Business & Tech

'Hollywood East' Makes Inroads in Nassau

Film industry leaders to tour county for hot locations.

There’s increasing evidence that the film industry is rapidly discovering various advantages in Nassau County, and that could mean more jobs for locals.

On Monday and Tuesday, Nassau officials will lead a countywide tour for independent producers and directors as well as movie, commercial and television location managers and scouts.

The tour comes just days after the live televised broadcast of "The Sound of Music" starring Carrie Underwood, from Grumman Studios in Bethpage, a sound stage that once housed part of the NASA's space program. 

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“Nassau is becoming the Hollywood East of the motion picture and television industry as we have the perfect locations for many films,” Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said, in a press release. 

In the last year, the film industry generated more than $140 million in economic benefit for Nassau County, and employed 1,945 people, according to Camoin Associates, a Saratoga Springs-based economic planning consultant company, 

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Now filming more than four of the five boroughs in New York City, the industry is successfully employing local electricians, craftsmen, and artisans on many projects including what will soon be the most expensive movie ever filmed,” Mangano said, perhaps referring to “The Amazing Spider-Man 3.”

“Every time a film project calls Nassau County home, the local economy benefits as local people are put to work,” Mangano said.

Scouts and managers from “The Hunger Games,” the “Spiderman” franchise, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and HBO’s “Girls” and “Elementary” will be on the tour. Also aboard the bus will be Robert LaRosa and Marc Riou of independent production company, The Majors; actress and producer Deborah Twiss; and directorand producer Christine Vartoughian whose feature film, Living with the Dead, is currently in post-production.

Among the sites slated for the tour are the Chelsea Mansion, the Nassau County Correctional Center, F6 Labs shooting range, Old Bethpage Village Restoration, the BWD Building, the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building, the Allegria Hotel, Roosevelt Field Mall, Belmont Racetrack, the Garden City Hotel, both Gold Coast and Grumman Studios and other locations.


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