On Location
TV and film production companies choose University for its scenery, students and services
In October, a production company for NJ Lottery chose the Red Hawk Diner at Montclair State University for a Holiday Scratch-Offs commercial shoot.
It was a scene you wouldn’t expect in October, but there it was: the University’s Red Hawk Diner, decked out for the holidays and covered in a blanket of gleaming faux snow.
A mini-van pulls up and several festive revelers pile out and excitedly hurry up the steps of the diner – all under the glare of bright production lights and studio cameras.
But they’re not students: They’re paid actors shooting a professional commercial for NJ Lottery Holiday Scratch-Offs – just one of many professional productions to film on campus and work with the School of Communication and Media’s Broadcast and Media Operations facilities and services.
“The University is rich with a variety of locations for commercials and film projects,” says Patricia Piroh, director of Production Services and Technology for Broadcast and Media Operations.
“We have a diner, Mission revival-style buildings, traditional-looking and contemporary dorms, indoor and outdoor pools, a fully functioning newsroom, film and TV studios – including the only fully integrated 4K studio available for rent in the Metropolitan New York area – athletic fields, you name it,” says Piroh.
Requests for filming cross Piroh’s desk regularly as she serves as point person for production companies seeking access to campus, while providing real-life experience for students studying broadcast production.
“I see our services as an enhancement for those seeking to use the University as a location for their film or TV project,” says Piroh. ”Because the College of the Arts and Broadcast and Media Operations understand the needs of film projects and the flow of how securing locations happens, we have been able to streamline the process, and provide on-the-ground support. We coordinate with parking services, facilities, campus police and our administration to get the required permissions for shoots, so film producers don’t have to. This makes production at the University very attractive. If you have a need, we can fill it.”
As a result, the University is developing a reputation as an East Coast Hollywood. “Montclair State is widely acknowledged as the leader among all universities in New Jersey in its engagement with the burgeoning film and television industry here,” says Daniel Gurskis, dean of the College of the Arts. While many are seeking location shoots at the University, Gurskis says this has also led to off-campus opportunities, such as “placing students on production crews for films like Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.”
Whenever possible, Piroh reports, Broadcast and Media Operations involves students as part of the crew: ”I view location production activity on campus as an extension of the academic experience for students in the School of Communication and Media.”
With the NJ Lottery Red Hawk Diner shoot, Kiler Weir ’20 served as a production assistant for both Broadcast and Media Operations and the film crew.
“Working with the very talented professionals who produced the NJ Lottery commercial, I learned many things that I could have never learned in a classroom,” says Weir. “It was incredible watching the crew transform the diner into a winter holiday scene. Everyone wanted to be there and it made the whole experience one I would do again in a heartbeat.”
It’s not just that Montclair State has great locations, says Piroh. “We also provide expert service, and we have talented and eager students.”
“It’s a win-win-win.”