Residents of DUMBO are shouting, “Cut!” to film crews who hog the streets of a neighborhood that is already besieged by street work and construction.
In the past two weeks, at least six film and television productions — cop dramas, art flicks and even a Louis Vuitton commercial — have lensed the screen using DUMBO’s gritty industrial backdrop and sweeping city views.
But neighbors say that Hollywood couldn’t have picked a worse time to spotlight their hot area, what with chunks of Water Street blocked off to accommodate construction, street reconstruction and water main work.
“Give me a break,” said Fred Connolly, who thinks film shoots are burdensome to drivers who must compete for parking. “Enough is enough; tell ’em to go back to Tribeca.”
Connolly wants big-budget filmmakers to pay for neighbors’ parking garage spaces when they invade the streets, and was irked last week when yet another crew — this time for a crime thriller, “The Projectionist” — set up camp for three days. (A spokesperson for the movie didn’t return calls on Friday.)
It’s hardly the first time movie crews have gotten bad reviews from the neighborhood. In 2007, the city temporarily deemed DUMBO, along with Brooklyn Heights, a no-film zone after couple of particularly inconvenient shoots.
Since then, DUMBO has set the screen for movies such as “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” staring Sandra Bullock; “Dark Horse,” starring Christopher Walken (which is directed by twisted genius Todd Solondz); “Friends With Kids” starring Megan Fox; along with a smattering of TV shows such as “Law and Order.”
On top of that, at least four condo towers — 205 Water St., 220 Water St., 192 Water St. and 37 Bridge St. — have sprouted in a two-bock radius near Water and Bridge streets, making parking even tougher.
Those towers are just a couple blocks from a four-block stretch of Water Street that’s been blocked off construction teams, who are ripping up the pavement as part of a $5-million water main and sewer replacement project.
That’s part of why community leaders want more notice from the city, along with the stricter enforcement, when it comes crews that overstay allotted permit times.
“It can be a hassle,” said Doreen Gallo of the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance. “It seems like we’re getting bombarded.”
Another option is a film “moratorium,” during which the city asks filmmakers to “take five” in certain movie-burdened neighborhoods. Marybeth Ihle of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting would say only that those decisions “are handled on a case-by-case basis” and that “it depends on what’s happening in the neighborhood.”
Either way, Connolly wants the city to clamp down before the weather gets warm — and even more crews flood his backyard.
“This is just the beginning of the tidal wave,” he said. “We are about to get hammered.”
