Choosing a Hire Studio for Asset Delivery: What to Ask Before You Book

A delivery date is agreed in a meeting, but it is kept or broken in a room. Before you book a hire studio, put a short list of questions to it, and read the answers as information about how your shoot will run. A studio that answers plainly, in writing, has already saved you a problem. One that stays vague on a point is passing that risk to you.

This guide is that list. Each question comes with the reason it matters to delivery and, where Scope has published an answer, what it is. Where we have not published one, we say so and tell you to ask. We would rather you ask than assume. The companion guides cover why the room decides the deadline and the plan you run on the day.

One honest limit first. Scope is a hire studio. The delivery system itself, meaning cards, naming, backups, sign-off and handover, belongs to the production. What a room and a team can do is make that system easier to run, and that is what these questions test.

Time: what is inside the block?

Does set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time?

It matters because the time you plan to review, check and back up is the first thing squeezed when the build runs long. Published answer: yes. A half day is four hours and a full day is eight, and both include set-up and pack-down, so book the time you need in the room, not just the time you expect to be rolling.

Are the rates published, and what is charged on top?

A price you cannot see cannot go into a budget before approval. Ours are on the rates page: Studio A is £160 for two hours, £320 for a half day and £620 for a full day, and Studio B is £120, £220 and £420. Lights are charged separately in every room but the DJ room, so please enquire about our lights and we will quote for what your shoot needs. No in-house kit list is published.

What happens if we overrun?

Overruns eat the end of the day, which is exactly where sign-off and file checks sit. Published answer: time used beyond the booked session is charged as extra, at a rate confirmed at the time of booking. The rate is not on the rate card, so ask for it when you book, and if you think you might need it, book the longer block up front.

Place: load-in, review and waiting space

How do we load in, and where do vehicles go?

Slow load-in is lost shooting time, and lost shooting time is a thinner set of assets. Published answer: Studio A loads in at ground level through the roller door from the yard, and parking is on site in the yard. The number of spaces is not published, so tell the team what you are bringing. The load-in guide covers the van, the yard and the door.

Where can the team review work as it is shot?

Approvals that happen after wrap are how a deadline becomes a second shoot. Published answer: Studio B's listed features include a dedicated edit and playback area, and the Workshop seats up to twenty with ten iMac workstations and works as a production office, casting room or edit suite. It is £120 for a half day and £240 for a full day. Not published, so ask: the software and specification of those machines, what the playback area is fitted with, and how far it sits from the set.

Where do the client, the talent and the crew wait?

Decision makers who have a place of their own can see work and approve it without standing in the shot. Published answer: the building has a client lounge, a kitchen and a dressing and prep room. For a longer day with a larger approval group, ask whether the Workshop can serve as the review room.

Files: connection, storage and power

How good is the connection, really?

Review links, proxies and deadline uploads all go over it. Published answer: there is high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the building. Connection speeds are not published, so ask, and test it before you rely on it for a deadline upload. If the upload cannot fail, have a second route ready.

Is there any file transfer, storage or data-handling service, and what happens to files after the day?

Footage left on a studio machine or drive raises two questions: who can see it, and who deletes it. Scope has not published a file-transfer, cloud or storage service, any retention period, or in-house data-handling kit. Ask the team, get the reply in writing, and until it says otherwise plan as if the drives you bring are the only ones.

What power can the room supply?

Card readers, laptops and drives all need power as well as the set. Power differs by room and is not published. Email the team with what you plan to run and ask for the answer for your room.

Ownership, privacy and cancellation

Who owns what we shoot, and what can the studio do with it?

Published answer: clients retain all rights to the content they produce at Scope, and Scope claims no interest in it. Scope may ask permission to use behind-the-scenes footage or images from your booking and will not use any without your prior written consent. Confidentiality terms, such as a signed NDA before an unreleased product comes through the door, are not published, so ask for them if you need them.

What does it cost to move or cancel?

A shoot that moves moves the delivery date, so know the cost before you need it. Published answer: you can cancel or reschedule with at least 48 hours' notice. Cancelling with less than 48 hours' notice incurs a fee, the amount confirmed at the time of booking, and same-day cancellations and no-shows are non-refundable. A date is not held until full payment is made, or a deposit where one applies, so a date you have only pencilled in is a date that someone else can take. See the FAQ for the detail.

People: what can the team source, and what is assumed?

Ask who does what between the end of the shoot and the file in the client's hands. Scope's production desk can source and manage crew, camera, lighting, grip and sound kit hire, set builds, talent and post-production, meaning edit, grade, sound mix and VFX. A DIT is among the crew roles it lists. None of it is priced on the site, the team quotes it, and nothing is assumed to be included in a room booking. A room booking is a room.

So the useful question is specific: if we need a data role on the day, or the edit and grade after it, can you quote it, and can you put the dates in writing? Turnaround times and response times are not published, so ask for them alongside the quote and hold the team to the dates it gives. For agencies and production companies has the route in.

Ask the studio what it publishes, what it will confirm in writing, and what it will not promise. All three answers are useful.

Take the list to any studio

Put these questions to every studio on your shortlist, ours included, and compare the answers rather than the brochures. A studio that publishes its rates and says what is not on site is easier to plan a delivery around than one that says yes to everything.

• Set-up and pack-down: inside the block or on top of it?
• Rates: published, and what is charged separately?
• Overrun: the rate, and who agrees it on the day.
• Load-in and parking for the vehicles you are bringing.
• Review space, with the machines and software it has.
• Somewhere for client, talent and crew to wait.
• Connection speed, tested before a deadline upload.
• File transfer, storage and retention: what exists, and what is deleted when.
• Power for the room, against your list of equipment.
• Ownership, confidentiality and behind-the-scenes permissions.
• Moving or cancelling: notice, and cost.
• Post-production: who quotes it, and for which dates.

Send them as one email and keep the reply with the call sheet. If you are an agency, media agencies, advertising agencies and social media agencies each have a page that sets out how we work with them. Production companies and brand content teams have their own. To work out what to deliver, see the campaign asset matrix. To see how an agency brief becomes a booking, see how agencies brief and book.