Is NYC the New Hollywood? Part 1 of 2

MON April 5th

FIRST, I want to THANK ALL THE PEOPLE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO LEAVE COMMENTS about my previous pics. I REALLY DO APPRECIATE you all taking the time to do that. I spend a good amount of time on both taking the pics and posting them up and it really does me good to know that the effort is appreciated. Thank you.



Well, late last week I wanted a photographic change of pace so I set out to take pics of Antony Gormley's Event Horizon public sculpture exhibit that is going on over parts of downtown Manhattan.




However, it seems like fate had other plans for me because I was a bit hungry when I got out of the train station and went to go get something to munch on. Along the way what did I come upon but this sign ....



.... and it was then that I remembered reading that Law & Order: SVU was indeed shooting that day. So I walked over to see what I could see and what pics I could get. This time they were down by the intersection of 14th and Hudson Streets and 9th Avenue. I took the first pic of this set later on in the day when things had quieted down a bit during a break in the filming, but when I initially got there it was a MAD HOUSE. There were so many fans, tourists, passerbys and photographers. Honestly, I prefer taking their pics when they are uptown because it doesn't really get that crowded.









Now are these real or fake cop cars? You decide ... :D



Just for the record, they are real. :) I thought it was interesting shot of real cop cars being on the scene of a TV cop show shoot.

When I initially got there I didn't even see that Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni were directly in front of me shooting a scene (you can see her hand holding a coffee cup in the foreground of this picture) and did the big no-no when one is taking pics on set. I got within the line of view of their video equipment. For obvious reasons, in order to maintain credibility of the story, they don't want fans and photographers to be in the background of their scenes. Usually I am really good about staying where we are instructed to stand, but I was just crossing the street and saw the camera equipment and the geek in me just wanted to get a shot of the equipment and it was only afterwards that I realized what I had done. Sorry! I doubt I will end up being seen in the background of the final cut of the episode (which I read somewhere is titled Beef), but it will be funny if I am. :D



As you can tell from the angle, I moved to the side, where one is allowed to take pictures (just as long as one doesn't use a flash, since they don't allow flash photography during takes.) The set was definitely in a MUCH BETTER mood from the last time I took pics of them. I really think they must have been filming a difficult scene that day.











And then I saw one of the reasons why the set was in such a good mood .... Mariska Hargitay's son August was there with either some of his friends or with some of his relatives (at least to me there seemed to be a resemblance between the children.) August is BEYOND CUTE!!







Mariska really does multi-task whenever August is on set. Splitting her time between the camera work and spending time with her son.





A pensive moment.



At one point the kids were playing soccer and Mariska made certain that the kids were safe and held August back when the ball almost went into the street.









Mariska and Chris then went back to work. They had a much more difficult job that day because the area was so crowded. Passerbys would scream out Mariska's and Chris' names as they walked by and that would ruin the scene and they would have to re-shoot. Understandably, Chris became a little temporarily frustrated. The re-shoot seemed to go just fine.







They then took a break ....



.... and Mariska attempted to give August to whom I presume is his nanny, but August WAS NOT hearing any of that! He would NOT let go of his mom! It was one of the Most Adorable things to watch. The way they smile at each other is just TOO PRECIOUS!



In the end, guess who won out? Yep! August! :D



Now don't think August was the only one getting showered with Love. Right next to August and Mariska someone was at the same time showering their Cute Doggie with a ton of affection! :D :D




Now click here for Part 2 of this post, where there are more SVU pics.

Is NYC the New Hollywood? Part 2 of 2

MON APRIL 5th



(Part 1 of this post can be found HERE.)

Afterwards they went to Set #2, but soon after they came back out and took a break.



While I was there I met two die hard SVU fans, Cass and Chelsea, that I had met at a previous SVU shoot.



They had with them a scrapbook that they had made over the years that contained over 80 letters to Mariska from abuse survivors and fans from around the globe.





As Mariska was walking by, while still holding August, the girls tried to tell her about the scrapbook and give it to her. However, Mariska, in a very gracious manner, said that she couldn't take the book right then because she wanted to focus on August at the moment and that when she came back out she would take the scrapbook. Chelsea captured the whole exchange on video and August was just TOO CUTE giving smiles to the camera/camcorder and saying, "Thank you" when Chelsea told him that he was really cute. That kid is definitely on track to become a major movie/TV star! :D You can see the video clip on Chelsea's youtube channel, zuzu1614. The girls just could not stop smiling after speaking to Mariska and August.







So we all waited for Mariska to come back out of her trailer ....



.... and the girls were a bit worried that either Mariska would come out and go in a different direction than from where we were waiting or that after she spoke to all the fans that had gathered directly in front of her trailer that she would no longer want to speak to the girls or that she would have forgotten all about the girls and the scrapbook.

When Mariska came out of her trailer she was indeed greeted with a set of fans and, just like she usually does, she greeted them cheerfully and posed for pictures and signed autographs.



While this was going on the girls held back a bit and let the others get their turn speaking to Mariska. Then one of the crew told Mariska that she had to leave to go onto the next set and Mariska started to walk away. The girls quickly tried to catch her before she left but Mariska's bodyguard stopped the girls. The girls then told the guard that Mariska had told them to wait and that she would take the scrapbook from them when she came back out. Mariska overheard the girls speaking to the bodyguard and again in true "Mariska gracious as ever" fashion turned around and said that yes she had told the girls that. She then took the scrapbook from the girls and truly seemed touched when she heard that it contained fan letters from survivors. She genuinely thanked the girls, hugged Cass, and then said, "Hello" on Chelsea's tape that Chelsea was making for one of the their friends that lives in Canada who always wanted to meet Mariska. Mariska then waved a final goodbye and went to the next set. I thought the girls were going to die! LOL! :D They were so excited and happy that they were literally shaking and they couldn't stop smiling!! :D This may seem odd to uber-fans or to people who don't live here, but after a while taking these SVU pics can get real boring ... too much of the same thing. I really only take them now for all of you fans that can't get here and see the filming for yourselves. However, interactions with fans like Cass and Chelsea make taking the pics fun again because witnessing their excitement at meeting their idols is fun. :D








After leaving the SVU set my plan was to get back to my original plan of taking pictures of the public sculpture exhibit, but it seemed like the "filming gods" (Lol! I know I am Corny!) had other plans for me. I only walked one two blocks and then saw this sign.



I had to laugh because it seems like I just can't get away from Law & Order. LoL! Though I knew that I was not going to be able to get all the way downtown on Monday to get pics of that shoot.

So I kept on walking eastwards in order to get to the exhibit, but my attention was diverted by all the great sights at Union Square Park. :D The picture below was taken by David Shankbone.




There was a made up woman with her doll .... No comment (wink, wink) .... ;)



.... some type of fancy car (I really don't know car types) ....



.... the Olde Good Things (Architectural Salvage & Altered Antiques) truck with all their unique and sometimes Crazy restored items ...





.... and a FANTASTIC street sand artist named Joe Mangrum. You should check out his site http://www.joemangrum.com/, he has more pics of this work and is selling a photobook of all his FABULOUS creations. Can you believe this is nothing but colored sand? :D




I did end up getting some pics of some of the sculptures I originally set out to photograph that day, but by that point I realized I would have to set aside another day to complete the exhibit. Given that, I decided to head home and as I was walking up Broadway I unexpectedly came upon another film or tv shoot for some sort of Sci-Fi project. I think the project was called something like "Sci-Fi Science", but I am not certain about the title. If anyone knows can you please leave me a comment with the information. TIA! :D Everyone was dressed in full Sci-fi "regalia." Lol! :D I LOVE Sci-fi so I'm definitely not mocking them! :D







And my favorite two because I am a Total and Proud Trekkie! :D





After that I continued walking up Broadway and no more than two minutes passed by and low and behold flying down the street blasting music and accompanied by a police escort was an open flat bed truck with a band and camera equipment filming what appeared to be was a music video. I couldn't stop laughing because it just seemed like today was meant to be "film day." :D Christine from OLV told me that the band Boys Meets Girl has been filming a video in NYC. Maybe it was them????



I then got in the subway and headed home. However, first I snapped some pics of a few "crazy" things that caught my eye.

I don't know for sure, but I think it might be illegal to alter a U.S. Post Box? :D



And I have NO idea why Pet Central at 247 West 23rd Street is selling these, but they made me chuckle! :D






Two days later I went out with the plan to just take Bird/Nature shots because I wanted a break from any filming related shots so I headed over to Riverside Park. I think the "film gods" were still stalking me though because the very first thing I saw that day, right next to Riverside Church, was an advertisement photo shoot. Someone said it was for watches. They were using a smoke machine during the shoot. I hope I get to see how their official photos come out. If any of you all end up seeing the ad please leave a comment here with where you saw it. TIA! :) The first photo below is not mine.

















As a photographer, I really like the subtle differences in each shot.



The photographer was only taking close up pics of their faces so I laughed when they took a break and I saw that the female model had had on slippers the whole time.



During their break. I will admit that I am anti-smoking so maybe this is my bias showing through, but the model doesn't look quite as pretty with a cigarette in her mouth, does she?








Well finally, a few days later, the "film gods" have left me because Law & Order: Criminal Intent was filming near me in Harlem, but they wrapped up their shoot super early because by the time I was able to get to the shoot they were all packed up and all I got were pics of one of the fake cop cars being hauled away! Lol! :D :D Well you can't get pics of them all! :D





With all of this filming/shooting going on, I just have to ask the following question, "Is NYC becoming the New Hollywood?" :D

Hope you enjoyed all the pics! :)