He or she simply hires an experienced New York City location scout. When Joseph Zolfo, who happens to be one of these, was working on the Barry Levinson film Sleepers, his job was to transform the working class neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn into 1965 Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. And when the production designer was concerned that air conditioners in apartment building windows were threatening that illusion, Zolfo had to canvas the community and see if he could have them taken out. So just before shooting, during the hottest part of a New York summer, he knocked on every door in a six block square radius and made the request. Greenpoint is a primarily Polish and Spanish-speaking community along the East River.
Many people living there speak no English at all.
It wasn't long before approximately 200 air conditioners had been removed from windows facing the street. I explained to them the situation and asked them to work with us. And 99 percent of them did. Well, talk to most location people who spend a lot of time getting to know the city's neighborhoods and they will probably be the first to refute that stereotype. And you hear stories like this over and over.