Assistant Directors

Here is how the work lines up. The New York AD scene is its own ecosystem — built on the DGA East Coast chapter, the NYC 1st AD ladder that has made first ADs for Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Sidney Lumet and the long modern run of HBO, Netflix, Apple TV+ and Marvel features that are based at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Silvercup in Long Island City, Kaufman Astoria in Queens and Broadway Stages across the boroughs. Our 1st ADs come out of that tradition.

Many carry credits on prestige series like Succession, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Sopranos legacy units, Severance and Billions, on Marvel and DC features shooting NYC exteriors and Steiner stages, and on the indie features that route through Wildflower Studios and York Studios in the Bronx.

They prepare day-out-of-days breakdowns, strip boards and shooting orders during NYC pre-production offices, then drive the set across Manhattan's grid inside MOME (Made in NY) film permits, NYPD Movie & TV Unit corridors, MTA bridge-and-tunnel windows and Landmarks Preservation Commission heritage frames — holding the day against turnaround, meal-penalty and crowd flow without losing the director's prep or breaking the bond.

On the floor the AD department runs DGA East-compliant set control with full IATSE Local 161 coordination. Our 1st ADs run safety oversight, walkie discipline and crowd marshalling in tight Manhattan streets — Times Square, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge approaches, Grand Central concourse, Penn Station, Central Park, the High Line, Prospect Park, Coney Island and DUMBO under MOME with NYPD escort — while the 2nd AD desk handles call sheets, talent movement, SAG-AFTRA Local 1 paperwork, Teamsters Local 817 transport coordination and background casting through Central Casting NY.

Heritage-and-city work — Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island under NPS commercial permits, Grand Central with MTA approval and dwell-time limits, Central Park with Conservancy coordination, MTA subway location filming with platform shutdowns timed to the published service schedule, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Coney Island Boardwalk, Penn Station shooting windows — gets ADs who already know the lead times and the precinct relationships, and who match the daily plan to the NY State 30% film tax credit plus the 10% NYC uplift that the line producer is tracking through Empire State Development PCN paperwork in parallel.

For multi-unit features we field complete AD departments — 1st, 2nd, 2nd 2nd, key set PAs, crowd marshals and base-camp coordinators — across main, splinter, second and aerial units so the production keeps a single rhythm from Manhattan to Brooklyn, Queens and back without losing turnover.