SINGAPORE - While most businesses were scaling down during the Covid-19 pandemic, film-maker Lincoln Lin saw a chance to grow his.
Filmplace - an online film location rental marketplace started in Singapore - expanded to South Korea, Taiwan, India and Malaysia.
Lin, 27, started Filmplace in 2019 to help production companies source filming locations easily, the way Airbnb collates vacation lodging options. The venture has raised a total of $380,000 in funding.
The director has helmed the cinematography for local productions like the music video for Shigga Shay's Frontline Soldiers, the theme song to Ah Boys To Men 4 (2017). He says: "I've been in the industry for around 10 years and have filmed in many countries. Everywhere I go, a big problem is looking for venues."
About 85 per cent of the bookings on Filmplace are for advertisements and social media videos. The service takes a 10 per cent cut of the bookings. Lin says it has yet to turn a profit as it is still quite new.
Interest in the business grew during the circuit breaker period as location scouting for productions had to take place virtually and bookings for vacation lodgings plummeted.
"Covid-19 was both good and bad for us in that property owners looking to generate extra income increased but film productions were postponed or cancelled and budgets shrank. But we believe that after the pandemic passes, advertisements will come back in a big way as companies try to shore up their business with marketing."
The service now has around 800 properties for rental, half of which are located in Singapore. Property types range from residential homes to commercial spaces like warehouses, cafes and even luxury yachts.
Ms Alice Yan, 60, is a home owner who has listed her residence on the platform. She lives in a five-room flat in Marine Parade with a tenant and has been using Filmplace for a year.
The semi-retired director of an education-services firm says:
"I've leased out my home over 10 times now and I charge around $50 an hour."
According to Lin, residential flats and apartments can charge anywhere from US$300 (S$404) to US$800 a day while landed properties can charge from US$500 to US$1500 a day.
Ms Yan makes about $600 to $2000 a month from the service and there are regular enquiries for renting her place.
She says: "It's not very convenient if you have elderly folk or young children at home, but otherwise, it's not a bad source of income."
Ms Angelina Bok, a freelance film producer, appreciates having Filmplace around.
The 27-year-old rented a three-room flat in Dakota for a short film project titled In Between These Pages, paying $1,100 for two days of shoots.
She says: "It's definitely easier to look for locations with a database like this which is something film-makers are always struggling with here.
"Without a site like this, we'd have to rely on our contacts to find a place or even actually knock on doors of home owners."
