In 1992, Lawrence Sher left New Jersey for Hollywood.

In 2018, he came back to New Jersey — and brought Hollywood with him.

"Even though I don't live in New Jersey any more, I'm a proud New Jerseyan," says Sher, a veteran cinematographer. "New Jersey is in my blood and always will be."

He dropped by last October to renew old ties in his hometown of Teaneck, to breathe the fresh tri-state air, and — oh, yes — to film a little thing called "The Joker," the sixth movie he's made with director Todd Phillips.

"The Joker" was filmed in Jersey City and Newark last fall. The $55 million blockbuster, the latest and least typical "Batman" spinoff, will open both places — and everywhere else — this October.

"Obviously, any time I have a chance to go east and go closer to home, where I grew up in Teaneck, it always feels familiar and happy," he says.

He's likely to get the chance more often now.

Despite the fact that he has shot some 25 films since his career began in 1995, including "Captain Jack," "Kissing Jessica Stein," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Dan in Real Life," three "Hangover" films and "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," and despite the fact that one of his big breakout films, in 2004, was called "Garden State," he hasn't had much of a chance to shoot in the Garden State.

"Garden State," yes. Zach Braff's comedy was shot in South Orange, Cranford, Livingston, Maplewood, Newark and Tenafly, among other places. "Dan in Real Life" (2007) also had a glimpse or two of Jersey.

"The character Steve Carell plays, and his family, are supposed to be from New Jersey," Sher says. "So we went and shot some running footage of the car driving from there to Rhode Island for this trip. I shot the car driving from Newark Airport all the way up until the New York border."

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But on the whole, Jersey has not been cost-effective enough to tempt most Hollywood location scouts. Until now.

The Garden State Film and Digital Media Jobs Act, signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018, provides a 30 to 35 percent tax credit for movie companies that film in this state. The previous rate was 20 percent.

The new law has made cities like Newark ("The Many Saints of Newark") and Paterson ("The Plot Against America," "West Side Story") very attractive to filmmakers.

"Every dollar counts, so those tax incentives matter," Sher says. "Decisions are made about where people shoot every single day based on tax incentives."

Classic case in point: Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson," made in 2016 before the new tax rules kicked in, had to be filmed partly in Westchester, Rockland and Queens, despite its site-specific title. Likewise, when Sher made his directorial debut with 2017's "Father Figures," a comedy about fraternal twins (Owen Wilson, Ed Helms) in search of their dad, it had to be filmed in more economical Atlanta — despite the fact that Sher really had New Jersey in mind.

"I drove all around New Jersey, and especially Teaneck, of course, and looked for those things that were familiar to my memory to put in that movie," he says. "And I took pictures for the location scouts. If Atlanta suddenly has to look like New Jersey, well, then these are the types of houses, these are the types of neighborhoods, that I'm looking for. And they sought those out. So even 'Father Figures' has a New Jersey component."

"The Joker" isn't all Jersey, to be sure. Only 10 to 15 percent of the movie was made at such locations as the Loew's Jersey Theatre (the grandiose old 1929 movie palace at Journal Square) and the city government building in Jersey City, and on Market Street in Newark.

No matter. It was still an opportunity for Sher to return to his old stomping grounds.

"New Jersey is still a place that whenever I go home I feel exactly that — at home," he says.

And if you don't believe it, try the pastrami.

While filming in Newark, Sher discovered the glories of Hobby's Delicatessen, at Branford Place and Halsey. It became the go-to place for the whole crew.

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"It's an amazing deli with one of the best pastrami sandwiches," Sher says. "Every day I would go, 'I'm getting a pastrami sandwich.' It got to the point where literally the producer would go, 'All right, who's getting pastrami sandwiches?' There are certain things you move out of New Jersey and New York, and it's just not as good anywhere else."

That's a great illustration of Hollywood money going into Jersey cash registers — another reason Trenton is holding out the carrot to Tinseltown. Apart from fees to the state, there are the thousands of trickle-down dollars to local food vendors, hardware shops and clothing stores.

"It was really cold out one night, late October, early November — surprisingly cold — so we all sort of ran into this Gap store right where we were filming," Sher recalls. "We were buying gloves and hats and things like that to stay warm. And the woman behind the counter was saying to her friend, 'Yeah, I heard Newark paid Warner Bros. 50 million to shoot here.' And I was like, 'Oh, my God, that is so not correct.' There is some misinformation that always seems to happen with people when movies come into town."

Sher is privy to other secrets, ones that fans of the "Batman" franchise would like to know. "The Joker" is a bit of a wild card, in more ways than one.

For starters, it's unusually low-end ($55 million) for a high-end film. For another, Batman himself doesn't appear. Finally, Joker, the Batman villain last played by Jared Leto in 2016's "Suicide Squad," is here played by Joaquin Phoenix — leading some to speculate that this Joker might not be the same one that has terrorized Gotham in other Batman iterations.

"The Joker" is definitely a stand-alone film, a one-off in the "Batman" universe, Sher says. More details will have to wait until the film's release date, Oct. 4.

"It's certainly drawn from The Joker, the character as we know it," Sher says. "But it doesn't tie directly into any other movie in that way. Yes, it takes place in Gotham. And Thomas Wayne [Batman's father] is a character. In that regard, it has ties to that universe. But this is really a character study."

And this Joker is quite a character — a failed stand-up comic who finds his groove as a super-villain. There will be enough spectacle to satisfy action fans, Sher promises. But the joke of "The Joker" is that it's in some ways an art film disguised as a comic book movie.

"You're going to get something that's part art film and part big indie spectacle," Sher says. "I think it's a really unique and surprising movie. In a way, the best thing I've ever done."

This is the sixth film that Sher has made with Phillips; the duo established an especially strong working relationship after the three "Hangover" films (2009, 2011, 2013), ensemble comedies starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha and Zach Galifianakis as the guys who discover, sober, all the things they did when they were drunk. Working with someone familiar, in a high-pressure environment like a film shoot, is a blessing, Sher says.

"It makes a huge difference," he says. "Because when you work with someone for the first time, you're starting an extremely intimate relationship almost instantly, overnight. You have to create a common language, you have to work through communications differences. The second time, all those things you have to work through have happened. So you can imagine when it's the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time or, in my case with Todd, the sixth time. It makes a huge difference."

Another thing Sher has learned, on his three "Hangover" movies and other similar films, is how to shoot comedy. "He just knows what's funny," Cooper told The Record in 2009. "Some guys can't shoot comedies, but Larry knows exactly what he's doing."

There is a knack to it, Sher says. For him, it involves keeping things realistic, low-key. Not trying to be cute, or bright, or otherwise nudge the audience to laughter.

"There are different philosophies on how a cinematographer can enhance a comedy," he says. "There was a long-standing philosophy that it needed to be brighter, or flatly lit, or wide lenses, or this or that. I never subscribed to those things. One of the things we tried to do with 'The Hangover' and otherwise with Todd is that if it feels super real, it's going to be even more funny."

Those are the kinds of things a good cinematographer thinks about. And those are the kinds of things that Sher had been thinking about, one way or another, ever since he first got the movie bug, as a kid growing up in Teaneck, seeing movies at the Cedar Lane Cinemas (now Teaneck Cinemas) and the now-defunct AMC Loews Paramus Route 4 Tenplex.

"That Cedar Lane theater was my home," he says. "Everything from seeing 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'The Breakfast Club' to you name it. And the Paramus theater was where I saw 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters.'"

He also became aware, early on, that movies don't make themselves. "You start to look at film as a piece of artwork, and you start to realize that it's not just this seamlessly told story, that the visuals are part of how you tell the story," he says. "Even the early Spielberg stuff, you start to realize that there's a craft here."

Even so, he didn't start to think of photography — much less movie-making — until his senior year at Teaneck High School (he graduated in 1988, and then went to Wesleyan).

He was a bit of a jock, then, he says; his big thing was playing baseball with Teaneck High School's Highwaymen. "Teaneck High School is right on the highway, so they called them the Highwaymen," Sher says.

But senior year, he broke his nose and was sidelined for the season. So to pass the time near the team, he began to photograph them with his dad's old Nikon F camera.

"I started giving those pictures to newspapers," he recalls. "I think a couple ended up in the Bergen Record, and the local Teaneck paper. I thought, 'This is pretty cool. Suddenly, I'm not playing baseball, but all that same interest I'm now throwing into photography.' That was the beginning of an interest in photography, in a way that would later lead to cinematography, for sure."

That interest took him a long way — 3,000 miles, give or take, to Los Angeles, where he now lives with his partner, Hema Patel. He has a 13-year-old son, Max, and 2-year-old daughter, Matilda. Another boy, now on the way, may be here by the time you read this.

But he still has Jersey family (a brother lives in Monroe Township). And he still has his Jersey memories — which, if past is prologue, may end up the basis for future movie visuals.

And he still has a few Jersey souvenirs — including his dad's old Nikon F camera. As a matter of fact, he used it to scout locations for "The Starling," his upcoming movie directed by Ted Melfi ("Hidden Figures") and starring Melissa McCarthy.

"It's been with me ever since," he says.