Brooklyn location scouting photographs collection

Location scouting is a part of the pre-production process of making a film or television show and location scouts generally work under the Location Management team. Once the director or producer decides the type of setting they would like for scenes of a movie or TV episode, a location scout will go out to take photographs of places that fit the request or will source a location from their existing database of location photographs. In addition to the images, location scouts collect information on the location, such as owners' contact information, rental prices, limitations of the location, and anything else that might be useful for a director or producer when reviewing the photographs.

Filming on location in New York City became more appealing for the film and television industry after Mayor John Lindsay signed Executive Order 10 in 1966, forming the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. The popularity of filming in real New York locations instead of on a set created the need for a Locations Department.

At the time the photographs in this collection were taken, location scouts created physical dossiers, manila folders taped together to create pages on which the photographs were taped. To show panoramic views, multiple photographs were taken and taped together to create an uninterrupted image. These dossiers were then presented to the Location Manager, the Production Designer, and finally to the Director.

In the late 1990s, a group of New York-based Locations Department workers obtained a storage space in Bayonne, New Jersey where scouting photographs could be donated at the end of a shoot and used by others starting a new project. Part of the collection was moved to a smaller storage space in Bethpage, Long Island in 2010 because digital photography and digital platforms for sharing and storing files was becoming more common. Now, location scout photography is digital and managed and shared digitally.

Lyn Pinezich is a New York-based filmmaker who began as a Location Scout and Location Manager in the late 1980s, working on movies such as Scent of a Woman (1992), Maid in Manhattan (2002), and War of the Worlds (2005). Pinezich then moved into Production Management.

Pinezich is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and served as Chair of the DGA's Eastern Council for Assistant Directors and Unit Production Managers.

Michael (Mike) Kriaris is a New York City-based location manager who has worked on productions such as The Big Short (2015), Salt (2010), The Cowboy Way (1994). He is a member of the Directors Guild of America.