Questions
The things worth knowing before you commit.
17 answers, every one taken from either our published rate card or the terms you would sign, with the source named so you can check it. Nothing here is a number we would revise once we knew your budget.
01
What it costs
Every figure on this site is ex VAT, and every one of them is published rather than quoted on request.
How much is a film?
It depends on which of five shapes the job is, and every one of them is priced on the packages page rather than hidden behind a call.
The floors run from £1,650 an episode for a series to £4,650 for a content day. A single hero film starts at £4,250 and a production programme starts at £1,950 a month.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b
Why are there three prices for the same package?
Because briefs arrive at three budgets. Lean meets a number you have already decided on, Standard is the package as it should be bought, and Extended is the fully-crewed version.
The point of the tiers is that a budget conversation moves the specification rather than the margin. If your number is below Standard, you get the Lean spec at the Lean price — not the Standard package quietly cut down.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b
What is not in the price?
Talent and casting, locations and studio hire, permits, specialist kit that has to be sub-hired, travel and accommodation, and music or stock licences.
These are quoted separately and at cost rather than marked up, because they are the costs most likely to change after a brief is agreed.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b
What moves a quote once we have one?
Additional shoot days, extra crew roles on the day, casting and buyouts, locations and permits, studio hire, travel beyond 35 miles, rush post, deliverables beyond the tier count, music licensing, and additional subtitle languages.
They are listed with their figures on the packages page. Naming them up front is deliberate — most briefs move within their tier for one of these reasons, and it is a worse conversation to have afterwards.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b, section 04
How long does a quote hold?
Thirty days from issue.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b, section 05
How do you invoice?
A 50% deposit within seven days of you approving the estimate. Work does not start before it arrives.
The balance, plus any agreed extras, is invoiced on delivery and due within thirty days. Production programmes are billed monthly in advance, and established agency partners work on account.
Late invoices carry interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 2
02
Working with us
What we bring, what we need from you, and what happens when the day is longer than anyone planned.
Do you work white-label for agencies?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. You keep the client, the strategy, the idea and the credit.
Agency prices run about 17% below what the same work costs your client direct, and 8% on the production programme, where the monthly rate is already discounted. Those figures are published too.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b
Do you own your kit or hire it in?
Own it. Cameras, lenses, lighting, sound, grip and monitoring — the full inventory is published, and it is the reason a quote does not carry a rental company's margin inside it.
Specialist items that no one owns for every job — techno cranes, large lighting packages — are sub-hired and charged at cost.
The kit list on this site
What do you need from us on a shoot day?
Secure parking within a reasonable distance with safe access, or paid parking communicated in advance.
Clean toilet and washing facilities, weather-appropriate shelter, a rest area, and drinking water throughout the day. A one-hour meal break inside the first six hours on any day of ten hours or more, and a hot meal if there is nowhere local to get one.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, sections 8 and 10
What are we responsible for?
Timely feedback and approvals, and any materials the job needs — scripts, logos, brand guidelines.
Location permits, talent releases, music licences and your own insurance. Delays on your side can move delivery dates or add cost, which is the honest version rather than the polite one.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 12
Do you travel? What does that cost?
Yes, including internationally. Mileage at the HMRC rate, currently 45p a mile, public transport and parking at actual cost.
Subsistence is £50 a day where meals are not provided. Hotels are capped at £350 inside the M25 and £200 outside it, and travel days are charged at half the daily rate for crew and equipment.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 9
How long is a shoot day?
Twelve hours on location, including breaks, from call time to off-site. Overtime beyond that runs at 1.5× the hourly equivalent, charged in half hours.
A one-hour meal break falls inside the first six hours, and a day of twelve hours or more carries a second thirty-minute break.
Rate card Rev 2026.09b
Are you insured?
Public liability to £10,000,000. Risk assessments and PAT-tested kit come as standard.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 13
03
After the shoot
Who owns what, how many changes you get, and how long the rushes survive.
Who owns the film?
On full payment you get a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use every deliverable commercially. In practice that is everything most clients mean by ownership.
Flowspire keeps the copyright and the right to show the work in a portfolio, in award entries and in its own marketing. You cannot resell, sublicense or claim authorship of it without our written consent.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 3
How many rounds of changes do we get?
Two, included in every estimate. A round beyond those is £220, as are formats, versions or deliverables that were not in the original estimate.
A significant change of scope after approval needs a new estimate, and will usually move the delivery date.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 4
How long do you keep the footage?
Ninety days from delivery at no charge, then £50 a month if you want it held longer. After that we are not liable for files that have gone.
Back up what we deliver. Once it is with you, it is yours to keep safe.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 5
What if we have to cancel?
Seven or more days before the shoot: nothing to pay. Three to seven days: half the estimate. Inside 48 hours: the first two days' fees in full.
If we have to cancel for something outside our control, your deposit comes back in full.
Terms & Conditions 2.0, section 6
The full inventory, crew and post day rates are on the kit list . What each package includes, at all three tiers, is on packages . Agencies buying white-label should start at for agencies .
The creative stays yours. The production becomes ours.
Send the brief you’re working on now — we’ll come back with an approach, a crew and a number.
Prefer to just write to us? Send it the long way.