How to Budget a Studio Shoot in London

The room is the line on a studio budget that everyone prices first and the one least likely to sink the job. It is published, it does not change on the day, and on most shoots it is a minority of the total. The lines that break budgets are the ones nobody looked up: the lights that turned out not to be included, the crew day that became a day and a half, the grade that cost more than the shoot.

This is a method rather than a rate card: every line a studio shoot carries, which are fixed and which must be quoted, then three worked examples using only Scope's published rates. Crew rates and kit hire are not numbers here — they vary with the people and gear you choose. Ask your crew.

The line items

A studio shoot budget, in the order it tends to be spent.

• Room. The studio hire itself, by block or by hour. Fixed, published, the easiest line to get right.
• Lights and grip. At Scope these are charged separately from the room in every room but the DJ room — please enquire about our lights and we will quote for what your shoot needs. Elsewhere, ask whether the rate includes them.
• Crew. Director or photographer, DP, camera assistant, gaffer, sound, hair and make-up, stylist, runner. Normally the largest line by a distance; typical ranges vary, so ask your crew.
• Kit hire. Camera and lenses, monitoring, sound, a gimbal or slider, drives. Quoted by the rental house.
• Talent. Fees, usage, and agency commission on top, which catches people out.
• Art department. Set, props, wardrobe, consumables, and the cost of getting it all out again.
• Catering and transport. Food for the crew, van hire, fuel, the congestion charge, ULEZ and couriers.
• Insurance. Public liability at least, plus equipment cover if the hire house asks. Scope's terms require appropriate cover.
• Post. Edit, grade, mix, retouch, and every deliverable the brief forgot to mention.
• Contingency. Ten per cent is the usual habit, and it is usually spent.

The room: the one number you can look up

Scope publishes every room rate, so this line is arithmetic. Studio A, the 1,200 sq ft white drive-in cove, is £160 for two hours, £320 for a half day of four hours and £620 for a full day of eight. Studio B, the sound-treated room-within-a-room with the colour-washable cyclorama, is £120, £220 and £420 for the same blocks. The podcast room is a flat £40 an hour — two hours £80, four hours £160, eight hours £320 — with no block discount. The music studio is £80 for a half day dry and £150 for a full; with an engineer it is £140 for a half day and £280 for a full. The workshop is £120 for a half day and £240 for a full. The DJ room is £75 an hour with a four-hour minimum, so £300 is the smallest booking. The whole building is from £1,500 a day and excludes the DJ room.

One rule governs how many hours to buy: set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time, so a half day is four hours including the rig and the strike, and more than two lighting set-ups means the full day. The reasoning is in planning a studio shoot day, and the per-hour comparison across blocks is in studio hire costs in London, explained.

Lights, and why they are their own line

A room rate buys the room and what is built into it, not a lit set. In every room at Scope but the DJ room, lights are charged separately from the room rate — please enquire about our lights and we will quote for what your shoot needs. The DJ room is the single exception, where professional film lighting is rigged and included in the rate — £75 an hour with a four-hour minimum.

Budget for this line the way the gaffer thinks: plan first, then quote. No in-house kit list is published, so ask what is on site and get it confirmed in writing before hiring in duplicates. The FAQ has the room-by-room answer on what is included.

Crew, kit and talent: budget for them, do not guess

Crew is the line where a guessed number does the most damage, because it is multiplied by heads and by days. Rates differ by role, experience, day length and the kit a crew member brings; a DP with their own camera package is a different quote from one who needs it hired. Build this line from real quotes, role by role, with overtime terms. A studio day booked as eight hours needs a crew call that fits inside it, with travel on top — the running order shows where the hours go.

Kit follows crew: the rental list is whatever the crew does not bring. Talent is a quote from the agent, and usage — where and for how long the work runs — is often larger than the session fee. Get it in writing, with the release that matches it.

Art department, catering and getting there

Set and props are a build cost and a strike cost, and the strike is inside your booked hours. Set building in a hire studio covers how to keep that small. Catering is a real line on a full day; Scope has a kitchen, and bringing food in is the production's job. Transport is the van, fuel and the London charges; at Scope the parking is on site in the yard, which removes one line most London shoots carry.

Insurance and post

Insurance is cheap next to what it covers and non-negotiable at Scope, whose terms require appropriate cover and make the production responsible for its own kit and people on site. Post is the line budgets forget: an edit, a grade, a mix and a retouch routinely cost more than the shoot day, and every extra deliverable is more of it. Price post before the room; the room is the cheap part. If the edit wants a room, the workshop runs as an edit suite at £120 for a half day.

Three worked room budgets

Only published rates appear below; everything else is a quote.

• A brand film: presenter to camera plus product. Studio B for a full day for the dialogue (£420) and Studio A for a half day for the product on white (£320): £740 in rooms. Add the music studio with an engineer for a half day to record the voiceover (£140): £880. Quote: lights, crew, kit, presenter fee and usage, catering, insurance, post.
• A content day across formats. Studio A for a full day (£620) for stills and video, plus four hours in the podcast room (£160) for two episodes: £780 in rooms. Quote: lights, photographer and videographer, hair and make-up, food, the edit and the retouch.
• A closed-set commercial. The whole building for a day (from £1,500): both studios, the podcast room, the music studio, the workshop, the kitchen, the dressing room and the parking, with nobody else on site. If the spot needs the DJ room, it sits outside the buyout and is booked separately from £300 for its four-hour minimum, with lighting included in that room. Quote: lights for every other room, crew, cast, art department, catering, insurance, post.

The room is the only line you can look up. Price everything else before you book the date, not after.

Contingency, overtime and the cost of a tight booking

The most common way a studio budget breaks is an overrun with a full crew on the clock. Scope's overtime rate and deposit are confirmed when you book rather than published, so ask for them with the quote. The cancellation notice is 48 hours, and same-day cancellations and no-shows are non-refundable — a date moved late is a room paid for twice. Deposits, cancellations and lead times has the detail.

Buy the hours calmly in advance. The gap between a half day and a full day in Studio A is £300; an hour of overtime with ten people standing around can cost more than that. If the shot list looks like a full day, budget the full day.