Film · Documentary
The Ghostbusters Firehouse
A short documentary about New York’s Hook and Ladder 8, the firehouse exterior featured in Ghostbusters.
About the project
In the bustling streets of NYC, where the ordinary often brushes shoulders with the extraordinary, stands a building with a dual identity. Firefighters call it Hook and Ladder 8. Moviegoers, pop culture enthusiasts, and anyone who's ever been afraid of no ghost know it as something else: the home of the Ghostbusters.
Armed with a GoPro and an iPhone, I set out to capture this iconic piece of cinema history. These tools, discreet and unassuming, allow me to blend into the city's chaos, to observe without intruding, to tell a story without becoming a part of it.
The Ghostbusters' Firehouse, with its beaux-arts style exterior, wasn't chosen by accident. Rumor has it that an early draft of the script envisioned the Ghostbusters as a public service, akin to the fire department. But the truth? Writer Dan Aykroyd simply knew the area and liked the building.
But here's where Hollywood pulls a fast one on you. While the exterior of the Firehouse served as the face of the Ghostbusters' base, the interior was a different story altogether. Thanks to the magic of movie-making, the inside scenes were shot in a Los Angeles studio and in Fire Station 23, a decommissioned Los Angeles firehouse.
So there it stands, Hook and Ladder 8, a working firehouse and a piece of pop culture history, all in one. A building that tells a story, that holds a secret. And thanks to a GoPro, an iPhone, and a love for the stories hidden in plain sight, I got to tell that story.
