In-house Brand Teams: Closed Sets, Embargoes and Sign-off

An in-house team has no agency between it and the day. One person may be the producer, the approver and the client on the same call sheet, and the people who actually need to see the work, the legal reader, the regional head, the person whose product it is, are often not in the room when it is made. What a brand team wants from a studio is control: over who is in the building, over what leaves it, and over who says yes.

This guide covers the closed set and what a whole-building day does and does not give, embargoed products, approval chains, and launch and e-commerce capture.

What a closed set is, and what the whole building gives you

A closed set is a shoot where only the people who need to be there are present. In a hire studio the tool for it is the whole building: Studio A, Studio B, the podcast room, the music studio, the workshop, the kitchen, the dressing room and the parking, from £1,500 a day, with nobody else on site. Nothing waits for a room to free up, and talent moves between set, prep and lounge without passing another production.

What it does not give matters as much. The DJ room is outside the buyout and is booked separately, so if the day depends on nobody else being anywhere in the building, say so when you enquire and ask about the DJ room on your date. A buyout is not a security service. Scope's position on NDAs and on vetting is not published, and neither is how arrivals are managed, so those are questions, not assumptions. The address is a business park, so if the arrival of the product is itself the secret, ask how your van and your people reach the yard before the day.

Embargoes: the product that does not exist yet

An embargo is an agreement that something may not be published before a stated time. It governs publication, not filming, so footage of a product can exist for weeks before the date, and the risk in that gap is people and files. Write the rules before the day, not on it.

• Name the people. Everyone you bring is covered by your booking, which also makes you responsible for them, so settle confidentiality with your own crew and freelancers before they arrive. If crew are sourced through Scope's production team, ask what confidentiality terms apply rather than assuming.
• Keep the product with a named person. Do not assume there is somewhere on site to store an unreleased item between set-ups or overnight; ask, and be ready to take it away.
• Control the files. The client owns the content. Decide who holds the cards and drives and how they leave the building, and whether the building's Wi-Fi is acceptable for unreleased material under your company's IT rules. If it is not, bring your own connection.
• Refuse behind-the-scenes use in writing. Scope may ask permission to use behind-the-scenes material and will not use it without your prior written consent; for an embargoed day, say no in the booking.
• Keep the call sheet vague. A codename on the paperwork costs nothing, and a call sheet is the document most likely to be forwarded.

Approval chains: who says yes, and where they sit

Time on an in-house day is often lost in the chain, not on the floor: the brand lead who approves the look, the reader who checks claims and legal lines, the product owner who wants it to look different. Split the chain in two before the day. On-site approvers see the monitor and can say yes now; they are named on the call sheet and their yes is final for that set-up. Off-site approvers see stills or a selects reel at agreed points, and their notes come back through one person.

Approve set-up by set-up at playback, because a set that has been struck cannot be lit again inside the same block. Keep approvers off the floor. The client lounge, Studio B's edit and playback area and the workshop, which seats up to twenty with ten iMac workstations and can be booked as a client review room or production office, are all places to watch from. Approving takes on site goes through it for contributors who are not used to a camera.

Write the name of the person who can say yes on the call sheet. The day runs at the speed of its slowest approval.

Launch and e-commerce capture

Launch work and catalogue work are different jobs that share a room. A launch wants a hero: the product at its best, on a surface that gives it a place in the world, then the pack, the lifestyle and the motion. Catalogue work wants the same picture many times over, identical in light, angle and crop, so that the grid reads as one photograph.

Studio A suits both: a white drive-in cove, and full blackout, which keeps the light on the last item matching the first on a long run. Studio B suits a colour world and has make-up and styling zones for people. Shoot the hero first while everyone is fresh, then the pack, then the volume, then the lifestyle, and put the list of assets on the wall; one shoot, every placement is how to build it, and e-commerce product photography in a studio covers the volume work. In every room 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.

Procurement and paperwork: ask early

Large companies often buy only from approved suppliers, and the paperwork can have a lead time of its own. What is published: 48 hours' notice to cancel, with same-day cancellations and no-shows non-refundable; clients must hold appropriate insurance, and Scope is not liable for personal injury or for loss of or damage to client property; the client owns the content; anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

What is not published: account terms, invoicing and payment terms for companies, purchase-order handling, supplier onboarding forms, NDAs, data-processing agreements and vetting. A calendar booking is confirmed on payment, so if your company pays by purchase order, say so in the first email rather than at the checkout.

Booking, and what is quoted

Studio A is £620 for a full day and Studio B is £420, with set-up and pack-down inside the booked time. The whole building has to be free on the day, so enquire with the date rather than looking for a calendar slot. What a buyout does and does not include is in the buyout guide.

Scope is more than room hire: the team can source and manage crew, kit, set builds and props, talent and casting, catering and transport, and post-production, for productions of every size. None of that is priced on the site, it is quoted by the team, and nothing is assumed to be in a room booking. The brand content studio hire page and the agencies and production companies page cover the wider offer.