So you want to be in the movies but don't feel your method acting skills are up to scratch? Maybe your home has the star quality instead.
Last year 30 major film and TV productions were filmed in Ireland and that's not counting indigenous drama and TV adverts. Virtually all of these will have some element filmed outside of the studio on location.
Although having a film shot in your home is not a "get rich quick" scheme, it can be financially rewarding and terribly exciting: homeowners often end up playing walk-on parts.
Now, thanks to an online database operated by the Irish Film Board (IFB), Irish homeowners can pitch their properties to national and international movie makers for free. The IFB operates a library of over 20,000 Irish locations. The database has been in existence for four years, but only went online last autumn. The IFB receives on average 10 new location enquiries a day from film-makers from around the world.
To get your house on the database, homeowners simply need to get in contact with the film board and provide it with pictures of their property.
Every type of house is represented, from large historic castles to two-up two-down suburban homes. The most common request is for a castle or cottage overlooking the sea, which are not easy to come by, according to Irish Film Board commissioner Naoise Barry.
Having a film shot in your home can be inconvenient, according to Barry. He likens it to asking "Fossett's Circus to come park on your driveway". "It can be a significant imposition and it is not for the faint hearted."
Fees vary depending on the duration of time involved, the extent to which your home will need to be altered and, most significantly, the project's budget: Irish productions do not work to the same budget as Hollywood. Expect to get paid in the low hundreds for an exterior shot of your home going up to thousands for the pleasure of a film crew moving into your home. If it is a big operation, the production company will pay for you to relocate for the duration of filming.
To get your house into to the movies you need to have a house that is large enough to accommodate a lot of people. It also needs to have something other houses can't offer, says Manus Hingerty, location manager for Becoming Jane.
More often than not, homes are not large enough to accommodate a film crew and cameras, so an outside shot establishing the location is used, and the rest is filmed in studio, he explains. The IFB's archive is a great reference tool for location managers as is Mark Bence Jones's A Guide to Irish Country Houses, according to Hingerty.
If you get as far as negotiating with the production company make sure there is a location contract in place, ensure the company has the necessary public and employment liability insurance and, if you have any queries, get in touch with the film board, advises Barry.
• Irish Film Board, 091-561398 locations@irishfilmboard.ie
