It's not really possible for me to film models at my home, and I'm not big enough to have my own studio so I've been forced to use hotel rooms, which always look boring. Can anyone suggest other places where I can film models instead of in hotels?
It's not really possible for me to film models at my home, and I'm not big enough to have my own studio so I've been forced to use hotel rooms, which always look boring. Can anyone suggest other places where I can film models instead of in hotels?
The great outdoors! Some of my favorite shoots have been outside.
Get in touch with a few of your local nightclubs, we were going to start leasing out our club on a Sunday to a few of the local photographers in the Daytona area to do shoots.
Regards,
Lee
Check around for a monthly heated garage rental ... should be cheaper than most hotels or a regular "studio" ... and setup your scenery etc.
Ask around, post on Craigslist, you might be able to find a gay person or couple with a nice home that will let you shoot inexpensively. Sometimes they'll do it for free if they get to watch
or maybe another webmaster knows of a rental studio depending on your area.
We've thought about doing this but always figured we'd get nothing but creeps responding. Plus, having to scout out the location to make sure the set up would work and more importantly, that it's not cracky.
The time involved may not be worth it in the end. I guess one never knows until they try it.
look on vacation rental sites like vrbo.com for furnished rentals. at times you can rent a condo/house for a day for less than what you'd pay for a hotel room...and you always have a number of shoot options, from the living room, to the bathroom, and of course, the bedroom
allan
find production assistants who have nice homes and tell them they don't have to do anything asides from turning over the living room for a couple of hours, but still pay them as a PA =)
Use foreclosed homes
Wow, some great suggestions! Here are some additional questions/comments:
Lee: I thought about the nightclub idea but could a bar owner lose their liquor license if porn was shot there? I think I read this somewhere.
Seth: I'm not really in an area where outdoor locations (without people) are available, but thanks for the suggestion!
Bec: Are you referring to a storage facility like Public Storage, U-Haul, etc.? That's a clever idea I had not considered, although the lack of a bathroom or shower might be a problem.
Basschick: I actually did ask another adult photographer if I could rent his studio but he said he couldn't due to insurance reasons.
Gpallen: thanks for the vrbo link. I'll check that out... sounds like a good alternative to hotel rooms!
DrChango: The PA house idea sounds clever also.
Rich: Foreclosed homes? You're kidding right?
If you're creative, I'd be surprised if there is any place in the US where you can't find an outdoor location that will work.
Some of the places to consider in a more urban area:
-- under a highway bridge
-- in an industrial area on a weekend when it's deserted
-- on a construction site after hours (or on a weekend)
-- Outside/in back of / next to a foreclosed building (commercial or residential)
-- In an obscured area of a public park
-- In a railroad or light rail right-of-way area
-- In the loading dock area of a commercial building that's either vacant or closed for the weekend
Granted the legality of some of these areas is quite questionable, but I know of a LOT of producers that shoot in places like that all the time and you very rarely hear of any sort of problems.
My personal favorite spot that we used for content production was an abandoned factory that had been a dynamite factory in WWII, and was later converted to a fertilizer factory.
It had lots of industrial-looking machines and cast steelwork, and all sorts of other interesting textures and backgrounds. We did a number of shoots there. It was next to a residential area, but had been left undeveloped because there were toxic waste issues (ammonia residues of the fertilizer seeped into the ground.)
Whenever we were shooting a multiperson scene, we brought one or two extra people who just stood as lookouts, and when the neighborhood people came wandering by they'd just say "Um, there's a photoshoot going on inside, would you mind staying outside for the next hour or so?" Occasionally, someone would say "Oh, can I watch" and the lookout would just say "Well, actually, it's gay porn" and then whatever interest they had would suddenly go away. But people were nice, and several of the locals told us the history of the space.
Unfortunately, they tore it down and I guess cleaned up the toxic waste problem -- it was very valuable land, next to the delta of the San Francisco Bay -- and I suspect it's full of janky tract homes now.
I'm sure there are more places like that in Sacramento area where we are now, but I haven't had the time to go looking.
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