Setup day
We build the room, then teach someone to use it.
A day at your office. By the end of it you have a filming corner that works, two films made in it, and a person who can make the next one without calling us.
Why this exists
Most of what you need to film, you should be filming yourself.
Three of the five films a company ends up making are yours to make — the explainer, most proof films, and everything a content engine produces. Outsourcing volume is how a content programme quietly becomes a quarterly invoice for four films.
The problem is never the camera. It is that the room echoes, the light is wrong, and nobody knows the five things that actually give amateur video away. That is a day’s work to fix, once, and then it stays fixed.
This is the one thing we sell that is designed to stop you needing us. That is deliberate — we would rather be the company you call in three years than the one that quoted you once.
The day
Half solving the room, half using it.
Morning
We solve your room
Light, sound, positions, settings — worked out in the actual space, with the actual noise, at the time of day you will actually film. Then photographed, so it is repeatable by someone who was not there.
Afternoon
Your person operates
We shoot your explainer and your first proof film with your person running the camera and the interview, and us alongside. Doing it once with help is worth more than any amount of being shown.
Run by us, never subcontracted. The person who solves your room is the person who taught it — that is the whole product, and it is not something a freelancer booked on the day can hand over.
What you keep
- Morning: we solve your room — light, sound, positions, settings — and photograph it so it's repeatable
- Afternoon: we shoot your explainer and your first proof film with your person operating
- You keep both films, edited by us, plus a one-page setup card and a kit list at your budget
- Thirty days of email afterwards, for when something doesn't work
“Jack is a one man band of pure quality — exceptional obsession for great outcomes and brilliant dedication to his craft. We have worked together now on probably 10 shoots and have had a 10/10 experience 10/10 times.”
What we teach
In the order things actually go wrong.
Almost everyone starts with the camera. The camera is fourth. This is the whole of Part 02 of the guide, done with you rather than read.
First
Sound, and it isn't close
6 things that matter
Second
Light
4 things that matter
Third
Framing
4 things that matter
Fourth
The camera, which matters least
5 things that matter
Fifth
The performance, which nobody prepares for
5 things that matter
Last
Then get ten shots of anything
1 thing that matter
You also leave with the shoot-day checklist — 10 lines, from batteries to copying the footage twice before you leave the building.
Kit
You buy the kit, not us.
We film the day on our own kit, then spec yours at whatever you want to spend and send the list. Buying it through us would make the recommendation worth less, so we don’t.
About £300
The phone kit
Enough for the explainer and most proof films. Genuinely enough.
About £1,500
The one-person kit
The kit for a content engine. Buy used — two-generation-old bodies are where the value sits.
About £5,000
The in-house kit
Only worth it once filming is actually somebody's job.
Book it when
- You want to film regularly, not once — the volume problem, not the flagship problem.
- Somebody in-house is willing to own it, and will be given the time.
- You have a room you can use repeatedly. It does not have to be a good room.
- You would rather spend once on capability than quarterly on invoices.
Don’t, when
- The film has to work on somebody who has never met you. That is a brand film, and it needs a crew.
- Nobody will own it afterwards. The kit goes in a drawer and the day was wasted.
- You need it to look like a production company made it. This makes you self-sufficient, not us redundant.
- It is one film, once. A Starter film is a third of the price and the right answer.
Not sure which of those you are? Send the brief and we’ll tell you — including when the answer is that you don’t need this. Everything bigger than this
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.