Magazine


Home is where the film crew is

by Paul R Taylor
12/ 1/2007

FROM Cracker to Cutting It, Manchester has become a hugely popular location for film crews and photographers in recent years.

Scores of dramas, adverts, magazine shoots and even Hollywood blockbusters have used the city's streets and properties as backdrops, with the likes of Shameless, Cold Feet, Life On Mars, Vincent and the remake of the Michael Caine classic Alfie, all filmed here.

Directors often prefer to film on location rather than in studios as it can make the finished product seem more realistic. It's difficult for set designers to mimic the wear and tear and reproduce that lived-in feel.

For adverts and photoshoots, using someone's home can simply be cheaper than constructing specialist sets. And for every film, advert and photo shoot there's a property owner receiving often hundreds of pounds a day for doing little more than signing papers and putting up with minor inconveniences.

So whether you own a swish penthouse pad or industrial wasteland, there's money to be made from marketing it as a location and you might even get to meet the odd celeb as well.

Nick Jones, founder of online commercial locations library North West Locations, recognised the need for a database of available properties and land while working with production companies such as Granada TV, Yorkshire TV, the BBC and Hat Trick Productions.

The Didsbury-based 34-year-old said: "The website provides a comprehensive library of filming and photography locations across the North West, so whether people live in a mansion or an apartment, or own a factory or bookshop, we want to hear from them.

"The North West is the most popular part of the country for filming outside Greater London. I'm in regular contact with directors, designers, production managers, producers, photographers and researchers all searching for specific locations.

"We're already finding a lot of demand for houses with large knocked through kitchen/dining rooms or living/dining rooms which give that extra space for cast, crew and equipment.

"However, our library also includes penthouse loft apartments and rural farmhouses. We have about 2,000 properties on North West Locations and Yorkshire Locations combined. Once properties become popular it spreads by word of mouth and they are often used over and over again."

There are several other locations website databases, such as Amazing Space which provided locations for Bond films, but this and the majority of others are London-centric.

Nick has recently sourced locations in Manchester for an AA advert, a Beautiful South pop promo and various period dramas, including the soon-to-be-aired BBC offering Lilies, set in the 1920s.

He also put fabric designer David Kaitiff in touch with sportswear firm Reebok, which used his Cheadle home for an advert featuring Manchester United star Ryan Giggs.

The Welsh wizard did "keepy uppies" as he walked down David's stairs, answered his phone and got a drink from the fridge. The whole advert was filmed in one day just before the World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002.

David, 38, said: "The crew were here from 8am to 9pm so we didn't have to move out. In fact, I'm a Man United fan so they weren't going to get rid of me! If it had been a DFS advert I might not have stuck around but it was great to meet Ryan. He was really down to earth and quite quiet but, after spending all day with him, he opened up and we got on well.

"Putting your property forward is a great way to recoup some of the money you've spent on your home, as long as you're not too precious about your things. The companies agree to replace anything damaged, so that put me at ease.

"The only thing that did get damaged was a door handle and Reebok replaced that."

Reebok even sent some free football boots and kit to David's nine-year-old son Alex as a thank-you.

Nick praised Manchester Council for its flexible and helpful approach to production companies. In late 2003, it shut streets in the Northern Quarter to accommodate the filming of scenes for the remake of Alfie, this time starring heart-throb Jude Law.

Production company Paramount chose the Manchester streets for their historic architecture, before set designers spent five weeks transforming the area to make it look like a typical New York street.

"Both the council and the Manchester Film Office go out of their way to help. They realise the benefits of attracting inward investment and are flexible to companies' needs."

All interested home-owners need to do is sign up and add a description of their home and provide photos of their various rooms.

For more information, or to sign up to the library, visit www.northwestlocations.co.uk, call 0845 0450608, or e-mail info@northwestlocations.co.uk


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