While staging houses for sale is the typical daily mission of a local business operated by Mandy and Rick Shields, they and their team recently got to work onsite for an official film set via designing the cabins used in the upcoming comedy movie Summer Camp.
"We absolutely loved every second of it (the movie project)," Mandy exclaims.
As a certified, luxury home staging company, INhance IT Home Staging's team stages housing interiors in all price ranges, with the objective of delivering a luxury look to every home they handle. They've been voted to be among top 10 US stagers through the Real Estate Staging Association for the past five years. "We're so proud of the awards we've received for doing what we love so much," Mandy adds.
She says their staging creates settings that allow visitors to truly visualize residing in homes. "Staging is an integral step in effectively packaging and marketing a property."
Mandy says of the movie-related opportunity: "This was by far the coolest thing we have ever done, from creating design plans for celebrities like icon Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, Eugene Levy, Alfre Woodard, Beverly D’Angelo, Josh Peck, Nicole Richie, Dennis Haysbert, Victoria Rowells, Betsy Sodaro and Maria Howell, to hanging out on the set and not only watching the movie be filmed but watching our kids be a part of it and filmed as extras in scenes with these amazing actors."
The Summer Camp film, as produced in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, tells the story of Nora, Ginny and Mary, who have been best friends since childhood, spending their summers together inseparably at sleepaway camp. As the years have passed, they’ve seen each other less and less, so when the chance to reunite for a summer camp reunion arises, they all take it, some begrudgingly and others, excitedly. Each of their lives might not be where they’d imagined, but one thing is for sure—Nora, Ginny and Mary need each other, and summer camp reminds them why.
"We knew the stars of the film would be spending a lot of time in their cabins when they're not in front of the camera, so we made it our mission to give them the INhance IT luxury look, cabin style," recalls Mandy.
In preparation, the staging team secured and marked a variety of decoration items before they were loaded into a 26-foot moving truck and driven to the movie set. Mandy says she and her daughter, Ava, flew to the movie set to catch up to the truckload of items. "Our team is amazing. We had just ended our busiest month ever but still managed to shop, design plan, pack, pull, load and color coordinate every single thing on the truck for 11 different spaces for 11 different celebrities!"
"So much shopping, planning, pulling, packing, organizing, labeling, color coding, assembling, double checking and loading went into this project. Our team worked so hard and every single thing we needed was on the truck," Mandy says, admitting it was widely fun and exciting to see a real movie set.
To move the staging items back, the INhance team joined them in North Carolina, packed and drove the truck back.
Mandy says hanging out on the set for one last day was "the best" experience, along with getting to see her and Rick's children included as extras in the movie. "And now we have all of this movie set furniture that we added to our staging inventory. Kind of cool to think that a house staged by us could have furniture that was in Eugene Levy or Diane Keaton’s cabin," she quips.
Mandy's cousin, Castille Landon, wrote and directed this independent movie. Her cousin, Dori Rath, is one of the producers for it.
Castille is best known for directing After We Fell and After Ever Happy, two installments in the hugely popular After series of romantic dramas, based on the novels by Anna Todd, which star Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Her next film was Perfect Addiction, based on the bestselling Claudia Tan novel.
Dori is an entertainment executive who is president of Sweet Tomato Films, The Business Group, Inc., and The NELCO Companies. She is a Missouri native.
In normal day-to-day business services, the team INhance IT Home Staging handles vacant staging projects, occupied staging and builder displays. They are members of the Real Estate Staging Association, the Board of Realtors, and the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.
Mandy says the process of staging the celebrity movie cabins could be celebrated by starting with icon Diane Keaton. "The whole process was so much fun! The planning, shopping, staging, destaging and most of all, meeting her! Putting together a design plan for Diane Keaton was surreal and the best part is we were told that she loved it! Watching the filming of the movie was unreal and such a cool experience."
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"Having a team that feels like family here at INhance IT! makes all the difference on our packed staging days. With so many move outs and installs to tackle, we are so grateful for a team that shows up excited and ready to bring the magic to life!"