Traditional Film Production is Changing w/ Nico Döser, Co-Founder of Scouty
Hey Nico 👋 Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Nico, co-founder of Scouty: an online platform that allows creators to easily search and book locations for productions. Every day, hundreds of photo and film shoots take place in London, which all need suitable locations. Unfortunately, most traditional methods for finding locations are really expensive, time consuming and non-transparent. The lack of a good, inclusive and affordable solution led us to start Scouty. All locations on Scouty are shared by other people so in simple terms you can think of Scouty as the Airbnb for shoot locations.
How is Scouty challenging the status quo of film production?
Film production is now much more accessible than ever due to speedy advancements in camera technology and a shift from traditional mediums like TV/Film, towards newer mediums such as Social Media/Online. We feel that finding locations for productions has been somewhat left behind and so we set out with the goal to make it an easy and seamless experience. On Scouty, users can search by keywords (e.g. ‘modern house’, ’retro’, ’warehouse’) and are immediately presented with suitable locations. All location listings on Scouty show a description, feature list, images and even a price per hour meaning creatives can always find somewhere that fits their budget. As we do not charge our hirers a fee, they save on average 20% over traditional location agencies.
Where do you see the future of film production going?
Video as a medium is growing rapidly due to the boom of social media and streaming giants like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, YouTube (the list goes on). This has led to a shake-up of traditional commercial and narrative filmmaking with an ever increasing demand for fresh content at fast turnarounds. We want to be at the forefront of that change and make sure that Scouty’s offering can help every production book the perfect location for their shoot with absolute ease.
What are your future plans for Scouty?
Last year we launched Scouty in London and we’re currently in the middle of an investment round to make Scouty available in more cities across the UK. Our long-term objective is to become the first place producers look when seeking locations. This all ties into our ultimate goal of helping as many people as possible to realise their creative visions.
Peep Scouty here 👇
