A Home Economist’s Guide to Picking a Location Studio

One of First Option’s regular guests Kate Moore is a Home Economist, and details the variety of being a home ec, what she provides for a production and what she looks for in a shooting location, in our latest Guest Blog.

The job of a home economist is extremely varied, often challenging, regularly exhausting, but never dull!

Sometimes I am asked to recommend a suitable location for a cookery shoot. A production manager may have little or no experience working with food and therefore they need to rely on the home economist to help them find a good location.

The key things that the company wants are the following :-

• An island with a built-in hob,
• A studio that is big enough for 3 cameras,
• A separate prep kitchen – preferably some distance from the studio to help reduce unwanted sound,
• An area for the crew to keep their equipment – boxes, bags and the usual paraphernalia that is part and parcel of filming,
• An area for hair and makeup.

After being involved in numerous shoots for several years I am very familiar with the additional facilities that are extremely helpful to a crew :-

• Fast and reliable Wi-Fi,
• Decent coffee on arrival,
• A location that is clean and ready to use – especially the prep kitchen,
• Masses of clean fridge space,
• An area to unload – in my case that usually means bags and bags of shopping and several crates of props.

You always need someone actually at the location to ask the usual questions- how do I use the oven? Can I park over there? Do you know where the nearest supermarket is?

If a location has a website with information, contact details etc, it really helps the production company get a clear idea if the location is suitable. Once you find the perfect location, you can find that the only possible problem is making the studio look different from one shoot to the next.

As I supply props too, and it’s important to me that the layout of the studio will allow me to use my props to give the kitchen a different feel or look for each client.

There are a lot of considerations when choosing the perfect location and if you are filming food, it’s always a good idea to get your home economist involved because invariably we will be the ones who know what to look for. A good facility makes the lives of everyone a lot easier. So when you work as hard as we do, make your life as easy as possible and choose a facility that offers and knows exactly what you need!