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17 reviews
5 years ago
This is a really cool space. The decor makes it feel like a cozy home, but definitely with an artistic touch. It was everything we needed for our shoot!
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6 years ago
This has been the worst location managing experience in all my years working for feature films, HGTV, W Network, CORUS, and various commercial campaigns.
Ahmad and I had typical communication while booking the property. I let him know that I also wanted to do a tech scout as well as a viewing and when he raised concerns, we agreed on an extra charge. Our dates were up in the air and Ahmad was pretty patient until there was other interest in our dates and I paid to lock them immediately when I heard that. He and his partner seemed lovely and they were accommodating and flexible and I had no reason to believe the film dates would be some of the most traumatic experiences I've had to subject my crew to.
Ahmad had previously said 11PM was the latest we could potentially stay but he was out of town and his partner Alicia was handling us. She wanted us to be finished by 10:00 PM, even though I explained that we had evening scenes that needed the sunset at 9:09PM and had booked under the assumption we had it until 11PM. When I knew we were likely to be overtime, I texted Alicia, Ahmad's partner, with ample notice. We agreed to be finished by 11PM as she had to come back home to prepare for a flight. We "camera wrapped" by 11:02 PM and I texted Alicia that we were cleaning up and putting everything back. She appeared lighting fast, and immediately burst into tears because her house was not ready yet or set back. I explained to her that we had everyone working on it and we had extensive pictures of every room and every corner to ensure everything went back exactly as it was. Instead of giving us space to do this as the bedroom was the first place completely clean (on purpose, so she could rest while we finished), she followed us around, demanding to know why we didn't leave all the knickkacks and why we didn't leave the multicoloured flag bunting up (even though it definitely was not in the style of our character, a 20-year old Mohawk woman). We hung it back up and she wanted us to re-do it so she asked our tallest, lankiest crew member to reach into a corner, above that shelf in the picture with all the plants and items on it (that we had already set after hanging the flags back). While he was doing this, he knocked over a jar and cracked the lid. Immediately, we profusely apologized and offered to get it fixed, despite the $10.75 CAD price tag. Alicia agreed and gave it to us to take home to get fixed and returned.
Alicia subjected us to subtle racism, demanding to go through all of our boxes to make sure "we didn't take anything," accuse us of taking a precious heirloom lamp that she later found upstairs in her house, cry repeatedly while we were trying to get packed up. The paper with the Airbnb instructions got crumpled and while Alicia was crying about it, we went to get our printer and print a new copy after she sent us a PDF file.
She accused us of stealing items the entire time and really delayed our process. Despite her demanding we leave certain things for her to do (hanging the photos of friends and family back on the clothesline) and then abandoning it, we managed to get out of the apartment by 12:30 AM. 1.5 hours after the time agreed to, our mistake.
When we got home and did inventory, I found two items of theirs and I immediately texted Alicia about them and asked whether we should drop it off or mail it.
Despite all of the hoops we went through to make things right time after time, it wasn't enough. We cleaned up, took pictures, swept up plant dirt, and left the place cleaner than when we entered. Even though I offered to pay for the overtime and the jar, and return the two items we found, Alicia still tried to hold our security deposit hostage, for seemingly little reason and we already had the broken jar in our possession and were going to fix it.
All in all, a really awful, tramautic experience. The day after, we had to hold a crew meeting to talk about it and check in with everyone as we're a predominantly a crew of minority folks who were subjected to, what we interpreted as (based on our lived experience and the insinuations Alicia was making) racist undertones. Accusing us of stealing, demanding to go through our things, berating me in front of my crew, crying actual tears about a re-printable piece of paper, being inflexible about a tech scout (which is standard), and hanging HUNDREDS of knick-knacks.
This house is ONLY suitable for people who want to use as is, packed with stuff including personal photos all over the kitchen. My typical experience with locations is that we move items and then put them back at wrap, as we take extensive photos. I would not have booked this place had Ahmad or Alicia explained that they didn't want any of their stuff moved, despite everything going back as it was due to our extensive pictures. We even got scolded for moving a piece of paper with airbnb guest instructions from the kitchen counter where we would be filming!!!
ALSO: VERY, VERY HOT without AC (AC is too loud for sound, suitable for MOS/silent scenes), wasn't tidied up before we got there (papers on tables, things left out, pieces of papers on counters that we got in trouble for moving)
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6 years ago
This place is so beautiful, I'm glad I was able to do a photoshoot here and will come back to do more shoots here.
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6 years ago
Such a unique awesome space to be able to shoot in, lots of versatility and Ahmad was very easy to communicate with!
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