When apartment listings—their TVs, actually—go to the movies
Almost every listing these days comes with some kind of digital doctoring, whether it's virtually adding in furniture, populating new-development renderings with "ghost" residents, or scrubbing the current owner's extensive taxidermy collection from the walls. And lately, we've been noticing more photos of apartments on the market with televisions tuned into classic films, usually Casablanca.
Fellini appears to be a favorite, too:
The movie-minded listings are all coming from Novo International, a downtown brokerage "established in the Nevada desert during the 2008 Burning Man Festival," per the firm's website. (We've reached out to Novo for comment, and will update if we hear back.) The photos all stick to tried-and-trues—you'll see scenes from Gone With The Wind and To Catch a Thief, but not, say, Dude, Where's My Car?
Though not every one of its listings features an iconic film, the company does seem to employ the practice for both sales and rentals. And while the Photoshopping may be the work of an in-house movie buff, there could be some more delicate psychology to the whole process—use Humphrey Bogart for a prewar on the Upper East Side, but a place in the testosterone-y Financial District? Time to break out John Wayne.
It's unclear if referencing a potential buyer or seller's favorite film would sway them towards one rental over another, but perhaps there's a more pertinent question in all this: Does that flatscreen come with the apartment?
Related:
Renderings demystified: why NYC developers pack their ads with "ghost" residents
