“Thou Shalt Not Screw Over Another Creative”

This is the cardinal rule of Cocreate. Anything that obstructs or impedes another creative from being able to do their work in the studio will absolutely not be tolerated. Please be considerate. Or else.

Here are the rules:

Cleanliness & Respect for Space

• Clean up after yourselves. Leave the studio as you found it. You’re welcome to use all of the equipment, furniture, and backdrops in the studio, but clean up once you’re done. A cleaning fee will be charged to members who do not adhere to this rule. I’m the one who cleans and I ain’t cheap.

• Food and drink is permitted within reason (don’t bring in a full rotisserie chicken or a 10 course meal). Take all food waste away with you and dispose of it at the correct waste bins outside the building. Food waste attracts bugs. I hate bugs. Do you want to work in a space full of bugs? Of course not.

  • I will provide garbage bags at the entrance for those who need them.

• Please don’t trash my bathroom. I, Mike, am cleaning the bathrooms. I’m cleaning everything. Please be kind to me. I beg you.

Booking Etiquette

• Book your time accordingly to account for setup and clean up. Do not stay beyond your booking. Do not delay another creative. I cannot stress this enough, if you delay another creative and I receive a complaint, you will receive one warning. A second complaint will result in your membership being revoked and terminated without refund. Yes, I am aware that Toronto traffic sucks. People can be late, setup takes forever, etc. Plan ahead. That said, if no one is using the studio after you, you’re more than welcome to extend your stay.

• Book only what you need. I like to call this the restaurant reservation problem. I am sure there will be some members who might consider overbooking to ensure they can reserve the spots they want, and then cancel the ones they don’t. Do not do this. I will be monitoring closely people’s booking patterns and cancellations and any hint at abuse may result in a ban. This kind of behaviour is not only greedy, but also selfishly restricts others from booking. I repeat DO NOT DO THIS.

Accidents & Damage

• If you break something be honest and let me know. Okay, so you broke something. It was an accident. Don’t worry about it. I know that through the normal course of usage stuff like this will happen. As long as you weren’t doing something grossly negligent or irresponsible it’s fine. But if I review the footage and I see you swinging around haphazardly on a c-stand with two lights dangling from extension cables we are going to have a serious problem. But otherwise, accidents happen, so just let me know so I can fix or replace the item. Don’t worry about it, I got you.

Membership & Guest Rules

• Membership sharing is strictly prohibited. Let me explain why. There are exactly 5110 hours of studio time in an entire year (including holidays) for members to share. At 250 members with 10 hours that uses up just about half of those hours. The remaining half is reserved for said members. But let’s say 11 people share a membership. Technically speaking, we now have 260 members, but we don’t have more time. As a result everyone gets less. Honest members are punished further because they paid a higher up front cost than the 11 people who split it. That sounds an awful lot like screwing over other creatives. I will permaban you, your family and the next 10 generations if I catch you doing this.

  • Just to clarify, membership sharing is the explicit act of getting more than a single person to share a membership with the intent to use the studio independently. OR scheduling a booking with the intentions of granting access to a non-member while not being present yourself.

  • I am positive that there ‘s some smarmy punk out there that wants to play the semantics game and try to find a loop hole and be like, “but but but, hueh hueh hueh, I didn’t technically break the rules”. Would you believe it? Banned.

  • Members are welcome to invite other individuals into their private booking. But if you’ve made a booking you are expected to be present. You cannot book on behalf of someone else. If you want to bring in 20 other photographers or videographers who are not members that’s completely fine as long as you are present and are accountable for these people, which brings me to—

• You are accountable for your guests. You are 100% liable for the behaviour of your clients, guests, students, adherents, etc. If anyone willfully behaves in a way that leads to damage to the equipment or property you will be held liable. Similarly, it is up to you as a professional to dictate the schedule to your guests and ensure that they know the rules. Again, I am sympathetic when it comes to issues of lateness, and traffic, but that’s why I know that you, as a professional, will book in enough buffer time to compensate for these STATISTICALLY HIGH AND AT TIMES PREDICTABLE possibilities and outcomes. Basically, clean up and leave once your time is up, so that the next member can get in to do their thing.

Prohibited Behaviours & Restrictions

• No Pets or Animals. I’m gonna call this the,“peepee poopoo caca rule”, (I had a bet with my wife that I’d find a way to include this. Yes, I am 6 years old). Okay, here’s the deal. I like animals, I have 2 cats, I grew up with dogs, birds, hamsters, and fish. They are awesome. But there is a STATISTICALLY HIGH chance that they will take a dump on my floor. Do you know how much pee I have stepped in, in my life? Gallons. I know this will be disappointing for our pet photographers out there, but alas, I am making the ruling that Studio 01 will be animal free. BUT if you like puppies I highly recommend visiting my wonderful neighbour @pawpalsyoga for all your puppy needs. The owner is amazing and takes hygiene and animal safety very seriously.

• No alcohol, smoking, weed, drugs etc. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t stink up the place. Don’t get trashed here, this is a place of work. Cleaning fees again will be charged to members who break the rules.

• No parties, no ragers, no box socials etc. This is a place of work and work place accessories I tell you h’wat. And again, I know there are some people that will be like, “but but but, hueh hueh hueh, I didn’t technically break the rules because I was taking le pictures”. I will ban you and charge you a clean up fee. If you legitimately need to shoot something where people are dancing, and screaming, at least do me a solid and ask first. I am more than happy to grant exceptions on occasion providing that the neighbours are cool with it and the building isn’t trashed.

• No Adult Content (aka NO PORN). This ought to be pretty self-explanatory, but just to be safe I’m going to spell it out in terms we can all understand. I don’t want any jizz on my furniture—or really, any bodily fluids anywhere. I know you need to make a living, but you cannot film your onlyfans content here. Now, with that said, works that portray the human body ARTISTICALLY are perfectly fine. If you see it hanging on a billboard or in a museum you’re probably fine.