Scripting and storyboarding
A written script and shot plan signed off before a crew is booked.
A video costs several times what a photograph costs and takes several times as long, so the decision that matters is made before the shoot: what is this film for, who watches it, where does it play and what do they do next. A ninety second brand film that plays on a trade stand needs a different structure from a fifteen second reel that has to hold a thumb in the first second. Both get commissioned as 'a video' and then one of them fails.
We script and storyboard before booking a crew, shoot to that plan, and edit to a defined runtime rather than to whatever the footage suggests. Sound is treated as half the film, because bad audio loses viewers faster than bad picture. Delivery includes the vertical and square cutdowns, burnt-in and caption-file subtitles, and the still frames that come out of a shoot day for free if somebody plans for them.
Decide what the film is for before anyone books a camera
Video is commissioned vaguely more often than any other marketing asset. Somebody decides the company needs a video, a crew is booked, a day is spent, and an editor is then asked to find a film inside footage that was gathered without a structure. The result usually runs three minutes, opens with a drone shot of the building, and is watched by nobody past the first fifteen seconds.
The questions that prevent that are simple and they have to be answered first. Who watches this. Where does it play: a website page, a trade stand, a paid feed, a sales meeting, a tender submission. How long do we realistically have their attention. What do we want them to do next. What is the single thing they must remember.
A film for a trade stand plays without sound to people walking past and needs to work as pictures and captions. A paid social film has to earn the first second or it is scrolled. A tender film is watched by people who have to watch it and can run three minutes. Same company, three different films, and commissioning them as one is how the budget gets wasted.
Script and storyboard: where changes are still free
Every change is cheapest in the script, more expensive on the shoot day and most expensive in the edit. Rewriting a paragraph costs an hour. Reshooting a scene costs a crew day. Restructuring a finished cut costs the editor's time and usually reveals that the footage needed to support the new structure was never captured.
So we write the script first, in full, including the voice-over and on-screen text, and storyboard or shot-list it before anything is booked. You approve it knowing what the film will be, and the shoot day becomes an exercise in capturing a known list rather than an exploration.
This is also what makes fixed quoting possible. Once the script is approved we know the locations, the days, the crew size, whether there is talent, whether there is animation, and how long the edit will take. The number moves only if the script moves, which is a conversation both sides can have honestly.
Sound is half the film and the half people neglect
Audiences forgive imperfect picture far more readily than imperfect sound. A slightly soft interview shot is watchable. The same interview with room echo, air conditioning hum and a lapel mic rubbing against a collar is switched off within seconds, and no amount of grading rescues it.
That means booking a sound recordist or at minimum a dedicated audio setup rather than relying on the camera's microphone, treating the room before recording, and recording a clean room tone to work with in post. For factory and site interviews it often means finding a quieter room and accepting a less interesting background, which is a trade worth making every time.
Music and mix matter too. A licensed track chosen for the film rather than pasted over it, dialogue levels that stay consistent, and a mix that works both on a phone speaker and on a stand's sound system. We deliver licensed music with the licence terms in writing, because a copyright claim on a campaign film is an expensive way to have saved a small fee.
One shoot, many cuts
A shoot day is the expensive part. Once the crew, the location, the lighting and the talent are assembled, additional coverage costs comparatively little, and it is the difference between coming away with one film and coming away with a film plus six reels, three product cutdowns, a set of vertical clips and several hundred usable stills.
That only happens if it is planned. Vertical framing has to be captured deliberately, because cropping a horizontal frame to nine by sixteen loses most of the composition. Short-form cutdowns need their own hooks shot as separate takes. Stills need a photographer or at least a pause in the schedule, since frame grabs from video are rarely good enough for print.
We build that into the shot list so the day produces a library rather than a single deliverable. For most clients the cutdowns end up doing more work over the following year than the main film does.
Edit, revisions and the discipline of a defined runtime
An edit without a target runtime expands. Everybody has a favourite shot, every department has something they want mentioned, and a ninety second film becomes three minutes of things that are all individually defensible and collectively unwatchable. Setting the runtime in the script and holding to it is the editor's most useful constraint.
We include two rounds of revision: one structural, where sequence and message are still movable, and one detail round for text, timing, grading notes and small trims. That is what an approved script normally needs. Further rounds are billed hourly, not to be difficult but because open-ended revision is how a project stops finishing.
Delivery includes the horizontal master, vertical and square versions, burnt-in subtitles for silent autoplay and a separate subtitle file for platforms that read one, plus the raw footage on request. You own the finished film and the footage. The music is licensed for the uses we agreed, in writing.