Location scouting in NSW: We're going to Kurrajong to check out a couple of locations today! Our considerations: price, look ( a farm , complete with localised bush land and several run down buildings), proximity to Sydney ( do we opt for a more rural location, go into the outback and assume that cast and crew are happy to come and be accommodated for the week- while taking on the cost associated with that? We decided against this- for our first budgeted short film at least!) Here are some tips on location scouting. Screen NSW have an excellent database of locations, from beachside to farmhouse and everything in between. I emailed them about several places, without much luck, however it was good for ideas. The rough price for an abandoned house and grounds, in country NSW, is $500 per day, excluding insurance and other costs which we must pay. This increases by more than tenfold when the location is in a national park. National Parks and Wildlife services charge an hourly fee for supervision, which is negotiable after 4 hours, but is still super high. It also makes nighttime shooting almost impossible unless you have the budget of Baz Luhrman. Needless to say, we ruled that out on first email. We've received the best response from Stayz and other holiday home booking sites, which offer various property types for the price of not much more than a standard hire. Today will reveal if our approach has been successful. We're hoping that the combination of filming midweek, offering publicity for our chosen location and being generally nice will help us to get the location we want at a reasonable price! Fingers crossed...