one day, I used a hair salon as my office and, in days prior, we set up in an Afghan kebab house.”

LaSalle, also Mandvi’s manager, said the film completed shooting the Jackson Heights scenes last weekend and would next film sequences at Bayside’s Fort Totten before wrapping in early August.

Yeah, yeah — I get it:

Q. The other morning, a film crew was trying to block sidewalk traffic in a busy area of Union Square. Can anyone who is not a police officer lawfully impede my movement in a public area?

A. Yes. Just think of the construction worker who might be saving your life by telling you to please wait for the cement mixer that’s backing out of a driveway.

As for film crews, the permits issued by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting give them the right to be at the location defined in the permit.

“During filming, the production must ensure that a safe public walkway for pedestrians and an emergency lane for traffic are available during the shoot,” the film office said in a statement.

“It is appropriate for a production which has received a film permit to request that passers-by not interfere with filming activities. This can be accomplished by asking passers-by to take an alternate route or wait for a short while, as the situation warrants.”

Film set P.A. + construction site debris:

A production assistant working on a film set in Manhattan was injured when a piece of plywood from a building renovation hit him on the head Thursday.

Remarkably, Walter Wilkerson, 56, was not seriously hurt by the debris that plunged 12 stories from a Gramercy Park office tower about 7:30 a.m., officials said.

. . .

Witnesses said Wilkerson, who was arranging parking along Park Ave. South and E.18th St. for the filming of a commercial, was struck by the plywood after a gust of wind wrenched it loose from a suspended scaffolding.

Horrified co-workers watched as the large slab hurtled toward the sidewalk and tried in vain to warn Wilkerson, who was carrying a cup of coffee.

“It was like a Frisbee,” said Jaz Reyes, 28, a fellow production assistant.

City Buildings Department officials said workers were repairing the 19-story office building’s facade when the debris fell.

City inspectors issued a violation to the contractor, Yates Restoration Group, for failing to protect the public and property, officials said.

Wilkerson remained in good humor after the near disaster.

“I’m still mad about my coffee,” he said, noting he spilled the java after he was struck. “My legs are still a little rubbery, and my balance is off.”

If by “pizzazz and energy” you mean inflexible food co-op rules and double-wide strollers, then yes, it will surely be a hit:

Producers are giving Park Slope the star treatment with a pilot by the same executives who brought “Sex and the City,” starring Sarah Jessica Parker, and “Melrose Place” to TV.

According to industry sources, Darren Star, who created those smash shows, has teamed with Sony and NBC for a proposed series about a group of affluent characters who live in the upscale Brooklyn neighborhood.

Sue Kramer, who wrote and directed the 2006 romantic comedy “Gray Matters” starring Heather Graham, Bridget Moynahan and Molly Shannon, is writing the script.

“It’s an hour-long dramady,” Kramer, who lives in Park Slope, told Page Six.

“It takes place in Park Slope and Park Slope is one of the characters in it. Park Slope has so much juice, just like Manhattan. It’s got a lot of pizzazz and energy.”

Which is the post-modern existential condition of our 21st century city:

Of all days, Jane Pollicino chose Thursday to show up for volunteer work at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center opposite ground zero. The tribute center seeks “people whose lives were profoundly changed by September 11th” to lead visitors around the site and convey the personal dimension of the story. (Mrs. Pollicino’s husband, Steve, was a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald’s office in the World Trade Center, where he died.)

And of all places, Mrs. Pollicino came up from the subway at the exit on Church Street adjoining the yard of St. Paul’s Chapel.

“It took my breath away,” she said.

For there, on one corner of the great iron fence around St. Paul’s, were hundreds of tributes to the dead: photos, flowers, candles, stuffed animals, American flags by the dozen, Mass cards, F.D.N.Y. T-shirts and a firefighter’s turnout coat, interspersed with handwritten valedictories. Two nearby trees were even in leaf. It was as if seven years had rolled back all at once.

Closer inspection showed a few signs taped to the fence. They said, “Film set.” This remarkable evocation turned out to be a matter of stagecraft: an art-directed simulation for a location shot in the movie “Julie and Julia,” based on a book by Julie Powell in which she sets out to make every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The brief scene on Church Street involves Amy Adams, as Ms. Powell, emerging from the subway and walking by the memorial-draped fence.

These days, even Community Boards are tripping over themselves to suck up to location scouts:

The boards, which each have about 3 paid workers and 50 volunteer members, constitute the city’s most local form of government, serving from 35,000 to 200,000 people apiece. While they wield little direct power, the boards have a wide range of advisory responsibilities, like reviewing applications for liquor licenses and soliciting public comment on major public and private projects.

Now the boards are bracing for cuts that many of their leaders say would seriously hamper their ability to function. Although the city pays for rent and utilities, last year each board had nearly $200,000 to pay for all other expenses, including salaries, phones, office supplies, equipment and technical services. Except for the sum available for salaries, which is set apart, board officials contend that their allocation has not been increased in about 15 years.

In the past two months, the mayor’s office asked each board to plan $9,995 to $15,690 in cuts that, if approved by the City Council, would take effect July 1.

. . .

Some boards are already raising money privately, and the budget cuts may force more boards to do so. In October, Board 3, which covers the Lower East Side, earned $1,500 for renting its offices to “Law & Order” for the overnight filming of a scene set in a community newspaper office. Susan Stetzer, the district manager, said a spinoff of the show had scouted her office for a scene set in a city agency, “but we were too old and decrepit-looking.”

. . . let them decamp to the suburbs where they can close off those people’s streets:

WHITE PLAINS — Martin Scorsese’s crime drama “The Departed” may be a paean to the city of Boston, but a number of scenes featuring Leonardo DiCaprio were shot at the county courthouse and library here. It was a surprisingly apt title, since 2007, the year “The Departed” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, was also the year that many film and television shoots departed — for Connecticut.

With a proud film history dating back almost a century, to D. W. Griffith’s creation of a 28-acre production lot in Mamaroneck, Westchester County is increasingly watching production companies be lured across the border to Connecticut, which now offers them a 30 percent tax credit, compared with New York State’s 10 percent.

Since the Connecticut tax credit took effect in July 2006, that state has gone from playing host to the occasional film shoot (remember “Mystic Pizza”?) to attracting 66 feature films, television shows and commercials with a collective $400 million in production costs, the majority of it in the Fairfield County suburbs of New York.

At the same time, similar suburbs across the border in Westchester County have seen their film shoots shrivel. In 2006, Westchester was the setting for scenes from 14 big-budget features, as well as numerous independent films; last year, two movies were partially shot here.

And Blue Sky Studios, the company behind “Horton Hears a Who” and “Ice Age,” recently announced that it would leave downtown White Plains for Greenwich, Conn., by the end of the year. The studio, a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, with 300 employees, was drawn by generous digital-animation and infrastructure tax credits that Connecticut created two years ago.

“We just sat back and rested on our laurels,” said Iris Stevens, director of Westchester’s Film Office. “New York was one of the early states to create an incentive program, but then we went into cruise control and didn’t follow through. The film industry, quite frankly, has no loyalties. They’re going to go where they get the best deal, which makes perfect sense.”

Clearly caught off guard by Connecticut’s campaign for film business, state officials in New York are rushing to address the imbalance.

New York City is somewhat insulated from the changes, thanks to its iconic skyline and the fact that the city government gives production companies an additional 5 percent tax credit, but it, too, has seen a decline in film shoots. The state’s 10 percent film credit is dwarfed not only by Connecticut’s, but also by the 25 percent credit in Massachusetts and the 20 percent credit in New Jersey.

. . .

It did not take long for the effects of Connecticut’s new incentives to be felt across the border, said Pat Swinney Kaufman, executive director of the New York Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development. In the 12 months before the introduction of Connecticut’s tax credit, the New York State film office received 60 applications from feature films for the incentive, with a projected total expenditure of $966 million. In the 12 months after, there were 39 applications, with a total projected budget of $215 million.

“It’s a very dramatic drop,” Ms. Kaufman said.

I Don’t Care If You’re Filming, You’re In My Goddamn Way.

A permissive atmosphere leads to confusion:

Cops collared three men with a gun on a SoHo rooftop yesterday — and learned that all they were shooting was a film.

A nervous neighbor spotted the men with what looked like a sniper rifle and called cops, leading dozens of officers to rush to the building and arrest three aspiring filmmakers

Although the gun looked real, it was nothing more than a look-alike rented for the flick.

One of the three was charged with menacing and the others with disorderly conduct.

“We’re just a couple of hobby filmmakers,” said one of the auteurs as he left the First Precinct station house after questioning.

. . .

Witnesses said a woman inside her apartment at 37 King St. saw the men on the roof of 41 King St. next door, prompting her to call 911.

“She thought they were pointing the gun at her,” one witness said.

One of the men, Rafael DiLauro, lives at 41 King, and his father, Louis, owns the building.

DiLauro, 24, along with Sam Maxwell, 23, and Adam Corre, 23, had gone to the roof to shoot a scene — which they planned to use as an application to film school.

Police responded in force, but by then the three had made their way to DiLauro’s basement apartment. The officers busted them there.

The trio was held for hours.

“It sucked,” said DiLauro after he was released.

A police source said the gun “looked as real as it can get,” complete with a tripod and scope.

“It looked like a sniper rifle,” he said.

The buildings are within range of a school and state offices.

“The police said ‘Freeze!’ and they went down on the ground,” said Edgar Londono, the building’s super.

“They were holding a plastic case and a backpack. There were police all over the roofs.”

. . .

Louis DiLauro said the arrest was ridiculous.

“It was a make-believe gun!” he said.

“I rented it myself. I had to give them my credit card, so the police better give it back, or I’ll be charged $1,000.”

The new “New York story” has nothing to do with pizza, Broadway dreams or jazz but rather something more current:

Soho resident Jon Doran was going out for his morning cup of joe Wednesday and walking up Thompson St. with his yellow lab, Socha. They were forced to take a slight detour since the film crew of the Biography Channel had commandeered the sidewalks adjacent to the handball courts at Spring and Thompson Sts. while shooting promos.

Crossing back to the west side of Thompson, midblock, Socha (pronounced Sasha) stepped into a puddle in the street near the curb in front of 105 Thompson St. and began yelping and squealing like Doran had never heard before. The dog stiffened and fell into the water. Doran pulled her out — all 80 pounds, of what felt like dead weight. Socha appeared O.K. and her owner was mystified. A passerby, who witnessed these events, told him, “Your dog has been electrocuted.”

(While Socha clearly had received a severe electric shock, she wasn’t electrocuted, since “electrocuted” means to be killed by an electric charge.)

In the middle of the puddle, there was a manhole.

Immediately — the time was 10:48 a.m. — Doran called 911. While waiting for first-responders, he policed the puddle so no one else would wander into it. At 12:15 p.m. he called 911 again, pleading for someone to respond. At 12:38, almost two hours from the first call, police finally arrived, followed shortly after by firefighters. The area was cordoned off.

The CW network’s new Gossip Girl series finds Central Park rather busy this time of year:

Unlike Gossip Girl’s great-aunt Beverly Hills, 90210, there’s no morality play at work (in other words, no Brandon Walsh drinking and crashing!): They do drugs, have sex, plot how to get into the Ivy League and seem tiredly resigned to, well, life.

“Do you ever feel like our whole lives are planned out for us?” one boy asks another, as they stroll through Central Park sharing a joint. “Aren’t we entitled to be happy?”

“What we’re entitled to is a trust fund,” his friend replies. “Maybe a house in the Hamptons and a prescription drug problem. . . . But happiness? Does not seem to be on the menu. . . . So smoke up, and seal the deal with Blair, ’cause you are entitled to tap that ass.”

. . .

[Penn] Badgley’s character, Dan Humphrey, is the requisite outsider trying to break in — the one who’s standing in for us. Dan’s father is a former 90’s rock star, and his family lives in (gasp) Brooklyn (judging from the confusing exterior shots, a loft that is in both Carroll Gardens and Dumbo at the same time!).

“In the book Dan lived on the Upper West Side, which I felt was a little subtle for the rest of the world,” said [series co-creator Josh] Schwartz. “We moved him to Brooklyn, which is apparently our new Chino.”

. . .

“We were going to walk away from the show if they didn’t let us shoot in New York,” said Mr. Schwartz. “For us, to do another teen drama and to get excited about it was that this is the most exciting time in these kids’ lives in the most exciting city in the world. To try to fake that in Burbank or Canada just felt like it would be lacking that thing you get from shooting in New York. It’s a character in the show.”

Back in Central Park, that character was not cooperating. The rain arrived in force, and the next scene, a dramatic and emotional moment between the best friends-turned-enemies, was supposed to happen while the girls fed ducks in the Bethesda Fountain. The crew quickly packed up and switched locations to the Bethesda Terrace Arcade with its pretty Minton tile ceiling and arched entrance.

It turned out also to be a favorite spot for Thoth, a street performer famous in his own right (and the subject of an Academy Award–winning short documentary), decked out in a gold loincloth, red feather headdress and not much else, who plays violin, sings falsetto soprano and shakes the bells around his ankles. An assistant director quietly spoke into his ear while Thoth sat on his knees, unyielding. In the darker corners of the underpass various homeless people slept on the concrete benches, untroubled.

But at least now we know why New York has to have such a large police force:

New York is preparing to star as never before on prime-time TV this fall, thanks to a record number of new and returning shows being filmed on the city’s soundstages and streets.

Producers and city officials agree that 2007 is the most robust year ever for TV production in New York.

Six new network TV series have either started filming, or are preparing to start within the next two weeks.

“It’s really been incredible,” said Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. “We had a record number of pilots shooting in New York last winter and six of the pilots were picked up [for fall].”

Seven other series, on both broadcast and cable TV, are also in production here, creating a high demand for studio space at facilities in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

“There’s an energy with shooting in New York,” said David Manson, executive producer of one of the shows, “New Amsterdam” on Fox.

“It’s not only the city itself, but it’s the people you hire. There’s this terrific talent pool — actors, technicians, craftsmen, designers — and to have access to those people on a daily basis is a boon.”

Also being produced here: CW’s “Gossip Girl,” a drama about a group of filthy-rich teens; NBC’s “Lipstick Jungle,” based on the best seller by Candace Bushnell (”Sex and the City”) and starring Brooke Shields and Kim Raver (”24″); and ABC’s “Cashmere Mafia,” with Lucy Liu and Bonnie Somerville (”NYPD Blue”) as part of a group of ambitious New York women.

Shows already in production here include the FDNY drama “Rescue Me” and the new Glenn Close legal drama “Damage$” — both on FX; HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords NBC’s “30 Rock “Law & Order “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” now moving to cable on NBC-owned USA Network.

What’s driving the boom in New York TV production? Industry insiders credit the city’s “Made in NY” tax-incentive program, plus other city-provided perks such as free permits for on-location shooting and free police assistance.

New York is more Boston than Boston (and that’s a good thing?):

Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning film, “The Departed,” was shot mainly in New York, even though it is set in Boston.

And while no scene of “The Good Shepherd,” Robert De Niro’s critically acclaimed movie about the spying game, was set in New York, 80 percent of it was shot here.

Thanks to a 2-year-old tax-credit program, the Big Apple is enjoying a movie production boom.

In 2006, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting reports, there were 34,178 film-shooting days for 276 films.

That’s a 10 percent increase over 2005, the year the program began, and nearly 50 percent over 2004.

The Apple still runs behind Los Angeles in terms of shooting days. Tinseltown had 55,399 last year.

With the sharp rise in the number of film shoots in the city comes a new worst job ever:

“We get cursed on in every language in New York City,” said Matthew Ancrum, 49, a production assistant who lives in Bedford Park in the Bronx.

Rafael Diaz, 43, also from the Bronx, recalled a day last year when a woman in Washington Heights was so angry that his television crew was restricting parking in the neighborhood that she “spat in my face.”

In New York City, most workers on film and television crews belong to a union. But the people who testified yesterday at the forum, organized by the City University of New York, are non-unionized workers known as parking production assistants.

Their duties include putting up fliers the day before a film crew comes to a neighborhood, dropping orange parking cones on the street, safeguarding a site before filming begins and shooing drivers away from parking spaces at all hours.

. . .

Last year, according to the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, more than 250 films and 100 television programs were shot in the five boroughs. The productions contributed at least $5 billion to the city’s economy, and parking production assistants played a small but essential role in that effort.

And “for the record,” said Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner of the city’s film office, “we don’t close down streets. A production may or may not hire parking production assistants to reserve the permitted spaces.”

How do the assistants reserve the spaces? “Well,” she said, “that’s a question for the production assistants.”

For Mr. Ancrum, who has been a production assistant for 15 years and now works on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” it sometimes takes street diplomacy, with a dash of blarney.

“I’ve been cursed in Dominican, Colombian, Italian, people from Paris, Irish, Jewish, black, Cuban — and all because I tell them they can’t park their car here,” he said.

The toughest are the drug dealers.

“I know you’re looking at me all crazy,” said Mr. Ancrum, re-enacting the parking pitch he uses on drug dealers. “But, listen, I’m working production here. They’re going to have police officers here and police tow trucks for the cars that are still here. If you want to argue, that’s fine, but the police commander is going to shut you down, and you ain’t making no money.”

The latest New York mini-trend — as per Talk of the Town — complaining about “I Am Legend” location shoots:

Like residents of other photogenic parts of the city, people who live between the Brooklyn Bridge and the South Street Seaport have become accustomed to seeing their blocks turned into movie sets. Film trucks idle day and night in the street; there’s no parking; klieg lights illuminate the bedroom windows; and, as one resident put it the other day, “arrogant guys with a thug attitude tell you to stay off your own sidewalk.”

Even by local standards, last Tuesday’s shoot, for “I Am Legend,” a forthcoming Will Smith disaster movie, was remarkable. “I Am Legend” is, in terms of size, length, and logistics, one of the most ambitious location shoots that has ever taken place in the city. Since shooting began, in October, “Legend” has been establishing a new precedent for the aggressive takeover of public space. The movie camped out in Washington Square Park for weeks in October and November, restricting access for most of that time, and occasionally setting off loud explosions in the wee hours. Tuesday night was the first of six night shoots on Dover Street, near the Seaport. In addition to simulated gridlock on Dover, there was to be a panicked evacuation across South Street, and a Black Hawk helicopter was to land on a two-hundred-foot barge in the East River.

At 5 P.M., more than a thousand extras were waiting in two huge heated tents that had been set up in a lot near some basketball courts. There were men and women of all ages, and lots of kids, some of whom were doing their homework at long wooden tables. The film is set in a plague-ridden Manhattan; the infected extras had hectic splotches of red makeup on their faces. Some of the extras (or “background artists,” as they were referred to by the P.A.s) were making seven dollars and fifty cents an hour, and would be working well past midnight. On Tuesday, the temperature was thirty-four degrees; by Friday it would be in the teens.

At quarter past five, a P.A. began going around in the tents, making sure that the evacuees had their motivations down. “O.K., people, listen up,” he yelled through a megaphone. “You are tired. You’re on the verge of despair. But you’re not panicked — not at first. Later, you panic.”

“I Am Legend” officially becomes shorthand for “obnoxiously intrusive, seemingly eternally omnipresent film shoot”:

Don’t be alarmed by the fleet of Black Hawk helicopters and military ships converging on the Brooklyn Bridge tonight — it’s only the new Will Smith movie, police said yesterday.

For the next eight days, these mock military vehicles and more than a thousand extras will shoot an evacuation scene for the next Big Willie blockbuster, “I am Legend.”

The post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick is due out this December.

Filming will start at 4 p.m. and is expected to wrap up weekdays at 10 p.m., police said.

The decline of the film industry in New York City begins with just one community board committee:

Residents aren’t seeking a ban on film and television crews, just better notice whenever they pay Greenpoint-Williamsburg a visit.

To accomplish that goal, Community Board 1 member Jaye Fox recently started the Motion Pictures Committee, which will hold its inaugural meeting in early 2007. Fox, who serves as chair, hopes they can open a dialogue with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting — the agency that grants filming permits.

The new committee is the result of complaints regarding streets being shut down, parking spaces being reserved, and other issues. While Fox could not name specific film or television productions that have raised the public’s ire of late, she said that the community routinely grouses about them.

The chief gripe, she said, is that production crews appear out of nowhere, and without appropriate notice. “People don’t understand the process,” Fox said, “so they become inconvenienced.”

She said that CB1’s Motion Pictures Committee would like to have an impact on how the Mayor’s Office determines where production can take place, how much space is granted, and what opportunities for community feedback exist.

Village residents are the kind neighbors you need on your side — fiercely protective, totally devoted, annoyingly uppity, curmudgeonly crotchety and probably some of the last people you’d want to piss off with a movie shoot:

During a visit to the [I Am Legend] set on Mon. Oct. 30, it was clear what sort occasional inconveniences residents face. They range from the minor, as in not being able to walk down certain sidewalks near the park, to the medium, like having to use the back door to enter a couple of buildings, to the major, like fumes from the fiery explosions wafting into apartment windows all night from the pyrotechnics below.

“My dog got sick,” said Kim Hastreiter, a neighbor. “He’s nervous about lightning and thunder, and they set off explosions every 20 minutes from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. one night. It shook the building.”

Hastreiter said that the first few days the filming was cute, and the first week was sort of exciting, but by the second week it was annoying and by the third she was angry.

“I haven’t slept for three weeks,” she said. Hastreiter turned down the production company’s offer to black out her windows with Duvetyn — an opaque fabric that will block the bright movie lights. Many residents have taken them up on it, but Hastreiter said it’s not just the lights.

“They yell at you if you walk your dog on the sidewalk in front of your own building,” she said. “If this were outside of the mayor’s house this wouldn’t be happening.”

So what’s one to do? Take it out on the lowly P.A., of course:

It’s not all roses for the production people either. The majority of the production assistants are college age, yet face the daunting task of dealing with complaints from a variety of people. Some people have even physically threatened the P.A.’s, according to one “Legend” production assistant who refused to give her name.

“We’re not responsible for this, but they take it out on us,” she said.

Watching the way members of the community interacted with the P.A.’s on “lockdown” — the production people who block off foot and motor traffic — it was clear that some were a bit hostile.

At one point a man had a 5-minute argument with one young female P.A. about why he had to cross the street on the opposite side and then recross the opposite way to get to the corner he needed.

Look, I know it’s wrong but it feels good to kick the dog every once in a while . . .

See also: All I Have To Say Is This Will Smith Vehicle Better Be Fucking Brilliant; “Big Willie Style” — Read: Two-Story Luxury Trailer.

Part and parcel of the NYU experience is waiting for film crews to finish a take before you are allowed to continue on to class:

For the past few weeks, the line between day and night has been blurred in Washington Square Park: Enormous floodlights have lit up the park, making it glow from blocks away. Production equipment often sits unused in the day, and hundreds work through the night.

This is the production scene of “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith. The science-fiction action film, slated for release in fall 2007, is based on a 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson.

But some NYU students say the excitement — which will end Friday when production moves to another part of the city — is backfiring.

Though filming has been mostly at night, the park has been closed periodically during the day. At night, other lighting in the park often has to be turned off — while the lights from the production itself dominate.

“The lights shine through my windows at night,” said Boris Tartakovsky, a Stern freshman living in park-adjacent Goddard residence hall. “They have just taken over Washington Square.”

Steinhardt freshman Melanie Field said the production is cool, but the inconvenience isn’t.

“The other day, it was raining, and a guy with a walkie-talkie said, ‘Wait five minutes, we’re filming,’ so I had to stand there in the rain waiting to go to class,” she said. “They may be filming, but I’m living.”

See also: “Big Willie Style” — Read: Two-Story Luxury Trailer.

Location Scout: Washington Square Park.

It eventually occurs to some that 31,000 film shooting days a year is a gigantic pain in the ass:

During a peak production day, more than 75 production assistants — the “breaking-in” job in the film industry — work to create the fantasy of an empty city by keeping pedestrians out of the sprawling set. Often filming simultaneously in two locations, “I Am Legend” has so far taken over a five-block section of Midtown for stunts, Washington Square Park, streets in Chinatown and SoHo, as well as the front façade and ramp of Grand Central Station. Everywhere the movie is, a caravan of trucks, support vehicles, and [star Will] Smith’s two-story, luxury trailer take up neighboring streets. The film started shooting on September 28 and will continue through mid-February, [publicist Carol] McConnaughey said.

This is the new New York — a town that had 31,570 days of film shooting days in 2005, and seven television shows picked up this season. The city had 23,321 shooting days in 2004, according to the Mayor’s Office of Film, Television, and Broadcast [sic].

Once a rare spectacle, the giant flood lights held up by cranes, the “Spiderman III” acrobatics on downtown skyscrapers, and the eerily empty scenes of “I Am Legend” seem as common as Con Edison construction work. According to some residents, so far a minority, these productions have also become an inherent obstacle in city life, as the sets can obstruct parking, delay traffic, and make it difficult to get home or to work.

. . .

DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights have been given temporary moratoriums on filming in the last year when the onslaught of productions was too much. Neighborhood associations lobbied the Mayor’s Office of Film, Television, and Broadcast for the temporary reprieve. (Ironically, both areas are in the district of the tax credits’ most enthusiastic supporter, Council Member Yassky.) After a recent surge of film sets in Chinatown, residents and business owners there are asking for the city to stop granting street closure permits.

“It doesn’t always work well with residential neighborhoods like this one,” the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, Judy Stanton, said. “They can sometimes be very intrusive. They are sometimes very rude.”

Then there’s this:

Helen Uffner’s vintage clothing company may be adored by the costume designers who dress the characters in Broadway shows, but their support isn’t enough to keep her in business.

During her 28-year career, Uffner has offered bargain prices to theater groups on shoestring budgets, and wanted to expand her business to include more film clients who have fatter wallets. She hoped her company would be included in the city’s list of local vendors publicized to production companies. To be included in the “Made in NY” program organized by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, however, she would have to offer official discounts to films that would actually hurt her business.

“[The program] may be fine for retail establishments,” Uffner said, “but it’s hard for the small artisans. Looking at their list of wardrobe-related vendors I don’t see non-retail vendors. We can’t give a discount to the people who have budgets because we’re already giving discounts to the people who don’t have budgets.”

Nice!

Things get sort of meta when State Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who represents Astoria, makes a cameo on Law & Order:

The assemblyman said he will make a cameo appearance in an episode of “Law and Order,” which is scheduled to air on Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. In the episode, Gianaris will be seen at the City Hall Restaurant as the date of female defense lawyer Madchen Amick, whose character has a history with star Sam Waterston’s character.

But the assemblyman said he does not exactly know the identity of his character on the show.

“I don’t know if I’m playing myself or a generic guy in a suit,” he said.

Gianaris said he was asked to do a cameo on the show after having an off-hand conversation with an NBC executive several months ago.

“He said, ‘You look like someone who should be on TV,’ so I said, ‘You’re the NBC executive, put me on,” Gianaris said.

While the assemblyman’s cameo is expected to last for just a few seconds, he said he spent three hours doing 10 takes of the scene at City Hall.

Geez, where does this blurring of fiction and reality end? Will Fred Thompson run for office? Would Sam Waterston contribute big money to Robert Morgenthau’s campaign? Oh, wait.

Astoria is set to become a Greek television show titled “On 31st Street”:

“On 31st Street,” created by Woodside writer-director Demetri Demirakos, 26, and Greek Cypriot actor Andreas Georgio, 24, will follow the stories of several 20-something Greek-Americans living in Astoria. It is scheduled to shoot in the Astoria neighborhood as well as parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The episodes, which will be broadcast next fall on Greece’s Mega Channel and available to subscribers of the channel worldwide, will be broadcast mostly in Greek, but with some dialogue in English, said Konstantina Kontalipos, 28, associate producer for the show.

“Our aim is to, through the story, show different perspectives of how people live in New York,” Georgio said. “Greeks want to see how people live in Astoria and what it is like.”

The show’s creators said most people who travel to the United States from Greece end up visiting Astoria, which has one of the world’s largest Greek populations. Kontalipos said a number of Astoria cafes, restaurants and shops will make appearances in the show when it begins to air in Greece in October 2007.

In the show, Georgio, who has acted for several years on Greek television, will play lead character Alex Michaels, while Demirakos will act as writer and director of the episodes. The show’s other six cast members will be made up of local thespians and actors from Greece, but most of the show’s crew will be locals, Kontalipos said.

The show’s creators and producers recently set up their production office for the show on 31st Street near 30th Avenue, where they will be based for at least 1 1/2 years while the 28 episodes of “On 31st Street” are shot around the city. If the show is successful, the company will produce further seasons and possibly films.

I hope it’s not literally on 31st Street since the N train can get pretty loud . . .