Gowanus studio that films FX’s ‘The Americans’ fighting closure
Alongside the head of one of North America’s most polluted waterways, a small film studio finds its existence threatened as two colossal bureaucracies battle head-to-head over the location of a key component to the long-awaited Superfund clean-up of the Gowanus Canal. Eastern Effects, Inc. is a small but highly sophisticated studio, rated level two by the Governor’s Office of Motion Picture and Film Development. It’s one of very few in South Brooklyn.
It also happens to be home to one of the most popular programs on television: FX’s “The Americans.”
Founded in 1999 by Scott Levy, Eastern Effects gradually expanded into several buildings in the Gowanus neighborhood. “It felt comfortable, this neighborhood,” Levy explained to press and community supporters while providing a tour of the 40,000-square-foot Nevins Street soundstage, where the hit FX show is currently on hiatus, but sets and props familiar to fans of the Jennings family fill every available space.