North London Flat Turned Film Location
With Dan at Hoxton Heights Shoot Location
Molly Winters
Introduction
From down under to Hoxton Heights, this month we explore Dan’s successful shoot home in North London and how he began working with Location Creation.
Q: Hello Dan, Tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello I am Dan, a native Australian who has called the UK home for about twelve years now. After a stint running a business and living in Manchester I was so excited to return to London, and wanted a home that was a really creative, entertaining and special. We only wanted a small place with two bedrooms, so finding a space with the two separate lounge areas was just perfect.
Discovering Location Creation
I heard about Location Creation through a buddy that has had great success and they put us in touch. It’s been such an unexpectedly simple and rewarding year hosting shoots in our home.
Renting your place out for film is a very different process to say Airbnb and Location Creation understands exactly how the industry works. There is a lot of peace of mind knowing they can hold our hand along the way.
Q: What are your Design Inspirations for Hoxton Heights?
I’ve lived here in Hoxton with my partner for almost four years now and we feel so at home. The area feels very quintessentially East London and has a great atmosphere.
We’re so close to the action of Shoreditch, East london and Angel. Hoxton Street is iconic and the film clip for Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve started outside our place. Gentrification has largely bunny hopped over Hoxton, leaving us with a stable community of locals - and everyone on the street knows each other - there is a lovely village feel.
Music video by The Verve performing Bitter Sweet Symphony. © 1997 Virgin Records Limited
The History of Hoxton Heights
The previous tennants here were an achitecture practice and they built the glass penthouse ontop of the original building that was believed to be a post office. See before and after shots below, courtesy of Lynch Architects.
Q: What shoots does your home attract and what is your favourite shoot you have hosted?
The house is divided over four levels with smaller floor plates, so we tend to attract more static picture shoots - artist interviews, social content, editorials etc. Having said that, we’ve also had major TV productions take over the place for multi-day film shoots too.
My favourite shoot experience was probably our very first one, with celebrity musician TYSON. They took awesome urban style shots, which ended up featuring on Reebok’s socials. See below.
Credit: Juliette Eleuterio, Scouty, TYSON, Culted Magazine, Reebok
Q: What have you learnt since becoming a location home?
1: Not every shoot that enquires about dates ends up booking; In fact the drop off rate is high, so you need to be flexible to bookings dropping in and out of your calendar.
2: The biggest surprise for me is just how great the location management has been. Bookers have taken mostly good care of the home and larger shoots typically have someone solely responsible for communicating with myself and Location Creation. They do move things around, but in my experience they’ve been very good at putting it all back and repairing any damage.
3: The best part, aside from good money, would be seeing other people really enjoying our space. We know how special it is, so it’s rewarding seeing others enjoying it too.
Location Creation Ltd proudly works with R3Photography Ltd
Top 3 tips for someone else who wants to host shoots?
1: Be flexible and chilled about the booking process.
2: Providing your Wifi password and a key lockbox makes things easy if you’re out for the shoot.
3: Arrange your cleaner for the day after, just so you’re not annoyed by any mess they might have left.