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“It’s an interesting idea with a lot of potential,” said Evan Landry, a producer with The Field who worked the Hedley video shoot. “We almost never have the money to pay for a set scout or even a location manager for music videos and smaller productions. It falls on the producers to get that done. It’s easily the most annoying and tedious part of the production process.”

Set Scouter has a lot to offer location owners looking to make a quick buck to offset property taxes, home repairs, or energy costs. Per day rates start at a modest $75 to rent an office copy room and top out at $1,500 for a large country house in Caledon East, or an “old school bar” in downtown Toronto that features a performance stage, grand piano, and pinball machines.

“I think the biggest thing I’m worried about is that people will feel like their home isn’t nice enough to be used in film,” Mr. Kolodkin joked. “We’ve had requests for drug scenes where we need disgusting bathrooms and grungy basements.”

Set Scouter’s easy-to-use functionality is what Mr. Kolodkin says will set his company apart from his main rival, the Ontario government.

The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, offers “on-line virtual scouting.” Listing a property requires mailing a printed release form, and it’s up to each producer to contact and negotiate with property owners.

“A lot of the locations on OMDC have been used tons of times. So they’ve either been burned and they don’t want to accommodate films any more or they’re used to fairly high budget productions and aren’t willing to work with lower budget music videos and independent films. With Set Scouter, you get a middleman to deal with the owners and act as a location manager,” Mr. Landry said.

By harnessing the rapid growth of digital and web-based productions, a demographic that demands a quick, simple, and budget-conscious approach, Mr. Kolodkin hopes to outpace his competition and expand beyond the GTA.

“I honestly thought I would get one or two requests per week for the first couple of months, last week alone we got seven requests. Toronto is an excellent test market. There is such a huge [film] community here. Once the development costs are tailored down, all the profit will go toward scaling up and including new markets and features,” he said.