The 6th man off the bench in Covid Ditty are our locations- the neighborhood of Kingsbridge in the Bronx; an inspiration that leads to our story telling. Mission control was the Kingsbridge Donut Shop. We shot a few episodes outside and the legendary Sandy Kenyon, from ABC Eyewitness news and the Today in NY crew hosted by Darlene Rodriguez used the space for our interviews during the cold weather. Junior and Javier, the owners of the legendary Donut Shop, gladly had our crew and actors use it as a holding area when shooting in the neighborhood. The Donut Shop will later be used as an inspiration for the gentrification that is going on in the Bronx, through rising rents, as the Donut Shop was forced to close, after 20 years and move location. Check out episode 7 for this story.
We are a union Sag Aftra shoot, with a fair wage and offer our locations fair pay as well. We do not shut down a location, but manage to shoot around customers, delivery boys, and the sound of roaring subways. A recurring line in our show, usually uttered by Phil and echoed by Charlie, to refer to New York problems is “We’ve been Deblasioed.” Just the mention of the former mayor’s name encouraged a burly construction worker to proudly shout “F! DeBlasio” as he passed our location. Where in turn I just yelled “CUT!” as our actors broke out in laughter and we had to do another take. All part of a days work, on location, in wonderful Kingsbridge.
Stay tuned for more insights as we continue our process.
-Steve Greenstein