The location fees paid to home and building owners or managers, business owners or occupants vary and depend on a number of factors such as:

1. What is the activity?
A standard budget for each of the following activities will be different: a film shoot, a tv series, a television commercial, a stills shoot, an editorial shot, a conference or a product launch.

2. How much time is needed?
The budget for a half-day long activity will be roughly half that of the same activity that takes a whole day; a two day activity is usually twice the day rate, and so on. Also, shoots can go into overtime every now and then.

3. What is the impact on your property?
A vacant building is impacted less than an active one, such as a working office; a large film crew will impact more on a home than a small stills crew; also, how much of your time is diverted from your usual routine by attending to arrangements for the shoot?

4. Is the property unique?
Cities have thousands of homes, but some are unlike any other; historic buildings may be one of a kind.

Even within a narrowly defined range of location, such as a family home, there can be wide variations in location fee. For instance, our clients regularly budget to shoot a television commercial in an average home for between $750-2000 per day. But the same commercial shot in an upmarket house could cost $2500 - $5000 per day.

Other issues that come into consideration and may add to the location fee include:

5. Preparation or dress days?
Does the production team need to have access the day before to style the space, or to bring in furniture or equipment? Will they need to return again the day after the shoot to pack everything up and take it away?

6. Utility rooms?
The event or shoot will occupy one area of your property, but other space or rooms may be required for actors to change in, food to be prepared, equipment to be set up or stored.

7. Staff or equipment costs?
A staff member may be required to organise lift access in a high rise building, a farmer may hire out his grader to the production team to level the access road into his farm, or a storeowner may let his employee act as an extra during filming; and organising access to the loading dock for the production team’s vehicles may take up several hours of your building manager’s time.

8. Security deposit or bond?
Whether a security deposit is reasonable depends on a combination of the location and the circumstances of each project.

If you would like a more accurate figure of how much your property could receive, call us here at Locations the Photofile. Advising property owners is a standard part of being listed with us.