Technically they have no legal right to tell you to move/stop somewhere on a public sidewalk in New York. You could’ve just strolled straight onto set if you wanted to.
I live on a street in New York that's pretty popular with filming. I generally try to be respectful of their work, but I work from home and sometimes I need to go get a coffee.
I'll usually ask if when I come back in 5 minutes or so if they'll be filming so that I don't disrupt them. Even if I'm super respectful, they usually wind up trying to stop me from getting back to my apartment when I return. It took me a while to figure out that I can just ignore them and keep walking.
Still, it was cool to see Oscar the grouch on my street.
You might want to look into the details about that. Most likely there is an ordinance (or maybe a state law) about interfering when they are actually filming (like, the equipment is active and recording).
I've walked through a lot of sets, and they really only care about keeping random people out when the cameras are actually rolling. The logistics of filming in a city simply don't work otherwise.
Is the author on HN? He mentions that they only managed to film 2 scenes. Is that right, or was it 2 scenes over and over and over and over and... I guess most action scenes are CGI these days, but when some gunfire+explosion scene is filming outside your office, where they do the same 20 second sequence 100 times, man that gets old real quick.
I'll usually ask if when I come back in 5 minutes or so if they'll be filming so that I don't disrupt them. Even if I'm super respectful, they usually wind up trying to stop me from getting back to my apartment when I return. It took me a while to figure out that I can just ignore them and keep walking.
Still, it was cool to see Oscar the grouch on my street.