About Town: Movie Shoot Brings Revenue to Rye

“Robot and Frank” has left the building; library building that is, along with the movie’s film crew and its stars, Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella trailing big bucks in their wake while causing minimal disturbance.

The library is now fully up-and-running richer for the experience in more ways than one –at least $4,800 richer in licensing and parking fees paid alone.

The movie production company paid Rye $3,200 in licensing fees and $1,600 in parking fees for a film shoot that basically lasted over a long weekend, according to Rye City Manager Scott Pickup.

The Rye Board of Education also received an undisclosed parking amount because the production company used the high school parking lot for garaging purposes during the shoot.

The library also received an undisclosed donation from the production company for use of a large part of the first floor as a set.

While it wasn’t exactly business as usual, the library remained open throughout the filming, which was basically restricted to the main reading room. The conference room served as a “Green Room” or actors' lounge used for relaxing between takes.

Executive director Kitty Little said there had been minimal disruption during the shoot and the library would be fully up and running by Monday, but it was pretty much business as usual by the weekend.

Little and her staff had essentially re-arranged the main floor into a mini-library so that books and DVDs were still available to library goers during the shoot.

The computer room remained open, as did the children’s library downstairs, which served as the return desk while the bulk of the library’s main and second floor functioned as a film set.

Little was coy about the amount of the donation.

“Actually, we’ve decided not to release the amount, but it was disappointing,” she said, the “we’ meaning the Rye Free Reading Room Board of Trustees and Ms. Little.

“I’ll tell you what wasn’t disappointing –I was tremendously impressed with the way the movie production team replaced everything so meticulously and perfectly back in place over the weekend without any loss or breakage –and that means replacing 90,000 items–from books to DVDs to CDs–all in the right place.”

Little said the production company donation will also help the financially hard-pressed RFRR which recently received a $100,000 state construction grant to refurbish the library’s second floor. That grant has been successfully matched by private donors.

Little also thanked the Auxiliary Board for funds raised through the recent Vehicle Fair as well as its support programs and special collections, the Women’s Club of Rye-Children’s Philanthropy Section and the Midland School Parent-Teachers Organization who underwrote the “Teacher in the Library” program.

She also extended a "thank you" to library users for putting up with the disruptions during the film shoot and for donating to the RFRR. “Actually, when you come right down to it, it was pretty cool to have a movie shoot here,” she said. ”And now that the wi-fi is up, we are fully up and running.”

Correction: The amount $7,000 was deleted from the headline of this story and its summary- Editor.