A PRODUCTION IS INTERESTED
Once your property is scouted and listed on our site, we will be in touch when we have a production who is interested in booking your space. We will reach out to you and share all the shoot details we’ve been given. For example:
Date/s
Crew / Cast Headcount
Hours Needed
Existing Budget
Format (Motion vs. Stills)
Areas of Interest
Vehicle Count
Scene Description / Shots
At this point, if you are interested in accommodating the shoot request, we will likely set up a time for us or a location scout to come by to take new photos of the space and note any changes that might have occurred since our original scout of the property. This typically takes 30 minutes to an hour and it can be scheduled at your convenience.
Typically, the new images of your property will then be presented to the client along with other potential spaces that the production has gathered. Either way, we will let you know if they would like to move forward with your space or “release” the dates they inquired about.
YOU’VE BEEN SELECTED
If they’ve chosen your property for their shoot, we would begin the booking process. At this point, White Wall Locations would draft a contract for both you and the production company to sign. It acts as an agreement between both parties acknowledging all the agreed upon shoot details, terms of payment, house rules, insurance requirements, etc.
The production company will provide a certificate of insurance made out to you as the owner of the property and you will receive payment prior to the crews arrival on the shoot day.
Most every production requires what is called a “Tech Scout”, which typically takes 1 to 1.5 hours. A smaller group of department heads & managers will come to scout the property and plan the shots they want to achieve on the shoot day. They will ask questions in advance to avoid any confusion on the shoot day. They look into things on the property such as power for their lighting, bathrooms for crew, parking for vehicles, etc.
PRE PRODUCTION
If all the questions have not been asked / answered on the tech scout, White Wall Locations might be in touch with you a couple times prior to the shoot day to ask anything production has pending.
The production notifies the proper organizations to get the appropriate permits to film and to hold parking. On larger shoots such as tv shows, commercials and films, the production often times will request to hold parking with your city or township outside of your property or home. Depending on the area you live in, a parking coordinator will arrive 24 hours prior to the start of the shoot to put out cones and hold the parking for the productions vehicles. If there is any sort of impact on the neighborhood, the production or location manager should notify your neighbors 48 hours prior to the shoot.
Each township or city has it’s own film commission you can be in touch with for any town specific questions. For NYC residence and business owners, you can find more info about film permits here: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/mome/permits/permits.page
SHOOT DAY
At this point, a contract has been signed, you’ve received insurance, payment in full and the production has sent you a shoot schedule for the day.
Before the crew shows up, we recommend having a professional layout team come into your property to cover all the flooring and high traffic areas with ram board, heavy duty rugs and furniture blankets. This team can also cover staircase steps, railings, bannisters, sensitive corners, table tops, etc. We often ask property owners to give the production a 30 minute to 1 hour grace period before the clock starts on the shoot to allow this to happen. The cost of layout protection is covered by the production and is beneficial to both parties.
The day of the shoot can often times be overwhelming especially if you are allowing a crew into your home. The morning is the busiest part of most productions with landing vehicles, putting up pop up tents and tables for catering, loading gear and props into your space, etc. Everyone is landing and figuring out where they need to be so there is a flurry of communication and movement.
The locations team, production team or art department team will do a walk through first thing taking photo of the space so that it can be reset exactly how you left it.
Someone should be to be at the property all day in case something happens or the location manager and crew have any questions such as can a painting be removed, a piece of furniture moved, etc. We often times recommend the homeowner bring in a hired site rep to be there as that person for the shoot day. The cost can be included in the agreement with the production company. White Wall Locations is happy to recommended site reps who have production experience if the homeowner doesn’t have someone they prefer.
END OF SHOOT DAY
In most cases, you will see the layout team arrive while production is loading out to remove all the flooring protection. The production will put everything back in its original place, removing all trash and doing a light sweep of the space.
You or the site rep will do a final walk through of the property to make sure everything looks good and has been restored to the original condition. If you do see anything that has been scratched, broken or is missing, you can make note of it with the person you are doing a walk through with and can send us an email with notes and images of the issue. If anything arises during a shoot, White Wall Locations will act as a liaison between you and the production to find a resolution.
If nothing has comes up during the shoot and post shoot walk through, you get your home back in it’s original condition and extra money in your pocket!