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Hollywood Underground: The Art of Making Movies in the New York City Subway


Jennifer Lopez and young co star wait for doors to open on a Manhattan-bound 4 train as she heads for her job in Maid in Manhattan.

Lights, camera, action, please stand clear of the closing doors. Huh? Yes, you heard right. That's the type of direction you can expect to hear in the New York City subway system, where filmmakers and television producers have come for decades to add depth, texture, and realism to any story that takes place in New York.

The responsibility of overseeing filming in the New York City Transit falls to Video Production Unit of the Division of Government Affairs. Division Director Lois Tendler believes NYC Transit offers an invaluable resource to the film industry and by extension provides an economic benefit to the city.

"Despite the fact that production requests often call upon us to exhibit great creativity, flexibility and energy, knowing that we here at NYC Transit play a role in fostering movie making in New York City is truly gratifying," she said.

Remember These?

Over the years some memorable celluloid moments have occurred in or around the New York City subway system. Remember Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle chasing an elevated train through south Brooklyn in The French Connection? Or how about the train-jackers who took the Lexington Avenue Local for ransom in The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3?

Both Eddie Murphy (in Coming to America) and Paul Hogan (in Crocodile Dundee) proposed to their brides in the New York City subway, presumably living happily ever after.

More recently, Jennifer Lopez boarded the 4 train in the Bronx and rode to her job in a swank midtown hotel in hit film Maid in Manhattan and a few years earlier she, Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson teamed as Transit cops in Money Train.

" New York City is like our back lot and filming in the subway system is one of the high points of working in New York City," said Gary Martin, president of production administration for the Columbia/Tri-Star Film Group. "Through Alberteen Anderson [head of Transit's Video Production Unit] and her staff, NYC Transit has been extremely accommodating. We began the process for the feature Money Train a year before filming actually started and they worked closely with us to make it happen."

The Video Production Unit handles the needs of scores of production companies from site scouting to picking a specific type of subway car. In fact, they'll even help arrange the purchase of subway cars, as they did for the producers of Money Train and Die Hard With a Vengeance, whose productions just happened to coincide with Transit's scrapping of a fleet of 40-year-old cars.

Additionally, Anderson's unit has catalogued an impressive list of film-friendly stations and lines. One popular location is the Grand Central-Times Square Shuttle during the off hours and another is the Church Avenue F Line station in Brooklyn's Kensington section, which boasts express tracks on the upper level and non-service tracks on the lower level.

"A major reason subway scenes are included in many movies filmed in New York City is to add a genuine feel of a city that pretty much lives as a result of its subway system," explained Anderson. "Also, with its hundreds of stations, miles of underground and elevated track and a diverse car fleet, directors don’t have to work particularly hard to get unique looking shots."

Martin concurred with Anderson's assessment. "In New York City everyone relates to the subway," he added. "Of course Chicago and Los Angeles have subways, too, but nothing can take the place of New York's system."

From the Small to the Large

Shoots can require virtually anything from the use of a subway sidewalk grating to a station platform or stationary rail car, or involve using a stretch of subway line and a full-length New York City subway train.

Jobs can last for a couple of hours or production crews can shoot in the system over the course of several months. Last year, 48 productions were shot in the subway system with project times ranging anywhere from one to six days.

Shooting a production in North America's largest mass transit system is a cooperative effort among several divisions and units of the Department of Subways, the Department of Buses, the Executive Vice President's Office and the Division of System Safety.

The process requires teamwork and coordination. A technical meeting is scheduled at the desired location. Representatives from the Visual Production Unit, the Divisions of Stations, Car Equipment, Department of System Safety, Contract Inspections, Electrical Department, and Rapid Transit Operations assemble discuss the request and scout the location in order to make certain the shoot is feasible and there are no safety issues.

If a train is involved and the shoot is to occur along an active line, the General Order Unit is called upon to clear the area of train traffic.

Charges take into account how long the production will last, how many NYC Transit employees will be needed for the job, and how long the job will take. The rental of a subway train includes the crew (train operator and conductor), a train service supervisor, and sometimes officers of the NYPD.

Learning to Walk the Walk

Anyone who walks along NYC Transit subway tracks must first take an eight-hour track class. The instruction educates newcomers to the dangers of working in the vicinity of moving trains and a live third rail. The classes, similar to the one given to Transit employees, are aimed at keeping everyone safe and raising the comfort level of folks who probably aren't accustomed to working around 400 tons of moving subway train.

Of course, safety always being a prime concern, all productions using Transit property are required to take out liability and railroad insurance policies of at least $2 million each.

As important as it is to make the system accessible to producers, the primary role of the subway system is to move people. If a production calls for shooting in a normally busy location, that project will be done during the overnight hours when impact on the public is minimal.

While most production personnel are repeat visitors and understand what it takes to keep the system running smoothly, a small number of location managers just don't get it. "Unfortunately, sometimes you will get a location manager or director who wishes to shoot in a busy station at the height of the rush hour," Anderson explained. "As important as their production is, our customers come first."

It's a complicated process to set everything up to the satisfaction of all sides. After all, while NYC Transit does its best to accommodate the industry, the authority also has 4.7 million subway riders to move each day. Does everything always roll smoothly? Well, no. At times Transit has to put its collective foot down and say no to a project.

Several years ago, the producers of the hit NBC drama Law and Order wanted to stage the deaths of several passengers struck down by a gas attack on a subway train. It was decided that coming so closely after the Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, the scene might raise concerns among riders.

However, since then, producer Dick Wolf has worked closely with Transit on several productions, including his series Players. "This was a major production for us," added Anderson. "It involved several tough shots and they came off without a problem."

Filming in the New York City subway system will always present challenges and opportunities. The next time you see a film, television show, commercial or music video that includes shots of NYC Transit's subway system, remember that a lot of work went into making it look just right.

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