So you are considering listing your home,
office or business with allformat?
We’d love you to. We make no ifs or buts about it. Having your space used for filming or stills is intrusive. With anywhere from 5 to 60 people working in a crew, it can sometime seem like the circus has come to town. The intrusion does come with rewards and not only in the form of money, there is the joy you get from seeing your home immortalised and shown to the world. Having your home featured can increase the value of the house and is a great selling point.
For businesses, it is an excellent way of improving the corporate culture of businesses and makes excellent dinner party conversation.
There has been many times when family, staff and pets have been included in the final cut.

What we are after
Films, television, still photography and even television commercials are more often a reflection of real life and tell stories of real people in real life location. With this in mind it is very hard to determine what the next script that comes through the doors will have as a location. If it exists it is likely that one day they are going to want to use it.
There are many elements that make the ideal location, the two most important are the suitability to the script and access. A perfect location that is located on a clearway with no onsite parking makes the location unusable. There are several more elements and I will go through them one by one.

Suitability to the brief/Script/Reference
As location manager’s and scouts we are given many different types of briefs, from specific images to colours and textures, other films or photographs and even the stylistic history of the director or photographer assist us in finding the right locations. Whichever the method, once briefed, it is our job to find the location that best fits the directors needs for the producers budget. With this in mind it is important to note that the script doesn’t always call for a renovated period, although this is the most common request. The team at allformat have been responsible for many of the locations used for Just Jeans, beer commercials and even the Tooheys Quest Tongue television commercial. These adverts along with many others have placed money in the hands of students who have provided their homes to film crews.
allformat has provided locations for luxury motor vehicle brochures in Europe, America and the rest of the world with clients such as Mercedes, BMW, VW, Opel and Audi. Locally we have been involved with Ford, Toyota, Holden and Nissan. These companies tend to request very modern architecturally designed for their campaigns. Fashion labels tend to lean towards the homes of the 30’s to the late 70’s and love nothing more than rich textures, wallpaper and heavy drapes.
All these are generalisations as to what is requested. The main point is that you never, ever in this business know what you are going to be asked for next. So any house that has that WOW! Factor from any era has the potential. An office with that million dollar view or even offices with the classic corporate blue or grey partitions are always valuable.

Proximity
Due to additional travelling fees incurred by the production company, it is preferable that locations are within a 20km radius of the CBD. A location outside this radius would require the extra wow factor or uniqueness that would encourage the extra cost.

Access
Access for a photographic crew is not important, however, it is essential for a film crew. Film crews generally consist of 20 to 60 people, 5 trucks and a lot of equipment that needs to be managed. Poor access can decrease filming time and increase costs considerably.

Space
The larger the space the better. Film crews have a lot of large professional equipment from the lights, dolly and even the film camera is a large contraption. Space also allows for more flexibility to the director or photographer in conveying their story.

Uniqueness/Wow factor
Wallpaper, Scandinavian Style, tiles, vestibule, grand staircase, Tuscan influence, minimalist, modern, mountain views, golfing green, two kitchens, underground cellar, underground bunker, faded grandeur (our favourite), American style, original period home, indoor pool and anything that makes us say wow and differentiates the house from others.

Compensation
We will consult with you to decide upon a figure. It is unrealistic that that a small cottage should demand the same fee as a large historic home. As a rule of thumb a fee of $1,500 and more is offered per day. If an ongoing arrangement is required further negotiations would take place. We also recommend that separate fees are negotiated, one for stills photography and one for filming as the impact on the location differs considerably between the two.
When a producer plans a budget they have a figure that they would consider appropriate for that type of location and it is possible for location providers to price themselves out of the market.

How the process works
We will use the example of a house location for a television commercial:

Step 1 An agency comes up with a campaign that is approved by a client.

Step 2 A director and production house is selected to bring the campaigns television commercial into a reality.

Step 3 The director and producer employ companies and freelancers to assist in their relevant departments.

Step 4 The locations department is briefed and an initial file pull is completed. This is a selection of images of locations that fit the brief and that the location manager has already sourced. This is an important area for the location manager to add value and quickly meet the brief. An approximate figure of 20 houses is provided of which around 5 are short listed for a survey.

Step 5 Director, producer and location manager survey the 5 locations that have been short listed.

Step 6 A location is selected.

Step 6a No locations are selected and scouting occurs to find a suitable location until one is selected.

Step 7 The council and neighbours are informed of the production.

Step 8 A recce occurs which is a visit to the location by the heads of department to determine what is to be accomplished on the day and the most appropriate methods and actions that need to take place to ensure that the production runs to schedule with the highest of production values.

Step 9 The night before, security is placed around the house where parking spaces are reserved for our arrival in the morning.

Step 10 We arrive. Usually the caterer arrives with the location manager and the caterer prepares breakfast for the crews’ arrival. A typical film day commences at 07:00 and finishes at 20:00.

Location agreement
The location agreement is a very important document that is signed by a representative of the production company and the location provider. It is a very easy to read document. Its main function is to guarantee access for the film crew for the said dates, indemnify the location provider against any public liability claims associated with the production and contractually obliges the production company to repair any damages that may occur to the property. A copy can be supplied upon request.

Public Liability
Film crews have to maintain public liability to walk on to any public space and the same now rings true for private spaces. Film crews will have minimum public liability insurance for $10 million. The location agreement protects the location provider against these claims.

Damage
It can and has happened. In over 13 years, Paul has had to deal with only 2 occasions where significant damage has occurred. In both cases the damage was remedied immediately and the locations are still available to be used again. It is always possible to cause damage with the amount of people and equipment that transferred in and out of the house. We do mitigate the potential for damage with the use of rubber drop sheets and mats to protect surfaces.

Location Provider Obligations
Film Crews are a self-sufficient little community that brings its own food equipment and electricity. You will not have to make coffees for the cast and crew; in fact it is the other way around. The crew are always grateful that people make their spaces available. As the more spaces we have to film within, the stronger an industry we become.

Location providers can ensure:
No changes are made to the house without prior notification (in-between the survey and the filming day), including painting, replacement of furniture etc. All these may well be fine, but it is important that we know of them before the day.
The house is free from living clutter such as laundry, kitchen and bathroom bits.
Dog messes are cleaned prior to the crew arriving.
That access is available at the pre-arranged time.
Location providers are encouraged to stay during the filming and in the case that they depart the location we ask that they remain contactable in the case of a situation where intimate knowledge of the house is required e.g. alarm, automatic or sprinkler system to name a few.
A member of the household is available at the end of the day to ensure all personal items including picture frames and the like are returned to their original areas.‘‘

List with us.
The main location we use are houses, but we are also interested in farms, offices, factories and apartments, the more locations we have the better we are at our jobs, so if you are located in Victoria we encourage you to list your home with us. The majority of filming occurs within a 20km radius of Melbourne. If you are outside of this radius, your location would need to offer something unique to encourage a production to travel further. If you are out of the 20km radius feel free to contact us and send us images for us to add to the database.

If you are within the 20km radius we will determine whether your home is viable for filming and photograph it free of charge.

Send an email to [email protected] if you’d like to list your property with allformat.