There is a long history of television and film in New Jersey, which is considered the birthplace of the movie picture industry. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The roots of the industry started in Newark with Hannibal Goodwin's patent of nitrocellulose film in 1887. [4] Motion picture technology was invented by Thomas Edison, with early work done at his laboratory in West Orange. Edison's Black Maria, the world's first movie studio, is where the first motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States, Fred Ott's Sneeze , was shot. [6] [7]
The Centaur Film Company of Bayonne was the first independent movie studio in the USA. America's first motion picture industry started in 1907 in Fort Lee and the first studio was constructed there in 1909. [8] [9] [10] Alice Guy-Blaché, widely considered to be the world's first female film director, worked in the borough. Oscar Micheaux's film The Exile , the first African-American sound film, was filmed in Fort Lee along with many other Micheaux films. [11]
Fred Wesley Wentworth was commissioned in 1914 by Jacob Fabian to build the Regent in Paterson, one of the first theaters built exclusively for the exhibition of moving pictures. [12] [13] [14] The nation's first drive-in theater opened at Airport Circle in 1933.
DuMont Laboratories in Passaic, developed early sets and made the first broadcast to the private home, documented in Passaic: Birthplace of Television and the DuMont Story (1951).
The New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission was established in 1976. [15] [16]
Many television shows and motion picture films have been filmed in New Jersey, [17] [18] [19] with incentives offered by the state.
When Governor Phil Murphy took office in 2018 he reinstated the New Jersey Film & Digital Media Tax Credit Program, which had been suspended by the previous adminsitration. It was expanded in 2020. The benefits include a 30% tax credit on film projects and a 40% subsidy for studio developments. [20] [21] Murphy signed legislation in January 2023 increasing the state's digital media content production tax credit to 35% of qualified expenses purchased through vendors in South Jersey and Mercer County. In addition, the bill increased the cumulative annual limitation on digital media content production tax credits from $10 million to $30 million. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, the bill also allows an additional $100 million in tax credits for New Jersey film-lease partners from tax credits authorized under other incentive programs. [22]
Fort Lee is home to America's first motion picture industry. [23] [24] [25] A large number of early films, many silent, were shot at studios and on location in and around the town. With the first constructed in 1909, there were 11 major studios in Fort Lee by 1918. [26] [27]
The floor space and height of the Jersey City Armory has led to its use as a temporary studio for many projects. [28] The expansive floor and high ceilings of the Teaneck Armory has been used for numerous film shoots. [29]
In 2010, a new Studio City New Jersey was opened in Trenton. [30] [31] [32] and in 2011, the Ironbound Film and Television Studio was opened in Newark. [33] [34]
After the closure of the Meadowlands Arena as a sports and entertainment venue, NBC leased the space and converted it to a major film studio in 2019. [35]
Criterion Group converted a warehouse in Jersey City to the state's largest film studio named Caven Point Studio; [36] it has with three soundstages. [37] In February 2021, Palisade Stages opened its 23,000 square feet studio in Kearny. Supor Studio City in Harrison was converted from seven existing buildings into studios. [38] Another studio opened on Kearny Point in 2022, 10 Basin Studios. [39]
As of 2021, other studio development projects are being considered in Bayonne, Jersey City, Linden, Newark, Malaga and Atlantic City. [38] [2] In October 2021, Netflix announced its intention to bid for a redevelopment of a 289-acre parcel at Fort Monmouth to turn it into Netflix's second-largest production complex. [40] In March 2022, Township of West Orange announced a partnership with, a studio design and development company, MBS Group, to redevelop properties adjacent to Thomas Edison's Laboratory to build up to eight sound studios. [41] Also in the same month, the construction of a major studio at Bergen Point was announced. Called 1888 Studios, it will be the largest in New Jersey and the largest ground-up movie studio complex in North America. [42] [43]
In 2022, the city of Newark announced that a major new film and television production studio to be called "Lionsgate Newark Studios," would open in 2024 on the 15-acre former Seth Boyden Terrace housing project site at 101 Center Terrace in the Dayton section in the city's South Ward. Lionsgate Newark will partner on public relations and community affairs with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. [44] [45] [46]
A large swath of the state is within the "thirty-mile zone" around Columbus Circle in New York, allowing productions to save on travel cost obligations because a shoot is in the same zone as personnel's residences. Entertainment industry labor unions use the studio zone to determine per diem rates, work rules, and workers' compensation for union workers. Portions of Hudson, Essex, and Bergen counties are in the 8-mile SAG-AFTRA zone running from same location.[ citation needed ]
Rutgers University established the Rutgers Filmmaking Center in New Brunswick in 2011. Though it is a relatively new program, the program has been ranked highly among the nation's film schools. [47] Variety named it “one of the top programs in the United States."
Hudson County is the smallest and most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in the New York metropolitan area, the county seat is Jersey City, which is the county's largest city in terms of both population and area.
Bayonne is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was the state's 15th-most-populous municipality, surpassing 2010 #15 Passaic, with a population of 71,686, an increase of 8,662 (+13.7%) from the 2010 census count of 63,024, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,182 (+1.9%) from the 61,842 counted in the 2000 census. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 69,527 in 2022, ranking the city the 543rd-most-populous in the country.
Secaucus is a town in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 22,181, an increase of 5,917 (+36.4%) from the 2010 census count of 16,264, which in turn reflected an increase of 333 (+2.1%) from the 15,931 counted in the 2000 census.
Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades.
WNET, branded on-air as "Thirteen", is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group, it is a sister station to the area's secondary PBS member, Garden City, New York–licensed WLIW, and two class A stations which share spectrum with WNET: WNDT-CD and WMBQ-CD ; through an outsourcing agreement, The WNET Group also operates New Jersey's PBS state network NJ PBS and the website NJ Spotlight.
WWOR-TV is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW. Both stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood, while WWOR-TV's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.
The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, broadcasting their programming as well as producing and broadcasting their own programming, mostly relating to issues in New Jersey. With studios in both Trenton and Newark, NJN's television network covered all of New Jersey, plus parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Delaware. The radio network primarily served several areas of New Jersey that were not covered by Philadelphia and New York City public radio stations.
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. The media of New York City are internationally influential and include some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, biggest record companies, and most prolific television studios in the world. It is a major global center for the book, magazine, music, newspaper, and television industries.
Joseph Francis Biroc, ASC was an American cinematographer. He was born in New York City and began working in films at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After working there for approximately six years, he moved to Los Angeles. Once in Southern California, Biroc worked at the RKO Pictures movie studio. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and filmed the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. In 1950, Biroc left RKO Pictures and freelanced on projects at various studios. In addition to his film work, which included It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), Biroc worked on various television series, including the Adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman. He frequently collaborated with film director Robert Aldrich.
Bayonne High School (BHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Bayonne, in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operated by the Bayonne Board of Education. The school has been accredited until July 2022 by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools.
The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey, located atop the New Jersey Palisades, along the west side of the Hudson River. It is bound by Paterson Plank Road on the north, Highway 139 on the south, Hoboken on the east, and the Hackensack River on the west. and Penhorn Creek on the west. Its postal area ZIP Codes are 07307, and portions of 07306.
The Gateway Region is the primary urbanized area of the northeastern section of New Jersey. It is anchored by Newark, the state's most populous city. It is part of the New York metropolitan area.
Hackensack River Greenway, once known as the Hackensack RiverWalk, a is partially constructed greenway along the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.
New Jersey Drive is a 1995 crime drama film written and directed by Nick Gomez and executive produced by Spike Lee. The film is about joyriding teenagers in 1990s Newark, New Jersey, then known as the "car theft capital of the world". The film was an official selection at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival.
The Golden Door Film Festival is a film festival in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, which was inaugurated in 2011. The four-day festival shows features, documentaries, and shorts. The opening and closing night awards ceremony are located at the 1929 movie palace Loew's Jersey Theatre at Journal Square with many screenings and other events at various Downtown venues. The festival was founded by actor, producer, and musician Bill Sorvino. There are competitive awards for features, shorts, documentaries, student works, LBGT-themed films and the Women in Cinema-Alice Guy-Blaché Award for female directors.
1888 Studios is a proposed film and television studio planned to be built on a 70 acres (28 ha) site at Bergen Point in Bayonne, New Jersey. Its name is a nod to the year the movie camera was invented.At 22 million gross square feet, reports say it will be the largest ground-up movie studio complex in North America.
The Barrymore Film Center is a publicly owned, non-profit film history museum and archive, with a 260-seat cinema and repertory theater, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The BFC is dedicated to the role of the town as the birthplace of American cinema. It is named for the Barrymore family, members of whom lived in and worked in the borough.
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