Fair Lawn is ready for its close-up. How the town plans to attract more film, TV production

Lights, camera, action — Fair Lawn is ready for its close-up.

The borough has officially become one of the first Film Ready communities in North Jersey, a certification from the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission that local officials hope will attract more film shoots to town.

During the five-step certification process, completed in November, officials learned about the basics of motion picture and television production, accommodating location shooting and how best to market Fair Lawn as a cinematic destination.

“Fair Lawn is like a sampler platter,” said Ryan Greff, executive director of Fair Lawn Main Street Inc. “We’ve got everything from pre-colonial Tudor England [homes] in the Radburn district to a city appeal with our Broadway Route 4 district.”

Borough is now 'Film Ready'

The Film Ready process includes a one-day workshop where industry professionals, local mayors and Motion Picture & Television Commission staff teach municipalities about the economic impact of hosting on-location filming, needed ordinances and permitting procedures and the opportunities for small businesses, says the commission website.

Greff said a few ordinances in town were tweaked to make it easier for filming. The borough manager’s office, for example, was designated as the borough's film liaison, and fees were reduced for smaller film studios.

Becoming a Film Ready Community means the borough is now part of Reel-Scout, which hosts a digital location library and also acts as a project management system between towns and filming studios. Greff said Fair Lawn Main Street Inc. has taken and uploaded photos of over 100 spots in the borough to attract filmmakers. A team is actively adding new sites to Reel-Scout to increase interest, he said.

“That could mean a photo of your local coffee shop to show it would be a great place to film, or photos of Fair Lawn Avenue and River Road as small-town America,” Greff said. “Fair Lawn is a destination site to do filming.”

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Greff said Main Street Inc. was thrilled to help the borough get certified, as few North Jersey towns have done so.

“It sets Fair Lawn apart in terms of showcasing what it has to offer,” he said.

Movies, TV shows shot in Fair Lawn

The borough is no stranger to movie and TV productions; in the past, scenes from "The Sopranos," "Ransom" and the 2010 Will Ferrell flick "The Other Guys" were shot in town.

Robert De Niro also famously told a Secret Service agent in the 1976 classic "Taxi Driver" that he was from Fair Lawn, Mayor Kurt Peluso noted in a statement to the Motion Picture & Television Commission — 154 Hopper Ave., to be specific.

"We've had a nice history with the film industry, and we're looking to continue to have that grow," Peluso said.

Even before the borough received its Film Ready certification, it was a location last year for the BET+ series “Diarra From Detroit,” which was shot on Broadway between Plaza Road and Hartley Place, Greff said.

A lifelong borough resident, Greff said he felt that locations in town could fit all types of movies. He imagined Fair Lawn Memorial Pool as a great place for an “Adam Sandler family fun” sort of movie.

“I think it would fill our residents with so much pride if a family fun movie was filmed in our town,” Greff said.

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.com

Twitter: @snoda11

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen town wants to attract more TV, movie filming