It’s not every day you get a call out of the blue from a film-production
company. Even if it’s only your house they’re interested in, it’s still like
being tapped on the shoulder by a modelling scout. In my case, the caller
was from Adastra Creative, a company commissioned by the BBC to make a new
television series that required a “quintessential fisherman’s cottage” - but
not just any ordinary seafront property: one that “looked as though it would
have been drawn by a five-year-old with a set of crayons”.
The company had been scouring the East Anglian coast for weeks. Eventually, it
found Seahorse Cottage, on the Aldeburgh seafront, which my wife, Tessa, and
I bought a few months ago. To us, it was a weekend escape that could also be
rented to holidaymakers. To the film company, it was the perfect setting for
Grandpa in My Pocket - a new children’s television series about
seven-year-old Jason Mason, a little boy whose grumpy grandpa can magically
shrink to fit into his pocket.
“It’s set in an idyllic seaside location that on the one hand is classically
English and on the other hand could be anywhere in the world, because it’s
that seaside town of a storybook dream,” says Mellie Buse, who created the
series with Jan Page. “That’s why we’re doing all the filming around
Aldeburgh, Southwold and Walberswick.”
So that is how it happens: one day, your house is just an anonymous address;
the next, it’s a character on CBeebies. Suddenly, you get lots of calls from
production people asking about times and dates, whether the neighbours are
friendly or would mind people parking on their drive, and whether the area
outside the house could be kept clear for filming. Then a fleet of lorries
and cars turns up with camera equipment, catering facilities, portable loos
and crew with hi-vis jackets and clipboards. Passers-by gather to witness
the show, and your home becomes - albeit briefly - a celebrity.
There’s also money to be made. If you’re a good negotiator, it’s possible to
demand anything from £500 to £5,000 a day from a production company for the
loan of your property. I know this because, prior to beginning my
negotiations, I made a few calls to find out the going rate.
Kell Gatherer, the founder of Location Works, which runs a location-scouting
service and picture library, says there has been a sharp upturn in the
demand for private homes for location shoots as part of a move towards
television that looks “authentic”, rather than having been shot in a studio.
“The market is growing and more directors and production managers are
turning to the web,” says Gatherer, who has worked on BBC dramas such as
Spooks and Miss Marple.
“We were recently asked by the production company for the latest Bond film
[Quantum of Solace] to find somewhere that looked like Panama. We found a
property in southeast England, but, unfortunately, it wasn’t suitable for
landing helicopters with 500 troops spilling out.”
It turns out that canny homeowners are cashing in on this growth industry by
registering their properties with web-based location libraries, which can be
accessed by directors and location managers searching for suitable settings
and backdrops.
You don’t have to be tech-savvy to do this, as long as you know how to use a
digital camera and e-mail the pictures. Take Gillian Milner, 38, who works
in advertising. She sent pictures of her 1970s-style home to a handful of
agencies, and in the past three years it has been used for two BBC drama
documentaries, a James May special on Christmas toys and television
commercials for Marks & Spencer, Fairy Liquid, Barclays and Kellogg’s
Rice Krispies.
“If you get a good run of jobs, it’s a far better money-spinner than renting
it out full-time,” Milner says. “I used to work on magazines, and when we
did shoots of all these houses, I used to think, ‘Wow, I could do this.’ ”
Homeowners are generally not expected to pay to put their house on a
location agency’s website. Instead, the agency takes a percentage of the fee
paid by the production company.
“If a film company uses their home, we take 15%,” says Phil Haselden,
co-director of The Location Partnership, another of the main location
libraries. “Rates can range from £750 a day to £2,000-£3,000 for a large
country house. They don’t always get the same amount of money. The more
flexible and friendly owners are, the better.”
Some owners have taken the idea to the next level and bought properties
specifically for the purpose of renting them back to production companies.
“[As a television director] I’ve been in horrendous situations where I’ve
been shooting in somebody’s house and we were pretty much occupying all the
living space, and the kids were sitting on the stairs waiting for us to
finish,” says Chris Short, who now runs his own web business from home in
south London. He supplements his income by renting a property to film
companies for television chefs such as James Martin and Loyd Grossman.
“My wife and I wanted to invest in another property, and we were thinking of
doing a buy-to-let. Instead, we thought, ‘Let’s find, buy and prepare a
house specifically for filming.’ I knew, once word got out that there was
effectively a dedicated domestic studio, that it would be appealing to
people who could just move in and leave all their kit.
“The minimum we charge, say for a magazine editorial, is £500 a day. Then
there’s a sort of sliding scale from that – the top-end booking would be a
TV commercial, for which you could get anything between £3,000 and £5,000.”
Okay, so this kind of return on your investment is probably the exception
rather than the rule, and your home is more likely to be a modest earner
than a get-rich-quick scheme.
Last week, the contract arrived from Adastra Creative for use of my Aldeburgh
cottage. Would it be nearer £500 a day or £5,000, I wondered as I opened the
envelope. It was £50.
It turned out that the production company wanted to film only the outside of
the house. The interior will be mocked up on a studio set. Am I
disappointed? No. It’s okay. Honestly. I just feel proud that it’s going to
be on TV.
For more information on Seahorse Cottage, visit www.suffolkcottageholidays.comwww.locationworks.com ;
www.locationpartnership.com
Would a production company be interested in my house? The only way to
find out is to register with an agency. There is demand for every type of
property, from ordinary family homes to historic locations.
How much disruption will it cause? It can be very intrusive, so be
ready to make yourself scarce while the crew is on site.
What about insurance? Check the small print. A typical filming contract
requires a production company to repair and make good any damage and to
restore the house to its original condition. Take photographs before and
after use, and pack away any personally valuable items.
Will it upset the neighbours? You can placate your neighbours by
getting film crews to pay to park on their drive. Or impose strict rules,
such as filming only between 8am and 8pm.
i would like to rent out my property for filming
mrs jacqueline mcallister, dartford, kent