Cannot believe that your coop is allowing it...but anyway...

We rented our b'stone for shoot and these are lessons learned:

1) Whatever they are paying its not enough
2) It will go far longer and later than they promise
3) The location scouts sort of lie about number of people, time, disruption
4) Your neighbours will hate you for ever; try and get film company to spray presents, cash anything around; they will do it and it does help
5) They will do damage and they will fix it but usually they want their crew to have a go first
6) See if they can pay you in cash or via an offshore company where they dont have to report how much they paid and to who; they will report the payment to the tax authorities (don't forget they are getting a tax break for filming here) so you will lose your marginal tax rate off the top

Good luck...!

Posted by: morganpony68 at October 29, 2009 10:03 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

They will also show up earlier than they say. While they didn't break anything in my house, it was more disruptive than I had realized- you will not be welcome in your own home. I also never got a copy of the film, but my neighbors didn't hate me, and my coop was fine with it.

Posted by: harriet at October 29, 2009 10:23 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

My brother did this years ago in Manhattan. He said it was an absolutely horrible experience and would never do it again. It lasts longer than expected and the crew will completely disregard your home, belongings etc. And, they will completely piss off all your neighbors so that your neighbors ultimately resent you for allowing it in the first place.

Definitely don't do it!!

Posted by: BrianR at October 29, 2009 11:07 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

We had units scouted in our building...I believe the payment offered was $1500/day for the apartment owner and $500/day payable to the co-op directly. Fell through in the end (production company changed their mind about the shoot locations).

Posted by: arches at October 29, 2009 11:14 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

Here's something very telling - people who work in film never let film crews use their home as a location. Because they know what happens.

Posted by: traditionalmod at October 29, 2009 11:15 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

We've had our interior and exterior used twice by "Law & Order" (admittedly not a full-blown movie shoot, but you'd never guess it by the massive incursion of rigs and equipment), and they were WONDERFUL--so careful to replace your stuff that they used a Polaroid to re-situate the knickknacks. They were also just real nice folks, considerate and engaging; they have to be, given how much location shooting they do and how much "L&O exhaustion" some oft-used areas develop. Can't speak to movies or commercials, since we haven't had one of those (yet).
We did turn down two offers, btw: one for a Metallica video (that wanted to shoot on a Thanksgiving day and pitched us desperately the day before--now that would've been an amusing Turkey Day!), and one for a cheap ambush-style reality show called "I Hate Your House" (we don't,thank you very much!)
And of course, we aren't co-op'ers, so we don't have to worry about a Board...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 29, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

jeez brenda. you turned down metallica? ;-)

Posted by: CGmodern at October 29, 2009 12:02 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

Interesting CH5! What are the details? I also liked reading the selection of horror stories and good reports. Do you think you'll pursue it? I guess I think that in a coop, the coop itself does deserve a fee, since most buildings are for residences (only, or pretty close to it), and film shoots can be pretty disruptive.

Posted by: Minmin at October 29, 2009 12:28 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

A film crew used the interior of our parlor floor to shoot street views for that recent Al Pacino/Carla Gugino movie. There is usually a standard contract. It went later than expected, but then we asked for more money and got it. At my BIL's advice, we made the bathroom off-limits for crew usage.

Posted by: tiptoe at October 29, 2009 1:16 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

I work in the industry and I wouldn't do it. The damage that kind of equipment can cause is huge. It may be little things but they are bound to scratch floors, ding up walls, etc.
If you do decide to go for it put hours restriction as part of the deal, make them pay you overtime. Any studio would do the same thing. If they aren't paying hourly they are bound to take longer.

Posted by: jo84 at October 29, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

In my professional capacity I've hosted ~15 shoots in various properties (all historic, all with busy schedules) and in my personal life, we've had a 7 day indie release shot in our house. From my perspective, here's a short list of good/bad:

BAD: HUGE numbers of people on your site. A small/mid size motion picture unit is 5-10 trucks plus 50-75 crew. A large is 15 trucks and double the crew. Not all of the crew will be in your space at the same time but all of them will need access to your surroundings. Streets, sidewalks, stairwells, whatever. They'll need it and take it.

BAD: Many film people tend to ask for forgiveness instead of permission while they are doing their job. This comment isn't meant to be slanderous to the profession, it's just the nature of their job. They're under a serious time crunch and chances are that when they're on location, they're working 16 hours out of 24. Anything that slows things down is a problem that they want to solve in the shortest/quickest way possible.

GOOD: For the most part, the first offer of cash is the low ball. Even indie shoots budget much higher than the $1500/$500 offers. For the indie shoot (with major stars) in our house, we got $3k/shoot day plus $1500/prep day. Majors, depending on how invasive they are (I'm thinking special FX here. Pyro, blood, stunts) commonly settle for a LOT more than that.

GOOD: It's fun. Crazy but fun. And you'll have a momento for your grandkids to laugh at later.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is that you should never assume that their understanding of terms is equal to your understanding of terms. If you're not in the business, you won't have the same context for terms as they do. See my note about unit sizes. You might hear them say small unit and think a couple of trucks and they might actually be saying much more. Don't be afraid to ask many, many questions. The location folks that approached you will be more than happy to answer them and unless they're bad, they'll be inclined to give you a clear and honest (ish) answer. After all, there's nothing worse than having to talk a panic ridden location owner down from the ledge as their units are pulling up to the door.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: fauxvic at October 29, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie