The Massachusetts Film Office, which encourages producers to film movies in the state via tax incentives, encourages property owners to list their homes, offices and more for possible shooting locations.
Currently, about 2 dozen Natick properties are listed, including Town Hall, the South Natick Dam, the downtown fire station, and a few homes.
Listing your property as a possible movie shoot site is straightforward, and involves sharing pictures. The office provides tips on how to best reflect the nature of your property in photos.
We’ve seen reports that homeowners can reap thousands of dollars a day for renting out their property for filming, with the monthly mortgage sometimes used to figure out the daily rate. That could work out pretty well for a Natick homeowner indeed.
You’ll probably be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement by the filming outfit so their big secrets aren’t revealed.
Natick Executive Assistant Donna Donovan (ddonovan@natickma.org) is listed by the film office as the person to start with in town (we reached out to her but received no reply). We also tried Town Administrator Jamie Errickson, hoping to get info on what benefits the town gets from movie shoots, other than police details. Ultimately, filming in town requires permission from the Select Board, according to the film office.
If listing your property isn’t something you want to do, there’s still a mess of other interesting info on the Mass Film site, including internship and casting call opportunities.
This past summer the area saw film crews parking at a church lot on Union Street, as well as at Elm Bank Reservation, for local filming of projects such as Halle Berry’s Mothership. Past films shot in part in Natick include Labor Day and I Care a Lot.
If you’ve rented out your Natick property for filming and are willing and able to share your experiences, or want to help clarify anything in this piece for us, please let us know at natickreport@gmail.com
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