SHOOT THE APPLE--Film production in New York...

SHOOT THE APPLE--Film production in New York City reached a new high last year with 78 features shot all or in part there, compared to 66 in 1983. The previous record of 76 features was set in 1981.

Patricia Reed Scott, director of the mayor’s film office, attributed some of the increased production to two new 12,000-square-foot sound stages at Kaufman-Astoria Studios. She estimated that about $350 million to $400 million now is generated annually by film making in the city. Acknowledging that “a few films” have been lost to London and to such newly popular Canadian production centers as Toronto and Vancouver, she said, “This is more a result of (those cities) being alternatives to the U.S. than it is to their being alternatives to New York.”