The Making of "Collection Day": Day 5

The fifth day of our shoot led us to a home in the suburbs. With the help of my resourceful wife, this location had only been secured a mere few days before (a crazy, recurring event in this production). When no one else would help us, we found a friend who had recently moved away and left their house partially furnished. They were more than agreeable and allowed us to shoot there over the course of two weekends. This day would put us mostly in the front of the home.

Trying to find a private home to shoot in can be a real challenge. If you don't know the owners, they will demand insurance and probably not let you shoot there anyway due to liability issues. A friend's house is the best way to go, but you will completely displace the family while shooting there. If you can afford to put them up in a hotel, you should, but what about when you need to reshoot? The whole process starts over while you inconvenience those doing you a big favor.

We had the best scenario possible. We used a friend's house, but they had recently moved (no displacing) and told the realtor (who my wife knew) to give us full run of their home. We replaced the missing furniture with a two-week rental which included delivery and pick up for only $88. It was a very nice setup for a microbudget film shoot.