Vol. I · No. 04

The Slate A Publication of Hollywood East Films

hollywoodeastfilms.co →
Tuesday · June 23, 2026 Atlantic Highlands · NJ
Ella in cap and gown on graduation day — Middletown South, Class of 2026
Personal · Issue Lead

Lessons from Ella.

My daughter graduated from Middletown South last week, and I’ve been trying to find the words ever since. A father’s letter — who she became while I wasn’t always paying attention, and the women who raised her.

The Area Dispatches from the ground
Aerial view over Sandy Hook and the bay from above Highlands, NJ
No. 04 · The Area · June 16, 2026 · 8 min read

The most historic coast nobody talks about finally has a historian.

Eric Kane built Above the Hook from zero in nine months — and the Highlands started treating him like its historian.

Read the piece →
The Actors Playground ensemble on stage — Freehold, NJ
No. 03 · The Area · June 16, 2026 · 8 min read

The Freehold school whose kids keep ending up on Netflix.

Its students are on Broadway in Stranger Things, in Adam Sandler’s next movie, and on SVU — all trained in the same Freehold studio, twenty minutes from Fort Monmouth.

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Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth — official rendering
No. 01 · The Area · May 04, 2026 · 11 min read

Hollywood East is real. Here’s what’s actually being built.

The $1B Netflix campus at Fort Monmouth. Twelve soundstages. Five hundred thousand square feet. The first phase opens in 2027 — and the brands and agents who position themselves now will own the next decade of the tri-state.

Read the dispatch →
The People Operator profiles
Berto Colon — Atlantic Highlands NJ
No. 02 · The People · May 20, 2026 · 9 min read

The day Berto Colon made me cool.

The actor from Orange Is the New Black, Power Book II, and Dutton Ranch lives twelve minutes from Fort Monmouth — and chose to raise his daughters here.

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The Work Films, case studies, and craft

The first dispatch from The Work is in production — behind the lens on real client films. Coming soon.

The Three Departments

What we cover, and why it matters here.

01
The Area

Dispatches from the ground.

Fort Monmouth in real time. The Netflix build, the spillover, the towns that are about to change. Reporting and reflection on what's happening here — for the people deciding whether to plant a flag.

02
The Work

Films, case studies, and craft.

Behind the lens on real client work. What a cinematic identity is, what it costs to skip it, and the agents and brands who are using film to build a body of work that compounds.

03
The People

Operator profiles.

The agents, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and founders building the next decade of the Shore. Long-form portraits of the people behind the rooms, the listings, and the brands that are quietly shaping Hollywood East.

From the editor

"There's a difference between a place becoming valuable and a place getting noticed. The Jersey Shore has always been valuable. It's about to get noticed. The Slate is the record of that turn."

— Chris Crater · Founder, Hollywood East Films