It’s lights, camera, action in our county, which is attracting more and more top-tier stars and directors for movie and television production. Find out what’s filming here now, and what lies ahead—you just may find your own town in the spotlight!
When Owen Holland, owner of Yonkers’ Action Camera Cars, took the renowned director Spike Lee for a ride in one of his vehicles on a movie shoot, Holland got the unique opportunity to show Lee a little excitement on the set. “We were shooting [Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of the 1963 film High and Low ] starring Denzel Washington last year, and Spike had never been in one of my cars, so we convinced him to [ride] in one,” says Holland, whose company supplies drivers, technicians, and custom-built vehicles for mounted cameras.
“We were [filming] a high-speed scene of a scooter trying to escape cop cars in the Bronx. So, Spike’s sitting next to me, we take off, and he’s holding on for dear life as we swerve around,” recalls Holland. “We come to a stop and Spike cracks up laughing and says, ‘OK, that’s one and done for me. I’m out of here!’”
Action Camera Cars has worked on many films and shows in addition to Highest 2 Lowest, including Ghostbusters: Frozen Planet, The Equalizer on CBS, Apple TV’s Severance, and FX’s American Horror Story. It’s just one of several companies in the county facilitating filmmaking. Another local vendor is Yonkers’ Aimes Medical Equipment Rentals & Props, also known as “Dr. Props,” which is often used to supply material for hospital scenes—they’ve provided props for The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, and Law & Order: SVU. And Harrison-based Wings Air Helicopters has contributed to several action films including Fast & Furious 7, the 2012 remake of Total Recall, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The Perfect Setting
Westchester has had a leading role on big and small screens as far back as the early 2000s when notable movies like Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can and War of the Worlds, and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and The Irishman, were partially filmed here. Even in 2023, as the Writers Guild of America strike cratered production around the country, shows like the hit Netflix thriller The Blacklist, CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted, and FOX’s Kitchen Nightmares were all shot here. Last year, HBO’s megahit period drama The Gilded Age, Peacock’s darkly comic Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne and Adrien Brody, as well as NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime, were among the dozens of productions shooting locally.
“There’s a lot of buzz in Westchester. It’s exciting for residents when they see film trucks in town, and it is a point of hometown pride to see our locations and neighborhoods featured onscreen,” says Natasha Caputo, Westchester County’s director of tourism and film. “Our local businesses play a key role by providing tremendous support to the industry. We have a wide variety of vendors including hair and makeup artists, equipment rentals, marketing teams, and post-production facilities. To further empower businesses, we recently hosted a virtual webinar, Reel Ready Westchester, to help them become more film-friendly and participate in the film sector,” Caputo adds.
As for why our county is a coveted location in the first place, Caputo notes it is a combination of factors. “What we hear from the industry is that our locations can stand in for anywhere in the world and for any point in time,” she says. “Creatively, the county is attractive because there’s a wide range of housing stock in lower Westchester that can reflect a variety of characters from a Wall Street banker to a working-class bank robber.”
Lauri Pitkus, location manager for both HBO’s The Gilded Age and the 2024 flick The Instigators, starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, echoes this sentiment. She explains that filming in Westchester is attractive for three primary reasons. “One, [Westchester] is within the 25-mile zone that we’re required to observe per various craft union’s designation as ‘local’ locations,” Pitkus says, referring to regulations that tie a production staff to the New York City area.
There’s a lot of buzz in Westchester. It’s exciting for residents when they see film trucks in town, and it’s a point of hometown pride to see our locations and neighborhoods featured onscreen.
Where the Magic Happens
Westchester doesn’t just star on screens of all sizes, it’s also become home to state-of-the-art studios. “Our county boasts a thriving filmmaking community along with a robust production infrastructure,” explains Caputo, who adds that “Great Point Studios in Yonkers is poised to become the largest in the Northeast.”
Robert Halmi, founder and CEO of Great Point, has been a leader in local film production. In 2022, the Bedford resident and Hallmark Channel founder set out to bring a slice of Hollywood to our region with a $500 million campus, which he created alongside investment banker Fehmi Zeko. Lionsgate Entertainment’s 12-acre facility at Great Point Studios currently features more than a dozen state-of-the-art soundstages, along with offices, backlots, and support spaces. Great Point also operates a $100 million MediaPro facility and two other campuses, all in Yonkers. According to Halmi, this is indicative of a broader push not only into film and television production, but also for the enrichment and improvement of our community.
“When we’re done [with Great Point Studios’ expansion], we’ll have six to eight big series here filming at one time, and that will create north of 5,000 jobs in Yonkers. We’ve already created 1,000 jobs here and we should be done within 24 months,” says Halmi. “Local restaurants saw a big uptick when we began. The Wells Avenue campus as it exists today with its five stages involves 700 to 900 people working here a day; so, they have to eat, they have to get their dry cleaning done, and sometimes they rent hotel rooms and places [nearby] for short-term stays. There will be lot of people working in this area that will support the community.”
Another boon to our local production scene is Haven Studios NY, which sisters Nicole and Gabrielle Zeller opened in 2014. Haven is New York State’s only certified, women-owned production facility. “What truly sets Haven Studios NY apart is our boutique soundstage. We strive to provide our clients with a personalized experience, to help offset the many challenges encountered in planning and filming a production. Our facility is a one-stop shop, offering exclusivity and privacy,” according to Nicole Zeller.
In addition to a 30,000-square-foot soundstage, Haven Studios NY offers ancillary areas including dressing rooms, production offices, conference rooms, construction and rigging areas, wardrobe and prop storage, and kitchenettes. Haven’s recent productions include HBO’s The Leftovers and Scenes from a Marriage, Hulu’s The Path, and Apple TV’s Severance. “[They] all filmed at our stage,” says Zeller. “In fact, The Leftovers was the first production to rent out our space.”
In fact, adds Zeller, The Leftovers filmed its entire first season at Haven, between 2013 and 2014. “They had location shots throughout Westchester as well, but Haven was their home base, and they filmed a large majority of their scenes here,” explains Zeller. As for Severance, Zeller notes that they filmed “part of the first season at Haven in 2020 and 2021. Both The Leftovers and Severance built entire sets that they continually used for filming. The Leftovers actually took over [our building’s] old offices and transformed them into a police station.”
Rounding out the local production facilities are smaller companies like Eastchester’s Azure Stages, which provides an intimate setting for music videos and commercials, and Peekskillbased Alchemy Post Sound, which offers postproduction services.
Robert DePalma, creative director at Azure Stages, notes that his facility attracts plenty of big names. “We’ve hosted celebrities for various productions, including Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams for WIX, and [actor] Brendan Fraser, who shot a trailer for his podcast series, The Downloaded.”
Location, Location, Location
Laurie Pitkus, the location manager for popular HBO drama The Gilded Age, left no stone unturned when it came to exploring the county’s grandest locations. “For The Gilded Age, we visited every intact historic estate with a mansion in Westchester that was open to filming,” she recalls. “We settled on Lyndhurst as Aurora Fane’s house and Glenview for Mrs. Astor’s house in season one. We return to both houses in each subsequent season.”
“Filming at Lyndhurst is attractive because it’s situated on over 40 acres of property, much of which provides the park-like setting where we film scenes scripted for Manhattan’s Central Park,” says Pitkus. “There is also a beautiful old stable on the property that we converted into The New York Globe newspaper office where Peggy gets a job in season one. We also filmed a train crash at the Edith Macy Conference Center. It was a great location because in addition to its hilly landscape, there are also various cabins and meeting halls on the property, one of which we transformed into a tavern in Lower Manhattan.”
Howard Zar, Lyndhurst’s executive director, notes that the benefits of the property in Tarrytown extend far beyond the beauty of the mansion and scenery. “Our staff is extremely experienced at helping film companies pick the locations that best meet the aesthetic vision of the director. Our crew understands changing light and weather conditions, and can guide film companies to schedule their shoots in the most efficient ways.”
Zar also notes that Lyndhurst employs “legal and finance staff who can make the corporate preparatory work go smoothly. We have all the necessary venues to service large productions, including parking for vehicles of all sizes, kitchens and dining halls for food service, areas that can serve as offices for directing and editing staff, special designated spaces for when child actors are involved, in addition to extensive and flexible areas for hair, makeup, costume, and props.”
Besides Lyndhurst, Glenview in Yonkers, and the Edith May Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, The Gilded Age also filmed scenes at the Jacob Purdy House and Pace University in White Plains, Sleepy Hollow Country Club, and Manhattanville College’s Reid Castle in Purchase. Indeed, the HBO period drama is a veritable tour of our county.
When Pitkus was scouting locations for The Instigators, which was directed by Doug Liman and follows two robbers on the lam, she searched throughout southern Westchester looking for the perfect places to shoot the dark comedy. “We scoured areas of New Rochelle, Port Chester, and White Plains before settling on White Plains [for the location of the character] Cobby’s home,” says Pitkus. “Ultimately, the house we selected in White Plains worked because of its proximity to neighboring houses. We wanted to portray the idea of a neighborhood where everyone knows your business.”
Similarly, Mike Hartel, location manager for CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted found much of what he needed for his show in the county. “Westchester is unique because it offers all kinds of geography and architecture,” Hartel explains. “Mansions, factories, waterfalls, beaches, apartments, parks, hotels, motels; [it has] a little bit of everything. The diversity makes Westchester ideal for us to make this show successful.”
In fact, Hartel insists there are “too many locations in Westchester to list” when it comes to where his gritty show has been shot. “We have filmed about 100 episodes, and many of them have been all over Westchester,” he says. “The Sonesta Hotel, Westchester Community College, White Plains City Hall, Stepinac High School, SUNY Purchase, many homes, restaurants, including White Plains’ Townhouse Diner, bars, and so many other places all served as settings for FBI: Most Wanted.” But if Hartel had to name the one spot that particularly stood out, it was undoubtedly a local court. “The old-world, powerful courtroom inside Yonkers City Hall is spectacular,” he says.
Coming Attractions
With so much going on in the county, it begs the question: What lies ahead? “Westchester’s film industry is poised for continued growth and innovation,” says Caputo. “The expansion of Great Point Studios and the opening of the Robert Halmi Sr. Academy of Film and Television complementing several existing undergraduate programs for filmmakers [such as at Pace University and Westchester Community College]—all highlight the county’s commitment to building both infrastructure and the next generation of talent. We expect to see a steady increase in productions as the industry [continues to] rebound.” The Robert Halmi Sr. Academy of Film and Television was founded in 2024 by Robert Halmi, Jr. and is focused on teaching the next generation of actors, directors, production and crew members courses centered upon filmmaking, including performance, editing, sound, and production design.
Westchester’s 10th County Executive Ken Jenkins adds that local filming has been a tremendous boon for our economy. “Productions spend generously, supporting local businesses like restaurants, plumbing suppliers, and electricians. The numbers speak volumes,” he says, pointing to more than a billion dollars injected into the local economy in 2022, including 4,743 jobs and $458 million in wages—up from 3,784 jobs and almost $356.8 million in wages in 2021.
This all bodes well for the future. “Over the past year, filmmaking in Westchester has remained steady, even as the industry works to rebound from the 2023 industry strikes. We continue to see interest from productions drawn to our diverse locations, proximity to New York City, and robust local resources,” Caputo says. “While activity hasn’t surged to prestrike levels, we’re optimistic about growth as the industry regains momentum, and we and our local businesses and communities are ready to support this expected uptick.”
Caputo also notes that all the county-funded industry forums and initiatives, such as the free virtual business event Reel Ready Westchester—which helped area companies and towns attract film shoots, earn local fees, provide production services, and stimulate growth—“ensures that our local businesses are ready to support productions, creating even more opportunities for economic and community impact,” she says. “By investing in both our workforce and our film-friendly infrastructure, Westchester is not just keeping pace with the industry—it’s setting the stage for a vibrant and sustainable future in filmmaking.”
For The Gilded Age, we visited every intact historic estate with a mansion in Westchester that was open to filming. We settled on Lyndhurst as Aurora Fane’s house and Glenview for Mrs. Astor’s house.
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