ENTERTAINMENT

'Sex Lives of College Girls' puts Vassar in HBO Max spotlight, added $5M to area economy

Mike Benischek
Poughkeepsie Journal

Without financial aid, it costs roughly $62,000 to attend Vassar College this academic year. It’s another roughly $16,000 to live on campus.

At $15 a month — $10 if you don’t mind watching ads — Essex College may be an attractive alternative option. And the campuses look strikingly similar.

Essex made its debut Thursday with the premiere of “The Sex Lives of College Girls” on HBO Max. While the college itself may be fictitious, the setting is not. The Mindy Kaling-created dramedy filmed for roughly three weeks on and around Vassar’s town of Poughkeepsie campus, creating a buzz as onlookers and even college employees delighted in seeing actors, crews and Essex signage and props, such as fake bookstore advertisements and general announcement bulletin boards.

Vassar College was transformed to Essex College in June for the filming of "The Sex Lives of College Girls."

The production left behind more than memories. The Hudson Valley Film Commission estimates “The Sex Lives of College Girls” pumped $5 million into the local economy, when tallying expenditures on local crew members, extras, hotel stays, site and inconvenience fees, and other related costs.

Laurent Rejto, commission director, called that a low estimate, noting he believes the number of hotel nights recorded — 2,160 from May 24 to July 10 — is undercounted. The total also doesn’t include any local spending in stores or on things such as food and drinks the cast and crew may have been responsible for.

Filming: 2021 is already a record year for film production revenue locally. See what's filming next.

June: Why are there Essex College signs at Vassar? Poughkeepsie campus used to film HBO show

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The streaming show was part of a memorable month of June that saw 10 productions, including HBO’s “The White House Plumbers” and Hulu’s “Life & Beth,” filming around the region. Through the third quarter of the year, the film commission estimates the industry has produced a $48.3 million impact on the Hudson Valley, already a record amount for any year.

“It keeps people employed,” Rejto said of the impact of shows like “College Girls” filming locally. “We don’t count indirect spending, but when people hang out in Poughkeepsie and go out to eat, that’s a nice benefit.”

Vassar College was transformed to Essex College in June for the filming of "The Sex Lives of College Girls."

The show was created by Kaling, best known for acting in and writing for “The Office,” and creating and starring in “The Mindy Kaling Project; and Justin Noble, a writer for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” It’s is centered on the exploits, mismatched interpersonal interactions and, yes, romantic relationships, of four freshman roommates at a New England liberal arts college.

Kaling circulated a link to this article on Twitter Thursday morning, saying, "We loved shooting in beautiful ⁦Poughkeepsie! The town and people in it are the best. Our cast and crew loved every minute of our stay there."

It stars Amrit Kaur, Renee Rapp, Alyah Chanelle Scott and Pauline Chalamet; Rapp is known for a starring role in “Mean Girls” on Broadway, and while Chalamet appeared in “The King of Staten Island,” she is perhaps best known as being Timothee Chalamet’s sister.

However, for locals, the star may be the setting.

Gladwyn Lopez, Vassar associated vice president for communications, said filming at the school was “primarily” outside of buildings, with a variety of locations used that included the main gate, athletic fields, the president’s house, the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, Rockefeller and Blodgett Halls, and several quads. He also said the library was used for interior scenes.

In addition, off-campus filming took place along Raymond and Collegeview avenues.

A statue of Essex College's fictitious founder was one of several props on Vassar College's campus for "The Sex Lives of College Girls."

“We were basically working on a movie set,” said Krystle McLaughlin, a Vassar chemistry professor, noting the Essex college signs, fake stone etchings and a statue of the fictional founder of the school similar to that of Matthew Vassar, which is featured prominently in the second episode. “Some of the details were so cool.”

Filming in Poughkeepsie

Rejto said the commission worked with the show’s location managers and pitched both Vassar and Marist as possible locations, but didn’t receive an answer. He said a recommendation from a line producer working on “White House Plumbers” to a line producer for “College Girls” helped lock Vassar in as the choice.

Rejto said the show has a “pretty huge impact, in terms of money and jobs. … A considerable amount of local people” were hired as crew members, and Roman Candle Casting cast roughly 500 extras. While he didn’t have an exact number for how much was on those local jobs, Rejto estimated crew members made anywhere from $600 to $950 a day. Extras who were members of the union make $182 for an eight-hour day and $350 for a 12-hour overtime day — the production, Rejto said, went into overtime on most of its filming days — with non-union extras making less.

Each person also got paid $100 just for having to get a COVID-19 test each day they worked, and he noted a lot of the nurses doing the testing were local.

A crew films scenes for "The Sex Lives of College Girls" in the Arlington Business District on June 16, 2021.

Filming along Raymond Avenue, which included one day in which crews occupied a busy sidewalk in the Arlington business district, accounted for $300,000 in location fees and inconvenience fees to store owners and area homeowners. The setting is clearly visible in the debut episodes Thursday. New episodes are scheduled to premiere each Thursday.

Sets used by “College Girls” while at Vassar were constructed at Market Street Industrial Park — formerly the Bleachery — in Wappingers Falls; it’s a site previously used by HBO limited series “I Know This Much Is True” for the same purpose, as well as storage of wardrobe and as a filming location.

For the six weeks the production was in town there were a total of 2,160 hotel room stays recorded; members stayed at Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn, both along Route 9 in Poughkeepsie.

Excitement builds

Vassar did not plan an official campus event for the premiere on the HBO subscription service, though Lopez said “we know many on campus are fans of Mindy Kaling and her work, so we imagine people will be watching.” He said some Vassar staff individually chose to get roles as extras.

Vassar College was transformed to Essex College in June for the filming of "The Sex Lives of College Girls."

McLaughlin held her own virtual premiere party with her best friend, who lives in Alaska.

While she was working with an undergraduate research program during those early summer weeks of filming, McLaughlin admits she “ran away a bunch of times” to watch the filming and marvel at some of the equipment brought onto campus. She said staff was notified each day on which areas filming would take place in order to steer clear.

She was among several staff members who took to social media to share photos of the action or comment on the on-campus changes. A longtime fan of Kaling, McLaughlin said a “highlight of my summer was (Kaling) liking my tweet with my daughter,” watching crews arrive on campus.

She said she was eager to see if her building on campus, The Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, will be pictured on-screen, as well as friends and coworkers who had roles as extras.

“Some of my friends who were playing professors were dressed with what you would think a stereotypical professor would be dressed like, with tweed,” she said, laughing, “We don’t actually dress like that. It was interesting to see what Hollywood thought professors dress like.”

As a mother of two small children, she couldn’t commit to the long hours necessary to be an extra, herself. That hasn’t tempered her enthusiasm.

Renee Rapp, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Pauline Chalamet and Amrit Kaur star in the upcoming "The Sex Lives of College Girls," which will air on HBO Max, Nov. 18, 2021.

“I’m so excited. I wish I could have been an extra,” she said. “I’m really hoping I can be next time.”

The season, which has received largely positive reviews, stretches 10 episodes, each a half-hour. A second season has yet to be approved, and neither Vassar nor the film commission have received any indication if the show would return to Poughkeepsie if it continues. Rejto noted the region has not had an episodic show that returned to film for a second season.

“Hopefully, ‘Sex Lives of College Girls’ will go on for four or five years,” he said. “They’ll come back every year and hire a lot of people and spend lots of money.”