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Have you ever wondered if your home has what it takes to be a movie star? Or, at least, a movie set? While Hollywood may still be the center of the U.S. film industry, movies and videos are also shot right here in the Bay Area, including in local residences. From fancy estates to humble flats, filmmakers seek all kinds of spaces for their projects, depending on what makes sense both creatively and practically. Homeowners can get in on the action by making their space available for film shoots.
“It’s easier than ever to have your home in a film,” said Cam Newton, who is a film commissioner for The San Mateo County/Silicon Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (a nonprofit organization doing business under the name The San Francisco Peninsula, working to foster economic growth).
As a film commissioner, he explained, he serves as a resource and advocate for more films to be made in the area. Over the years, more than 30 Hollywood films – including “The Wedding Planner,” “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” – have been filmed in San Mateo County, according to the organization’s website.
For homeowners, the most obvious reason to rent out their space is to generate extra income, as filmmakers often pay a significant amount to use a property as a filming location.
For filmmakers, the reasons for selecting a location can vary.
“A lot of reasons filmmakers decide to film in a place or not has to do with permit turnaround time, how much does it cost; you have to make it appealing; you’ve got to make it easier for filmmakers,” Newton said.
Scouting the right location: Asking friends and knocking on a stranger’s door
Tony Gapastione is a Redwood City-based filmmaker and the founder of BraveMaker, a local nonprofit organization that produces films and hosts an annual festival. When he’s scouting a location for a project, he first considers places with which he already has a relationship – friends’ homes, local cafes, etc. – but sometimes, the perfect spot just catches his eye. When he was working on his short film “Neighbor,” for example, the house he had planned on using was unexpectedly sold and no longer available, so he combed that Redwood City neighborhood for other possibilities and found another home that seemed just right.
“I walked up to the door, knocked on it, introduced myself, told them about my vision and what I hoped to do with it,” he recalled. “They were very interested to be a part of it. We drew up a contract and made it happen.”
Renting out an investment property is one thing, but letting strangers in to temporarily take over isn’t always easy.
“I walked up to the door, knocked on it, introduced myself, told them about my vision and what I hoped to do with it.”
Tony Gapastione, Redwood City-based filmmaker
“It is a challenge to have people who you don’t know sludging cameras around, moving couches, putting things on the walls,” Gapastione said.
He recommended making communication a priority, with clear discussions and written guidelines on what is and isn’t allowed (removing furniture, protecting the floors, paying a cleaning fee, etc.), what parts of the property are off limits, and how any inadvertent snafus or damage would be covered.
“I want to keep a good relationship with the owners of the homes and spaces that I’m filming in,” he said.
Gapastione also recommends filmmakers respect the property owner’s time by booking more hours than may seem necessary at first.
“Filming, in my experience, never goes as planned. The timing never goes as you hope,” he said. “I always try to overschedule. If I tell a homeowner, ‘I’m going to use your home for 10 hours’ and I’m doing 11 or 12 (hours), that is not respectful.”
Depending on the situation, filmmakers or production companies may pay for residents to stay in a hotel for the duration of the filming. Pets, too, can figure into the logistics equation.
“We filmed in my friend’s home, and she knew her dog would be kind of challenging,” Gapastione recalled. “She had her cats locked up in another room and the dog went somewhere else.”
The rate homeowners charge is highly variable – and negotiable – Gapastione said, but in many cases it’s similar to the cost of a night at a comparable Airbnb property. Of course, some folks aren’t in it for the money, and there are non-monetary ways to compensate them as well, such as promoting their rental property or business.
“If you find those people gracious enough to work with you pro bono, give them credit in the film. … mutual promotion, that’s really the barter system I work with,” he said.
In some cases, property owners may be excited to get to be a part of the film, whether it be making a cameo or taking the opportunity to attend screenings.
“You can appeal to people’s desire for those red-carpet moments,” he said.
Here comes the film crew: What’s it like renting a home to movie makers?
Homeowner Miranda Junowicz is no stranger to hosting film shoots at her house.
Junowicz owns a historic Redwood City home that she rents out as a filming location (and venue for weddings, meetings or other private events, plus occasional short-term stays).
“The impact is pretty low. They come in and film and leave. People aren’t sleeping in your beds and using your stuff,” she said of opening the property to film crews. “The money is good, and for the filmmaker, they get a backdrop that’s already there, at a low cost to them.”
She estimated that her 1906 Dutch colonial house has been rented out about half a dozen times so far, and she lists it on the rental website Peerspace at a price of $375 an hour.
Junowicz is also a real estate agent and said she’s never known any of her clients to rent their properties as film locations, but based on her own positive experiences thus far, she could see it becoming more common.
Gapastione has worked with Junowicz and her property several times now and her daughter has even made a cameo in one of his films.
“I can give you my house and my kid!” Junowicz recalled with a laugh. “That was fun. That was cool.”
While Junowicz and her kids are now living elsewhere, it was their family home for years and is still sometimes used as a residence (this past January, for example, Junowicz’s friend needed a place to stay for a month). Because filming projects don’t typically take the whole house, it doesn’t need to pose a problem for people living there.
“You can kind of work around it,” she said. She also hasn’t ever had a problem working with filmmakers on temporary changes to the look or arrangement of the space. “Anything they want to bring in, they bring in,” she said.
Like Gapastione, she emphasized the importance of good communication between property owner and filmmaker by having clear discussions about what can and cannot be used or modified. Junowicz said that while she wouldn’t want any permanent changes made, “If you can put it back, you can do it.”
How to get your home in the movies: Listing sites, referrals and resources
For private property owners interested in offering up spaces for filming opportunities, “you can post your house on a selection of websites, say what kind of projects (you’re) willing to do,” Newton said.
Property owners can make it easy for filmmakers and location scouts to find their space by using a service such as Peerspace or Giggster, both of which now include the Peninsula in their listing ranges.
Current local listings on Peerspace, for example, include an “urban farmhouse oasis” in the Barron Park neighborhood of Palo Alto, renting for $100 an hour; an Eichler in Atherton going for $350 an hour, a “modern industrial” home in Mountain View charging $170-$190 per hour, and a “tropical modern” house in Los Altos Hills going for $500 an hour. Listing your space is free (Peerspace takes a per-booking service fee), general liability insurance up to $1 million is provided, and guests’ liability for damages up to $25,000 is also covered.
According to the California Film Commission, properties can be rented out for 14 days tax free. Property owners can list their property with the state commission, which also offers tips and resources.
Cities have their own specific rules on permits and permissions for filming, and folks like Newton can help relay that information, as well as find potential filming locales.
For those in San Mateo County in particular, Newton encouraged homeowners to get in touch with him, as he’s building up his list of options to refer directly to filmmakers.
