Shooting stars

In building a startup photo and film locations business, Mel Davis and Anne Westman have become de facto tourist officials.

In fact, their company, SRQ Locations, does what tourist bureaus, chambers of commerce and economic development agencies spend millions of dollars and years doing: selling the Sarasota-Bradenton area to outside businesses.

The specialty at the firm, which Davis, a onetime globetrotting fashion model, and Westman, a former software sales executive, founded in January 2012, is matching local homes with fashion industry photo shoots. “Sarasota is such an amazing and eclectic place,” Davis says. “It's a mini-Miami without the hassle.”

That pitch, in the firm's first year, has resonated with clients in the fickle fashion world.

SRQ Locations, for example, recently landed a major success with GQ Magazine. The publication hired the firm to find Kennedy-esque locations to shoot a fashion spread for the February issue that featured the Grammy-winning band Fun. Davis and Westman found GQ locations in Harbor Acres, a high-end neighborhood south of downtown Sarasota, and at the Founders Club, east of Interstate 75. The magazine sent a crew for the two-day shoot, including David Burton, a prominent industry photographer.

In addition to GQ, the firm has found photo shoot locations for several more high-name recognition clients, including Beall's and Belk department stores. Other clients, which the firm picked up through Davis' European fashion industry connections, come to the area from Germany and Italy.

The firm's business model, say the founders, is to not only find a location, but to take on a concierge role during the shoot. That can mean anything from finding a dog to go with a picture to replacing a broken camera to making sure a large trailer can fit on a driveway. Westman and Davis hope that approach separates SRQ Locations from other firms that scout movie and photo shoot locations.

The other side of the business is to find locations. Westman and Davis do most of that the old-fashioned way. If they see a property around town that would fit for a client in need of say, Spanish architecture, they might just knock on the door. Some of those homeowners, who get paid for providing their property, have become exclusive SRQ Locations clients. “People are excited about it,” Westman says. “It's a fun industry.”

In growing the business, Westman and Davis, who met three years ago at the elementary school where their children were students, face a common startup dilemma: The ability to turn away potential clients who either don't fit their business model of high-end exclusive homes or only seek cheap locations. For startup business owners eager for market validation — not to mention revenue growth — that can be difficult.

“We might not get as many jobs as others who undercut on price,” says Davis, “but that's not who we want to be.”

A Florida native, Davis moved to New York in her early 20s to chase a modeling career. She landed jobs with a host of catalogs, magazines and clothing companies. Her work included photos in British Vogue, a Guess ad, a Tony Bennett CD cover and a Tommy Hilfiger billboard. A Sarasota native with a background in advertising, Westman previously worked for Computer Associates.

The duo would like to see SRQ Locations expand in the near future. That includes other areas on the Gulf Coast and maybe even a studio for non-location photography and video projects.

Another big-picture goal: To woo the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model issue editors to Siesta Key for a photo shoot. “It's the No. 1 beach in America,” says Davis, “and Sports Illustrated should be here.”