Standing Sets, Explained

What a standing set is

A standing set is a temporary film set structure that is still available for filming until it has been changed or removed for another set. A courtroom with its judge's bench, jury box and gallery. A police bullpen with desks, interview rooms and an evidence locker. An airplane cabin with seats, overhead bins and working cabin lighting. Nothing has to be designed, built or dressed before a crew arrives: the room is standing, and it is dressed as shown.

That is the difference from the other two ways to get a room on camera. A practical location — a real courthouse, a real hospital — has to be found, permitted, scheduled around the people who use it, and dressed to hide what does not belong. A purpose-built set is designed and constructed for one production and struck when it wraps. A standing set has already had that construction paid for, and it waits for the next script.

Why productions book them

• Schedule. Walk in, shoot, walk out. Most productions at Digital Canaries scout and book the same day, then shoot on the next available days that suit their production. Shooting Monday to Sunday is available, subject to availability.
• Control. A studio room: light, sound, weather and access are yours. No public, no neighbour notifications or signatures to collect (a City of Hamilton film permit is still required), and no waiting for a real emergency room to be free.
• Cost. You book the room, not the build. The set construction is already paid for.
• Continuity. Sets that belong to one story world sit together, so the arrest, the interrogation, the trial and the cell can be shot in one city, on one contract.
• Changes. Every set is dressed, and you can make changes — access to the props on site or at Hamilton Prop House is available. Take a prep day and redress to your script, remove or add dressing, shift the era. The Retro Apartment, for example, swaps its palette to hit different decades.

How the sets at Digital Canaries are organised

35+ dressed standing sets in Hamilton, Ontario, grouped into six Stacks — bundles of related environments that cover a whole story world:

• Law & Order — police bullpen, interrogation rooms, police interview room, evidence locker, three courtrooms, prison cells and holding cells.
• Medicine — operating rooms, emergency room, hospital ward, recovery rooms, clinic, corridors and the morgue.
• In Transit — airplane cabin, business jet, train interior and elevator.
• Lived-In — brick loft, loft kitchen, retro apartment, café / restaurant and bar.
• Institutions — classroom, school lockers corridor, boardroom and offices.
• Signature — the bookcase stage, the concrete basement and a controlled exterior.

Every set has its own page with photographs, its Stack, the studio it stands in and, where it has been measured, its dimensions. The full index is below.

Where they are

Four addresses in Hamilton, Ontario, about an hour from Toronto, booked on one contract: 190 Britannia Avenue East, the current standing-set studio; 243 Queen Street North, the 28,000 sq ft flagship complex with the jail, holding, prison and interrogation sets, basecamp, crew parking and holding; 252 Stuart Street, a separate building in that complex with 4,700 sq ft of film studio and build space, 14′ 8″ clear to the beam; and our sister brand Hamilton Prop House at 422 Barton Street East, home of the bar, the train interior, the bookcase stage and the café, plus 5,000+ props and 40,000 books.

What "dressed as shown" means

The photographs on each set page show the set as it stands. Book it and that is the room you walk into. Redressing to your script is available — ask at the scout about prep days. A set marked under construction is still being built and is not yet bookable; its page says so, and so does the booking form.

How to book a standing set

1. Send your dates.
2. Scout the sets. A First Hold reserves your preferred dates at no cost while you finalise your schedule.
3. We quote within 24 hours of a scout.
4. Shoot by the day, the week or the run.

Studio and set rental may be eligible Ontario production expenditure for qualifying productions; eligibility depends on the production and the expenditure, so confirm the treatment with your production accountant.