Increasing numbers of homeowners are making their houses work harder. They’re hiring them out, via location scouts, for film and TV, photoshoots and special events. “When I started working as a scout in the late 1990s, there were only two location libraries that I knew of,” says Louise Morgan, co-founder of LouLou Productions, a company that specialises in finding unique properties in which to shoot advertising campaigns for the likes of Volvo, Waitrose and HSBC. “We’d go into their offices and flick through a ring binder and, if we couldn’t find what we wanted, we’d search relevant residential areas, posting notes through the letterboxes of houses we liked the look of. It was a slow process.”
These days, Morgan knows of at least 20 location libraries in London alone, each representing thousands of properties around the UK. LouLou Productions has even compiled a small library of its own. So what kind of properties make the best locations? “It all depends on the brief, but generally it’s important to have a distinct style and plenty of space to accommodate crews of 30-40,” says Morgan. “We recently had a brief for a large house in which we could shoot three scenes: in the kitchen, living room and dining room. It needed a big driveway for a mobile kitchen, bedrooms for hair, make-up and wardrobe, and a garage to store lighting equipment overnight. The more space the better, really.”
