Has your home got what it takes to play a starring role in a film, television series or commercial? It can be a lucrative way to top-up the household budget, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
WITH HOUSEHOLD budgets squeezed tighter than ever, homeowners are looking for creative ways to stretch the family finances.
One way is to rent your home as a location for either film, television, commercials or editorials. The distinctions between these are important. Each means a different level of disruption and different rates of remuneration.
The people responsible for TV3's Celebrity Salonhave been hunting for a suitable house for its second series. The production company, Straywave – the people behind Fade Streetand Young, Dumb and Living off Mum– has been on the lookout for a property big enough to sleep the six contestants and endowed with reality-TV staples such as a swimming pool, hot tub, pool room, movie room and gym, where they can film their salon stars off duty.
It has just done a deal through Photo Locations – a new website that features numerous boom-era homes – to use a north Co Dublin house with all of the above facilities. The deal is worth around €2,000 a week to the owners.
The larger the upheaval the more money you can expect to earn, says locations manager Donnacha Brady, who specialises in commercials – he did the Bord Gáis ad featuring Lucy Kennedy and the National Lottery Rainbow ad that made Dublin city look so good. If you have a rather nice house you’ll probably get €1,000 for a 10-hour day, he explains. This money is paid on the day.
Could your home have what it takes?
“We need a house that is big enough to work in,” says Brady. “A big house can be made to look and feel smaller but we can’t do the reverse so size matters.”
For most commercials he’s looking for a property that has been opened up at the back. Kitchens and livingrooms are the two principal rooms of interest. And large bathrooms (ideally a bedroom that has been converted) offer the crew room to manoeuvre.
Nigel Swann, of Swann Locations, specialises in fashion-shoot locations. Paradoxically, the world of glossy magazines prefers distressed, lived-in locations to brand-new, blingy builds. Due to their intrusive nature €750 would be the minimum he offers for at least 12 hours.
“This figure can rise to €1,000 plus, depending on just how intrusive the shoot will be.” A good fee, and, very importantly, treating the property with respect helps ensure they will get access again in the future.
In terms of disruption, fashion editorials usually take a day to shoot. Commercials usually take one to three days. There may be some pre- and post-production also required. Rates are calculated according to the duration of the production’s stay. This makes feature films the holy grail of revenue generation for homeowners.
Stately home Russborough House recently starred in the yet-to-be-released film, working title Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
“We’re owned by a charitable foundation and we’ve got to make ends meet,” explains Eric Blatchford, chief executive of the Alfred Beit Foundation, which oversees Russborough House and Estate, in Blessington, Co Wicklow. “We have running costs – heat and light, insurance. Our main reason for doing this is to generate revenue.
“Also, the publicity gained from having an Oscar-winning director make a film at your property is invaluable. We hope it will inspire visitors to come and walk around the grounds and visit the café.”
There are three major factors in making a success of a film at one’s own house, or stately home, he explains. “The house owner needs to meet with and discuss with the filmmakers what they require and agree what will be allowed and what will not be allowed when the filming eventually takes place.” He advises putting away valuable items and artefacts before the film crew arrives for filming.
“Put everything agreed into a legal document so that nothing is left to chance and get both parties to sign the legal agreement.” This covers you should anything go wrong.
“Actively manage the process when the film crew is on site so that the rules agreed, and incorporated into the legal agreement, are actually implemented.”
Hunting for suitable homes for films is easier these days, admits locations manager Dermot Cleary. “During the boom it was harder to get people to open their homes to the idea. Now we get a great response. It’s double what it used to be.”
He worked on Stella Days, a yet-to-be-released film set in 1950s Ireland, starring Martin Sheen, that required homes untouched since that era.
For Martina Cole's The Take, a Sky drama set in the 1980s and 1990s, he took over a house in Killiney for three weeks.
“We moved the family out and into a rented property nearby and we moved the furniture out and put it into storage. We built the odd false wall, painted it and put up some frightful wallpaper.”
Afterwards, his team had to return the house to its original condition. That included a fresh paint job. It may have been disruptive but he estimates the owners received somewhere in the region of €5,000 for the 21 days.
A seven-bed, Victorian-style Tudor Gothic property in Kilmacanogue in Co Wicklow played home to Sean Penn in the forthcoming film This Must Be The Place.
The owner got a letter through the door asking if she would be interested in having her home in a film starring Sean Penn and Frances McDormand. It was a quite a clever approach as it piqued her interest.
After the filming the owners got the place back in mint condition. It had been given a fresh paint job,gratis, but there was some minor damage. Marked floors were repaired and some wallpaper replaced.
The monies they received were equivalent to their annual heating bill – significant enough in an eight-bedroom property that measures between eight and nine thousand feet. For this owner, money wasn’t the motivating factor. What the deal offered was great bragging rights. “I got a kick out of being able to say I had Sean Penn in my home.”
A sprinkling of Tinseltown’s fairy dust may give you cache on the dinner party circuit but in this market can it help sell the property?
The home of Lisa Molloy, of Estate Agents Jesson Molloy, has been used for fashion and homewares shoots for Heatons. Her property features on Photo Locations’ database. She got €350 for the homewares and €150 for the fashion shoot.
“As an agent, I would say being featured in shoots gives a property free advertising. And having your home on Celebrity Salon will have appeal for certain buyers.”
Marie Weldon, owner of 13 Drumnigh in Portmarnock is selling her home. Three years ago it was priced at €2.8 million. It now has an asking price of €1.6 million through Malahide agents O’Farrell Cleere (01-8453377).
The seven-bedroom, 465sq m (5,000sq ft) property was once the next door neighbour to then celebrity couple Kerry Katona and Westlife singer Brian McFadden. Weldon was paid €150 for a half-day homewares shoot in the house. As a means of earning money it offers some potential but more importantly, she says, “if you have a nice house why not show it off?”
She’s not convinced the publicity will help with the sale. “Whoever buys it is going to buy it for what it is, not what it has been to someone else.”
If you want your home in movies . . .
“We have a strong representation of properties, from stately homes to ruins, but there’s always room for more,” says Mags O’Sullivan, deputy film commissioner at the Irish Film Board. If you think your home has what it takes contact locations@irishfilmboard.ie.
Kate Moran is the 26-year-old behind newly launched site Photo Locations (photolocations.ie). She charges between €350 and €500 for a day that starts at 9am and ends by 6pm. Homeowners get €350 of the €500. She’s looking for unique new properties. Contact kate@photolocations.ie
Homeowners who rent their properties out as locations have a tax liability of 41 per cent, whether they are self-employed or a PAYE worker
