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The Capital-Saratoga Region is rich in architecture and locations that have made it a
perfect setting for films, videos and commercials. Throughout the years, producers,
directors and production designers have selected sites for the silver screen from
Albany, Fulton, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga and Washington Counties.
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DreamWorks filmed scenes from their 2001 production of the Time Machine, starring Guy Pearce, among the grounds, the ponds and the greenery in Schenectady's Central Park. The director Simon Wells determined that Schenectady's park replicated the general layout of the grounds and the ponds of Manhattan's Central Park, circa 1899.
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The Washington Park area (Lancaster Street) in Albany was transformed into Time Machine's Gotham's Central Park and New York City streets. Clinton St. and Fourth Avenue and Lark Street in Albany were transformed into a Depression-era look for the movie Ironweed with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in 1987.
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Troy's downtown represents beautifully preserved architecture that became the setting for turn-of-the-century New York City scenes of the Time Machine. Troy's downtown was also "set-dressed" for Ironweed and for the 1993 production of Age of Innocence (Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Rider). Existing storefronts were turned into ones from an earlier era. The Gothic architecture of the Emma Willard School campus, a prestigious private girls boarding school, was the setting for two major motion pictures: Scent of a Woman (1992), starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell, and Emperor's Club (2002), starring Kevin Kline. In both cases the campus was transformed into an all-boys school. Classrooms as well as the inner and outer campus were used.
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Saratoga Springs is where Ghost Story (1981), Billy Bathgate (1990), The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Seabiscuit (2003) were filmed. Many parts of the 2,100-acre Saratoga Spa State Park were used in the production of Billy Bathgate and The Horse Whisperer. The Hall of Springs interior was used as a ballroom in Billy Bathgate, where Nicole Kidman danced the night away. Special effects scenes depicting the horrific horse and rider accident in The Horse Whisperer were filmed near some of the picnic areas in the southern end of the park. A guest room in the Gideon Putnam Hotel was "dressed" to look like a much shoddier motel room where Kristin Scott Thomas slept on her way across the country in The Horse Whisperer.
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The homes along North Broadway in Saratoga Springs were used by Fred Astaire, Melvin Douglas, John Houseman and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in the filming of Ghost Story. The Canfield Casino is located in the center of Congress Park surrounded by ponds, fountains, and a gazebo. The front and the interior of the Casino were used as doubles for the New York City Jockey Club in Seabiscuit. The Saratoga Race Course, the oldest operating thoroughbred track in the country, served as locations in both Billy Bathgate and Seabiscuit. The Saratoga countryside and horse farms captured the "beauty" shots filmed there for both Billy Bathgate and Seabiscuit.
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To Find Out More Contact the Capital-Saratoga Film Commission
info@capital-saratogafilm.com
518-584-3255
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