White Plains is gaining increasing prominence in several ways: as a burgeoning business and cultural center, as an example of new suburban downtown development, and, apparently, as a valuable and accommodating shoot location for producers of major motion pictures.

“Unfaithful,” released in 2002, was partially shot in the city. “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” currently in production and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei, used the St. Agnes Hospital site for shooting in late July [See “Hollywood Comes to White Plains” by Joshua Friesen, Aug. 5]. And “A Dog Year,” an HBO Films production that will be distributed by Picturehouse in theatres, used a home on Greenridge Avenue and the surrounding area for shooting that ended on Aug. 18.

Star Man
Jeff Bridges, the four-time Academy Award nominee, will play Jon Katz, a writer, editor, and journalist whose memoir is the basis for the film. The story centers on Katz, a man in the throes of a midlife crisis who takes in a border collie “crazier than he is,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Producer Liz Manne told the White Plains Times that the filmmakers were looking for a colonial house “in a specific kind of neighborhood” to serve as Katz’s movie home. After leaving a flier at the home of Jane Mercaldi and Jonathon Booth, a deal was struck and the filmmakers spent over a month shooting in the home and the surrounding area. The flier mentioned Jeff Bridges was the star of the movie, and “that’s what caught my eye, as a fan,” Mercaldi said.

Manne said that shooting in all areas of New York is on the rise because of tax incentives implemented by the New York State Film Commission. “It’s been a really great economic boost to the state,” Manne said of the increasing shooting in the state, “which I’m happy about both as a filmmaker and as a resident of the city and state of New York.” About 90 percent of the crew live in the city and returned there after each day of shooting, Manne said, but Bridges and other members of the cast and crew stayed at the Rye Town Hilton.

Manne said the White Plains Police Department and the residents the crew interacted with were “unbelievably gracious and welcoming.” She admitted that a movie can be “very invasive,” and she said that she and her crew “try to act like guests in someone’s home” when they shoot in a particular location.

Mercaldi, Booth, and their son Jon, 16, were put up in a two-bed, two-bath, 10th-floor apartment at Bank Street Commons. The filmmakers originally wanted to rent them a home in Scarsdale, but the family wanted to stay in White Plains, in part because they own a business in the city. Mercaldi is a lifelong resident of the city, and Jon is a fourth-generation resident. Mercaldi said the family felt fortunate because they were moved out July 17, a day before a major storm struck the city and knocked out power in many homes, including Mercaldi’s. “This was really a luxury to be in an air-conditioned apartment for that time,” Mercaldi said of the storm and the heat wave that followed it.

When Mercaldi spoke to the White Plains Times on Monday, the filmmakers were still putting her house back together. All the furniture was put in the attic or into storage (though some of it was later brought back out for shooting, Mercaldi said), and some rooms were even repainted. The backyard, which played host to the multiple dogs playing Devon, Katz’s dog, also needed to be put back to its original state. Mercaldi said she was looking forward to seeing the film, with her home of 13 years as a co-star, “especially since they trashed it,” she said. “The character was a real slob, so it doesn't look like our house.”

Manne said that roughly 30 percent of the shooting was done in the city; they are currently shooting in upstate Washington County, and the film should be released in late 2007.