CBH Talk | Scouting Brooklyn: Inside the CBH 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.” This command-central workspace was where location scouts shared the day’s work, taping freshly developed prints into hand-labeled folders and studying one another’s material—saving countless hours of duplicate shooting. Decades later, this remarkable visual record of Brooklyn’s streets, storefronts, and neighborhoods has been processed, preserved in the Center for Brooklyn History archives, now accessible to all researchers, filmmakers, and curious Brooklynites. 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.