New York has always been a favorite location for filmmakers, but over the past decade production in the city has exploded, increasing by 25 percent and contributing over 130,000 jobs and $7.6 billion to the economy. Helping to fuel this boom is the New York City Mayor's Office for Media and Entertainment, the first city agency of its kind in the world. Established in 1966, the office oversees film and television production in New York and fosters the relationship between filmmakers and the local economy.
Produced with the agency, Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York. Revised and Expanded is the new 2014 edition of James Sanders’ history of the past five decades of film and television shot in NYC, from Sweet Smell of Success and "The Honeymooners" to The Amazing Spider-Man and "Girls." Pentagram has designed the new edition, building on their format for the original 2006 book.
The original Scenes from the City was published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment in 2006. (The office is widely recognized by its "Made in NY" brand identity designed by Alfalfa Studio.) The new edition looks ahead to the agency’s 50th anniversary in 2016 and includes sixty new pages covering the last decade, including the increased television production that has taken place in the city since the book’s initial publication.
The new edition extends the original 2006 design. The designers worked closely with Sanders to develop a chronological framework for the book. Arranged by decade, the book surveys New York's extraordinary moments in film and television, both in front of and behind the camera. Over 500 rare photographs are featured, as well as the words of leading directors, actors and filmmakers who have worked in the city.
Each chapter opens with a selection of the best-remembered location films of the featured decade, as well as some of the distinctive landmarks seen in those films, and wraps up with a selection of evocative New York “moments” from the same period. Throughout the book, special sections look at specific areas of the city in detail, from Coney Island to SoHo, Central Park to the Bronx, Greenwich Village to Times Square. The jacket of the new edition replaces the original’s black with silver but retains the iconic image of the Queensboro Bridge from Woody Allen’s Manhattan.
