CBH Talk | Scouting Brooklyn: Inside the Film Location Archive

Before digital files, databases, and location-scouting apps transformed the industry, New York’s production world ran on hard copies—real photographs, taped into real folders, stored in real boxes. In the 1980s and ’90s, this analog system became an improvised but indispensable collective archive: a constantly expanding trove of panoramic shots of exteriors and interiors across the city, labeled everything from “Dark Alleys” to “Bowling Alleys.”

Join four veteran location scouts, Joe Guest, Lyn Pinezich, Eric Papa and Malaika Johnson, who helped build this one-of-a-kind resource, as they reflect on the origins of the collection, the collaborative culture that created it, the lost craft of that bygone era, and the art of location scouting today. CBH archivist Alice Griffin, who spent more than a year processing and organizing the files, will highlight standout images and surprising discoveries. Moderated by CBH Director of Programs Marcia Ely.