(original title: “Hollywood Invades Hackensack”, but the company is actually in Santa Monica)

 

It all started the week before when I found this notice on my car in the parking lot of the church next door to my building, where I’ve parked since a couple of pastors ago:

They’re a good neighbor and we’ve helped each other out many times.

It’s not unusual for them to put out these notices occasionally because many people (the “unauthorized parkers”) from other nearby buildings just PARK there as if it was a free municipal parking lot.

But it IS unusual for them to close the lot for 3 days in a row.

 

One of the other tenants in my building is a church elder there and a friend of mine, so I asked her what she knew, since she also parks there.

She said there was going to be something going on that involved a TV or movie crew. We both park near the lot’s entrance/exit and she was told to park near the other end of the lot because the production crew needed the spaces near the entrance/exit, so I followed her lead and parked next to her at the other end:

 

Then all these yellow signs started popping up on all of the surrounding streets:

“POW”? What the hell is THAT? I guess the crew knew. And then there were numerous “CREW PARKING” signs and guess where they led to?

 

This was found near the church lot entrance on Ward St. Pointing upward? Were there multiple levels to park on? (not on this block):

But it directed the crew to the lot and informed them that SIXTY parking spots were available in that lot.

 

Just before the lot entrance, this sign indicated that an immediate right turn would probably get you one of those 60 spots:

 

You also knew that this was serious business when you saw that the police were also involved – especially on Monday, the 8th…………from MIDNIGHT until 10pm:

 

These signs were on the side street that separates the church and my building (Ward St) and were also found on every surrounding street (and for good reason, as you’ll see later).

This one’s by the back of my building:

 

The sun partially blocks out the fact that there were 35 additional parking spots in the municipal parking lot behind my building (and across the street from the church lot entrance), so there will be around 100 crew members descending upon us on Monday:

 

Another POW parking directional sign thrown in for good measure………

(“POW” – as it turns out – is short for “POWER”, as in “Power:Origins” – the name of the Starz series that’s being partially-filmed today.)

 

This last sign was at the corner where Ward St ends at Union St, where both the next-door church (436) and I (430) have addresses:

“SET” is pointing toward Anderson St, where I’m guessing all the action will take place on Monday.

 

 

On Sunday, this car with a constantly-blinking orange light at the top of its windshield was parked illegally – well, normally illegally – by a yellow curb ALL afternoon, ALL evening and ALL night on Ward St, directly across from the church’s parking lot entrance:

I got up early on Monday to find the car on the other side of the street and later, it sat all day in the first space in the church lot, so I’m guessing that the driver spent the night directing dozens of huge trucks to occupy EVERY SINGLE SPACE on EVERY SINGLE SURROUNDING STREET.

Also now on Ward St was this big truck that said “ANGEL AERIAL” on its side. Hmmmm……………..something interesting might be happening later:

 

So I went out at 8:30am to try to document everything I saw that was out of the ordinary.

Straight out of my front door is Conklin Place, which was now end-to-end huge trucks. This is what it looks like on a regular day – all cars:

 

Here are two partial views of that street early on the morning of December 8, with my building behind the second one:

 

Here are two PANOramic shots (click all PANOs twice to fully enlarge and then scroll side-to-side, if necessary) of the biggest trucks ever to park on Conklin Place:

 

Crew needs food, right?

 

I guess movie vehicles also need their own kind of food:

 

One more Conklin Place vehicle:

 

And now one very short walk over to blocked-off Anderson St – THE SET!

Keep that first car on the left in mind………….wait’ll you see what IT gets to eat!

 

So let’s take a stroll down Anderson St and see what’s needed to make this production happen (just don’t ask me what all these things are).

This is another PANO shot. The next picture shows everything that’s been unloaded on the far right side of the PANO:

 

Ever see a 3-door tractor-trailer? Interesting stuff in the back: a snow shovel, a basketball and a red plastic gas can (keep that gas can in mind):

 

And here is that very colorful 3-door tractor-trailer that came all the way from Maine. You can’t see the back door, but you CAN see the red plastic gas can:

 

If you think THAT was colorful, you’ll flip over the other side of the truck in this PANO:

 

A little less-colorful PANO:

 

Four more pix of stuff:

 

This last pic of “stuff” has something else going for it. I don’t recall the name of that corner eatery at 75 Anderson, but it wasn’t “Cosimo’s”:

So I asked Google……….the reply:

I DO know that they served Spanish food and that film-crew’s sign mentions only Italian food and looks WAY too new.

 

So I went back there a week later and guess what?

All writing on the sign is gone, the rim of it is now painted blue and all the Italian food has been transformed back to Spanish. Note that the Italian version has small signs and curtains covering the already-there Spanish signs.

Back to the Italian version: remember, we’ve still got that car out front to deal with later.

 

One thing I need to mention is that a crew member told me that this whole episode takes place in an Italian neighborhood in Queens, NY (hence, “Cosimo’s” and the New York license plates on the car parked in front of the eatery). As far as I know, NOTHING is portrayed as being in Hackensack.

 

As I start to head back home, the first cross street is a one-block segment of Pangborn Place. This is where all the westbound traffic on Anderson St has been diverted, including buses – something I’ve never seen before……..ESPECIALLY with film crew vehicles parked there:

 

I’m now in one-block-long Anderson Park, which is now surrounded by big vehicles on Anderson St and the other sides of vehicles we already saw on Conklin Place:

 

This is a closeup of a PANO on Conklin Place. Look what it says on the door:

I knew I saw another truck that mentioned Maywood – which borders Hackensack – but the “Power Origins Productions, INC” kind of blew my mind because that’s the business name of the Santa Monica, CA company that’s behind this whole shebang and “Power:Origins” is the name of the new Starz prequel series that’s partially being filmed in Hackensack………….and their trucking company is right-next-door in tiny Maywood? Very cool.

 

Continuing through Anderson Park, here’s something new………I thought maybe it was part of the movie set, but a crew member said it wasn’t:

Must be from Hackensack (as two other new park items we’ll see later must also be).

 

Back to the Ward St trucks………they’re now starting to empty their loads:

That lead truck is also from the Maywood “Power:Origins” company.

 

And directly across Ward St from that truck is the spotlight that will illuminate a Tiffany stained-glass window – from the outside – to create a brilliantly-bright window on the inside (as will the 4 spotlights on the other side of the church).

So why is this one aimed at the upper floors of my building on the other side of Ward St? Maybe it has a solar-powered battery? It IS facing the sun.

As I understand it, the only church filming is inside the church, which seems strange to those of us not in the know, given how brilliantly-lit the exterior will be.

 

Here’s a PANO of the front of the church that shows some of those other 4 spotlights to the right of (and below) the flag:

And why are those two cars closest to me (the PSE&G vehicle and the white one behind it) looking so small? Because their motion is from right to left and my PANO panning motion is moving from left to right, which compresses them (stationary vehicles are unaffected).

(Can you guess what would happen if I was panning from right to left? Hint: I have pictures of buses that are two blocks long.)

 

Back home, the Angel Aerial truck has dumped its load (discounting the two ladders, I don’t see any aerial components………..but what do I know?):

 

 

Back out for another AM stroll, I start with the church, showing spotlights on each side:

 

Closeup of the soon-to-be-very-tall street spotlight:

 

Side view of that spotlight and a few others:

That street spotlight will rise to great heights and do something I’ve never seen in my 37 years of living next door to that church.

 

 

Back in Anderson Park, we see the flip sides of two large Conklin Place trucks that we saw earlier (portable dressing rooms?):

 

I’m sorry, but this is the least-festive-looking Christmas decoration I’ve ever seen. It’s so raggedy:

It’s one of the two same new park items that I think the city provided. We’ll see it again later when it’s lit up (don’t hold your breath).

 

I didn’t see any of this stuff along Anderson St on my earlier stroll (that’s because you were on parallel Conklin Place, dumbass):

See that partial red and yellow box right above this sentence? I just noticed that it says “TOE WARMERS”.

 

Remember this statement? “Keep that first car on the left in mind………….wait’ll you see what IT gets to eat!”

Well, here it is!

WTF?

 

Later that evening, I mentioned seeing this to a crew member working with that very tall spotlight in front of the church. I’ve forgotten half of what he said, but it involved some guy (the car owner?) and the “Italian” eatery we saw earlier. There was nasty arguing on both sides, but I’m pretty sure he said it ended with the car owner beating someone with a baseball bat. Hey – wouldn’t you do the same to someone trying to turn your car into a vegetarian? (Is there meat in that mess? I can’t tell.)

I don’t know if the two people shown are in the movie or just passersby, but it does look like they might be arguing, so…………

Well, was all that worth the wait?

 

Another shot of my favorite 3-door truck:

 

More sidewalk stuff (or is it more of the same?):

 

There were two shots worth taking on the side-street (Park St):

I have no idea if that woman(? – I’m going by the longish blond hair) was part of the crew or a local who was “borrowing” a few items, but she might have a baseball bat under that coat, so I’ll leave her alone.

 

Back at the church, I got a nice shot of the church sign and the 4 spotlights that will illuminate the 4 Tiffany stained-glass windows to the delight of those inside:

 

BY THE WAY……….since we can’t go inside the church to see what’s what, I dug up some interior shots I took during daylight hours 3 years ago. Until the show airs, you’ll have to imagine the indoor Tiffany stained-glass windows with very bright outside spotlights on them (the first one is a PANO):

 

Back outside, the Insight Equipment truck on Ward St has dispensed some colorful containers (PANO):

 

Meanwhile, on the Anderson St side of the church, there was a lot of food and not a cash register in sight (PANO):

(I did not partake……..or attempt to.)

 

 

Pocket Canon shot (top) and an iPhone shot (bottom):

iPhone wins.

 

I thought the park holiday decorations came from Starz because I had never seen them before, but I’m told I am incorrect:

 

I’m sorry, but the somewhat out-of-focus lights are not helping that now-lit, unfestive-looking arch, so let’s make an adjustment:

Ah – much better!

 

Side view of two large vehicles on Anderson St:

 

Between those two trucks you can see a red sign and a yellow one. Here’s a closeup:

 

Hmmmmm………….dressing rooms for the Desi twins and the Lucy twins (Arnaz and Ball?)

More likely, Desi has two and so does Lucy.

 

Holiday lights, the church and a request in the second pic to please not wade in the fountain (behind me). And this request is necessary in December because…………..why?

 

 

The main spotlight is extended way up……and on! And could go a bit higher:

What purpose does it serve? All the filming in being done inside the church. If it’s supposed to illuminate the front Tiffany windows, wouldn’t it be more efficient to face the windows directly instead of at a very high angle?

Besides my building on the far right, there are two other apartment buildings a block behind the church that can now be seen, thanks to this light.

 

More on this later.

 

 

The side spotlights appear to be doing just fine aimed straight at the windows:

 

As does the one on the other side:

 

 

Back at home, I’m amazed to see how much is lit-up like I’ve never seen before:Even Manhattan looks a little brighter.

 

This isn’t particularly sharp, but it’s one of the two buildings that are a block behind the church and fully illuminated. One spotlight is even bouncing off one of the apartment windows:

 

 

That’s it for me………………..but I did find one other image online that interested me.

Someone who lives behind the church took this picture. An illuminated sliver of my building shows up on the far left:

She’s identified only as MinkSableSeven (on Reddit, which I’m not on), so that’s the best I can do credit-wise. I think I know which building she might be in (and I may have just photographed it), but I’m not about to mail a letter addressed to that ID.

She seems to be pretty much into Hackensack, so maybe she’ll stumble across this.  

If so, Merry Christmas, MSS (hey – your “initials” are in “Merry Christmas”!)

 

And Merry Christmas and Happy Everything Else to EVERYONE Else!