Event type
- Crews and solo creators
- 3-hour minimum
Photo & Video Shoots
Black walls, exposed ceilings, polished concrete and a mix of overhead and pendant lighting make the room an easy backdrop to shoot against. Two garage doors let crews load straight in — or open them for natural light and a completely different look.
Set up for this
A studio the size of a venue
Most rental studios in Toronto are a white cyc and a few hundred square feet. This is 2,900 square feet of black-walled industrial room — exposed ceilings, polished concrete, a white brick column, turf runners and hanging greenery — which means a crew can build more than one setup and still have somewhere to put the gear, the client and lunch.
Two lighting situations in one booking
Shoot it dark and lit: black walls absorb spill, so coloured LEDs, practicals and hard light behave the way you want them to. Or open the two garage doors and the same room floods with daylight against concrete and brick. That is two distinct looks without moving location, and the doors double as the load-in — a grip truck unloads at ground level straight onto the floor.
Built for food and product work too
Two kitchens with working appliances make food shoots practical rather than improvised: prep out of frame in the back kitchen, shoot on the presentation kitchen or the bar. There is a projector and Bluetooth sound for playback and for keeping a set moving, WiFi throughout for tethering and uploads, and heating so a winter shoot is not fighting the room. There is a 3-hour minimum, and a full shoot day works out better per hour than a short booking.
Occasions
Photo & Video Shoots at Half Note
Details
Good for
- Photoshoots
- Music videos
- Video shoots
- Food production shoots
What you get
- Black walls and an open industrial floor
- Two garage doors for load-in and natural light
- Fully equipped kitchen for food and product work
- WiFi throughout the building
Questions
How do we get equipment and supplies in?
Two garage doors open straight onto the floor, so gear, furniture, catering and instruments come in at ground level with no stairs and no narrow corridors. The same doors can be left open during an event for natural light and airflow.
What does it cost to book?
The room is priced hourly for the whole floor, with a 3-hour minimum, and the rate depends on the day and the time of day. Send your date, rough headcount and the hours you need, and we will come back with a quote.
Is there a kitchen we can use?
There are two: a presentation kitchen on the event floor and a separate prep kitchen away from it, so food can be plated where guests see it and prepared where they do not. In-house catering and a bartender can both be added to a booking.
How late can an event run?
The room is bookable from 8:00am to 2:00am, seven days a week. 2:00am is the hard close, so plan tear-down to finish before then. Bookings outside those hours need to be confirmed by email first.
Is there parking at the venue?
Yes — there is a free on-site parking lot, so guests coming from outside Scarborough do not need to find street parking or pay for a garage. The venue is on Kingston Rd, which is served by TTC bus routes.
Also at Half Note
Other ways to use the room
Photo & Video Shoots
Tell us what you are planning.
Send the date, rough headcount and what you have in mind, and we will come back with a quote.