Ever fancied seeing your home on the big screen, or perhaps on the pages of a glossy magazine? During an ad break on your favourite TV programme? No? Well perhaps you’d like to earn between £700 and £1,500+ per day from it.
The lucky owner of this impressive home in Cricklewood will see his property used as a set in the new Absolutely Fabulous film, masquerading as the home of one of the central characters.
The production company won’t reveal any more specifics than that until the film is released, but you may start to question your décor decisions if your house was cast as the home of the notoriously brash and tasteless Eddie.
Even if cries of “Lacroix, darling!” are still echoing off the walls, the owner can take heart at also having been used by ITV, Woman & Home magazine and Burton.
Pippa Street, location coordinator at 1st Option says: “Archer is listed through us exclusively.
“The Ab Fab location agent chose the house because it’s quite big. They had 120 people on the crew so they needed somewhere large that they could move into. I think the contemporary look of it appealed as well, and the pool attracted them – and they loved the Pumpkin Café in West Hampstead!”
Despite Archer’s impressive appearance, not all houses used as locations need to be quite so glamorous.
Street says that the top requirements for renting out your home as a location include having enough space for cameras and crews; a location within the M25; and neutral or distinctive décor.
Insurance wise, only the client needs to have public liability cover, not the owners, although house and contents insurance on the owner’s part is recommended.
A flexible attitude is also a plus, if not an absolute necessity.
“Our clients will be looking for scope to get wide camera angles. White, neutral interiors are also popular, so that people can decorate themselves.
“Owners should try not to be too precious about their home if possible. For example, John Lewis might come in for a photo shoot, move all the furniture and repaint the entire house. They’ll put everything back and repaint to replicate how it looked originally, but even so, some people can find that quite upsetting.”
Depending on the size of the shoot, owners may even need to move into a hotel while filming is taking place, although this would be paid for by the production company.
Street says: “You wouldn’t move out for a stills shoot because they usually do set hours during the day. For filming the crew are often on a 12-hour day, if not longer, so staying put’s not always feasible. It really depends from job to job.
“The owner of Archer didn’t need to move out as all filming and set building was done on the ground floor only, but with some bigger shoots – TV dramas and so on – the owners would need to move out for the duration. That’s quite disruptive but it’s worth it, money wise.”
Owners vary in how professionally they treat the process and get varying amounts of shoots – some are booked every day, some once a month.
“Some of the owners will re-style their homes just for shoots because they know what look people are going for. A lot of them are in the industry, we’ve got a lot of photographers and stylists on our books, but that’s not an essential – if you’ve got an eye for interiors, or even just read interior magazines and see what’s on trend will help,” says Street.
“People who change their house around more often and keep them fresher tend to get more work.”
Time to invest in some Lacroix home furnishings perhaps.
If you’re considering offering your property as a location for photo and film shoots or if you’d like to shoot at one of the locations, get in touch with 1st Option: 1st-option.com | 020 7284 2345
Interior photos by Matt Clayton: mattclaytonphotography.co.uk
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