Green In The Garden - renting of gardens and home interiors

Flower & Garden Magazine, July, 2000 by Dale Koppel

MONEY MIGHT NOT GROW ON TREES, BUT SOME GARDENS CAN SPROUT HANDSOME CHECKS--WHEN RENTED AS BACKDROPS FOR FILMS OR ADVERTISING.

THE WAY KATHARINE DICKENSON TELLS THE STORY, SHE WAS STANDING OUTSIDE, WATERING THE GARDENS SHE HAD SPENT HOURS WORKING ON, AND SUDDENLY A THOUGHT CAME TO HER, "SURELY, THIS MUST BE WORTH SOMETHING."

SHE WAS RIGHT. IT WAS.

AT LEAST VERNA SHORE THOUGHT SO. IT'S SHORE'S BUSINESS TO FIND FABULOUS SOUTH FLORIDA BACKYARDS, GARDENS AND INTERIORS THAT SERVE AS THE PERFECT BACKDROP FOR MAGAZINE ADS, TELEVISION COMMERCIALS, FILMS AND MAIL ORDER BROCHURES.

LOCATIONS EXTRORDINAIRE, SHORE'S LOCATION SHOOT SEARCH COMPANY, WAS STARTED TEN YEARS AGO WHEN SHE WAS A FASHION MODEL, AND A PHOTOGRAPHER ASKED HER IF SHE KNEW A GREAT BACKYARD FOR A PHOTO SHOOT. SHE OFFERED HER OWN YARD IN BOCA RATON.

"THEN HE STARTED ASKING ME IF I HAD ANY FRIENDS WITH BEAUTIFUL BACKYARDS," SHE SAID. "AND I STARTED PHONING AROUND; IT WAS OBVIOUS THERE WAS A NEED." THOSE PEOPLE WITH BEAUTIFUL YARDS CAN EARN AS MUCH AS $10,000 PER DAY.

THE ACTUAL AMOUNT DOESN'T REFLECT JUST HOW BIG OR BEAUTIFUL YOUR BACKYARD AND GARDENS ARE. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE SIZE OF THE CLIENT'S BUDGET, THE SIZE OF THE CREW AND HOW MUCH OF AN IMPOSITION THERE'S GOING TO BE ON THE HOMEOWNER AS WELL.

"SOME CLIENTS BRING THEIR OWN MOTOR HOMES SO THAT THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO USE THE HOMEOWNER'S BATHROOM," SAYS CAMILLA MORE, LOCATION AGENT FOR WORLD LOCATIONS IN WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA. AT TIMES, OTHER CLIENTS, SUCH AS WILLIAMS-SONOMA, WILL NEED ACCESS TO THE HOMEOWNER'S KITCHEN FOR FOOD PREPARATION FOR THE SHOOT.

Sara Campbell of Brookline, MA, admits that having ten or more strangers using her bathroom can be off-putting. And once, she reveals, she was even ready to call it quits when a Christmas shoot left her house turned upside down with snow all over the place--in the middle of July. Still, she admits, the $1,200 per day definitely helps to pay taxes and child-care costs. "After the snow job experience," Sara relates, "I've learned to be very particular about boundaries--I always ask how large a crew there's going to be!" Ten is manageable, she thinks, but twenty-five is too much, especially if a producer isn't there to oversee the crew.

Ronnie Nellen, owner/location manager of Location, Production, Coordination in Santa Barbara, CA, looks for one word: quintessential. Bobby Webb's backyard in Montecito, CA, definitely qualifies. He has sixty acres that boast tropical gardens, a large formal rose garden, several ponds and a delightful year-round stream.

"There have probably been about ten shoots here in the past four years," Webb states. One of them was a movie shoot for Universal Studios. Webb made $10,000 a day, but no, he didn't get to rub elbows with the stars. "The crew took over the yard--and the house," he says. "They put me up in a hotel-- the very best hotel."

"But really," says Janet Henderson, head of Team, a location scouting, casting and production company in Boston, MA, "clients aren't always looking for over-the-top backyards. Many of them want generic backyards that feel like `anyone could live there.' A one-of-a-kind fountain could look so specific, it could only be used once."

Over the past year, Joanne Young of Coconut Creek, FL, one of Shore's clients, was paid $1,000 per day for two catalog shoots (Talbots and Frontgate) and one shoot for an advertisement for dog clippers.

"There were dogs and kids running around outside for three days," Joann related. "But I didn't mind it one bit, as there was never a problem, and everything was left in perfect condition."

"We consider it a privilege to be allowed to use someone's gardens," says Heidi Dewell, a catalog production manager for Williams-Sonoma. "We take pride in making sure that nothing happens." And if it does? "You can bet that we carry plenty of insurance," Dewell exclaims.

Today, Shore's portfolio consists of five hundred locations--from Key Largo to Vero Beach. They range from a back porch that overlooks the water furnished with a wooden porch swing and Adirondack chairs (a great venue for a casual look) to a mansion with huge white columns set back on a rolling hill (visions of Scarlett O'Hara). Her clients include J. Crew and Ralph Lauren.

The gardens of Katharine Dickenson's home, as well as the back of her house, have adorned the pages of the Frontgate, Brookstone and Fortunoff catalogs. Dickenson keeps all of them in a special section of her library.

The appeal of Dickenson's 1936 Florida Georgian (also known as a Colonial Revival) is that "it could be anywhere," Shore indicates. "In fact, you'd never guess it was in Boca Raton."

Her garden has all the right elements for a photo shoot--mature trees, including the huge specimen calamondin and the cluster date palm; a Chippendale-style gazebo; pink Chicago brick that leads to the raised pool with its unusual pergola, statuaries, and confederate jasmine vines that climb up the back of the house; and, of course, the plethora of flowers from bromeliads to begonias.