Quick Find
Renting your house out for photo shoots is financially rewarding but it is important you know what to expect! Allowing a crew of strangers into your house for the day/multiple days can be stressfull and you have to have the right kind of temperment to enjoy it!
It is a great way to earn extra money but it’s not a matter of just opening the door – it comes with work involved as a certain standard is expected by Light Locations and the crews and it is important to know there can be potential downfalls.
These are a few things to consider:
* Photo shoots are intrusive. Sometimes it can be stressful with strange people coming in and out of your house so you must prepare yourself for this.
* Furniture will be moved most people will put everything back in place at the end of the day but you might get some teams who will not. This is not good practise but this occasionally happens.
* You must expect wear and tear on your house. Wooden floors and walls will over time get scratched due to people and props coming in and out of the house. Any serious damage that occurs on shoots will be sorted out but you cannot claim for every little scratch that appears. If you have regular furniture/interior catalogues coming in who will shoot for up to a week at a time you must expect wear and tear. They will have large pieces of furniture coming in and out and floors will be worn over time.
* You cannot be too precious.You must take the rough with the smooth. Not every shoot will be a pleasure but don’t let this put you off, as the majority of them will be enjoyable.
* You must remember that people are hiring your house and the place is theirs for the day. The best idea is to greet them in the morning and say good bye to them at the end of the day. Working from home is ideal as being out of the way but available for any questions works well.
* The client signs a contract with Light Locations for any problems/disputes that may occur but it is always a good idea if you do find something that has been seriously damaged to point it out to the shoot there and then as getting someone to accept responsibility after the event can be very difficult. Before the shoot leave it is a good idea to have a quick check around the house to make sure nothing has been broken/damaged so we can deal with the problem straight away.
* As long as you know what to expect then the system works really well. It’s great you can make money from this but it does come with work on your behalf. If you are a busy photo shoot location you will after a while need to put some of the money you have made back into maintaining the standard of the house.
Don’t let any of the above put you off considering putting your house on a location website as if you have the right house and the right temperament it can be a very positive experience.
