Q. I’m interested in offering my property as a filming location: how do I go about it?

A. Scottish Screen Locations maintains a database of possible filming locations. In order to register, please complete our location database entry form (available on this website) and return it with a selection of interior and exterior images of your property. These may be submitted as photographs or digital images with a resolution of at least 72dpi. Your contact details and images will then be held on our database until such times as you decide to remove them. You may also want to register your property with your local film office – for details of your local film office, see the links page on the Scottish Screen website, or alternatively we can forward your contact details to the relevant office on your behalf.

Q. How much will it cost to register?

A. There is no charge for registering a property with Scottish Screen Locations.

Q. Are all properties suitable for use as locations?

A. Most properties will be suitable as a location for some project or another; exceptions though are places with difficult access for vehicles and equipment, properties that suffer from noise issues such as traffic noise from a major road or an airport flight path, and properties with small rooms that could not accommodate the number of people and pieces of equipment that filming inevitably entails.

Q. How does my property get chosen to be a filming location?

A. Scottish Screen Locations responds to hundreds of location enquiries each year from both local and international companies. These requests may involve feature films, television programmes, commercials or other types of filming. In response to these enquiries, Scottish Screen Locations sends a selection of images relevant to a particular project. Should a production company like the look of your property, you may get a call to find out whether someone can come and look at your property in person. This is just the first step in the selection process and does not guarantee that filming will take place: it just means that somebody (normally the location manager working on the project) would like to take a look to see if the location will be right for the script.

Q. What happens if my property is chosen as a location?

A. The location manager or other company representative should discuss in detail what they intend to do in your property. You should ask for (and should receive) a contract from the production company that gives full details of what they are shooting, at what time of day, for how many hours and what fee they will pay you. The production company should also be able to show you evidence of their insurance cover and you should inform your own insurers that you are allowing filming on your property. You should be given a clear idea of what they intend to do in your property (for example, moving furniture or decorating walls). You may be asked about the possibility of using additional rooms in your property for wardrobe space, for example, or the use of your kitchen for catering purposes. Everything is subject to negotiation, but the basic rule of filming on location is that the production company should leave your property in the same condition as they found it. The location manager will also be responsible for informing your neighbours about the filming, arranging parking and negotiating access – you should not be expected to do this.

Q. What happens during the filming process?

A. For a large TV drama or feature film, you may well be surprised at the large numbers of people and vehicles turning up. The size of crew varies according to the type of filming, but at the very least you should expect four or five people, plus equipment. You may want to be around to keep an eye on your property, but the production company, if they going to be using your property for a number of days, may offer to put you and your family in alternative accommodation while filming is going on.

Q. How much money will I make?

A. The amount paid in location fees should be negotiated between the property owner and the production company (not Scottish Screen Locations) and will depend on the type of filming. A television drama or a feature film will have budgeted for location fees while other film projects like documentaries or low-budget short films may have very little money to offer. Scottish Screen Locations does not set a scale of location fees, but can offer advice if at any time you are unsure or want a better idea of the kind of fees you should be charging. Generally, unless your property is truly extraordinary, you are likely to be offered fees in the region of hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

Q. What happens if I don’t want this filming?

A. You are perfectly at liberty to turn down any requests for filming in your property.

Q. How much filming will I get?

A. Realistically, unless your property is particularly unusual or historically important, you have to be prepared for the possibility of never getting any filming at all. But production companies, especially those who make commercials, are interested in quite ordinary locations: what might tip the balance are other factors like parking, noise levels, or access.

Scottish Screen Locations
locations@scottishscreen.com