Written by Shona Smith on Nov 26, 2019. Posted in General Interest

FilmFixer launches AI powered visual location search engine with over 30,000 locations

The new AI powered platform from FilmFixer and Image Data Systems (IDS) allows for image-based searching for location professionals. Launching at FOCUS, LocationFinder promises to keep the nation’s location portfolio fresh, film friendly and accessible as never before. 

Half a million images of thirty thousand locations from many of the UK’s location agencies are accessible on the platform. For location managers and producers, the full suite of instant relevant locations eliminates the need for keyword searches across multiple websites for free. For location agencies, LocationFinder will provide instant access to the FilmFixer network – which numbers over twenty thousand industry professionals. 

Andrew Pavord, Founder and Chair of FilmFixer explains, “Existing location websites rely on keywords. This is inherently flawed in a visual business such as ours. The brief location managers receive is usually a photo, accompanied by the request, ‘I need something that looks like this, but in Suffolk. This might be a suburb in Istanbul, a Berlin street set in the 1940s, it might be Greenwich Village in the 1980s, or even a Moroccan Palace in the 1960s. It makes far more sense to drop that image into a search engine and add parameters such as, ‘inside the M25’ or ‘near Ipswich’, than to endlessly type in keywords to try and get a match. Locations are hard to describe, often you are looking for a mood or a feeling. This approach is far more intuitive".

FilmFixer provides the recent example of Bohemian Rhapsody, where they were sent an image of Stone Street in New York (pictured above), and suggested the use of Union Street in Southwark as a double, which made it into the film (pictured below).

Film Fixer processed over eight thousand location permits across the UK in 2018. Pavord states, “It is essential for the UK, and London in particular, to support the requirements of our vital industry, which contributed to the largest GDP growth in any business sector in 2018. London has the world’s most unique mix of film friendly locations. By managing them effectively we can ensure they stay open for business and continue to attract the cream of the world’s big budget productions”.

The platform will be introduced with a presentation by Andrew Pavord exculsively at FOCUS on 3^rd December 2019 at 16:30. Click here to register for your free delegate badge and find out how “tech is making life easier “beyond words” with Andew Pavod.”