Period-Correct Details

“You have to have a photographer’s eye to see the things that will kill ‘a historic’ shot,” said Matt Lamb, a location manager for television shows such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Godfather of Harlem at a talk hosted by the Historical Districts Council. An errant a/c unit here or an LED sign there can undo all the hard work of his colleagues in the props and wardrobe departments. Lamb and his interlocutor, Lorna Nowvé, an industry veteran who recently worked on Only Murders in the Building, discussed the difficulties of recreating vintage New York even as they acknowledged the disruptions entailed by their work. Trailers and street closures interrupt the flow of life and commerce; communities that are location hotspots often work with the city to ban trailer parking. Lamb stressed ways for lowering the temperature—quite literally so: a big budget production that he worked on paid businesses for days lost and then bought ice cream from a local merchant for the whole street. Poignantly, he and Nowvé spoke about film and TV’s ability to memorialize overlooked parts of the city. For instance, turn-of-century beach bungalows in Staten Island, destroyed in Hurricane Sandy, are now preserved in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, in which the borough’s coastline doubles as the Jersey Shore. Even when New York is playing someplace else, its inner character shines through, Lamb concluded. “NYC is not LA, it is not Atlanta. It is always New York and what I’m proud of.”