television
TV and Broadcast Interviews and Links in a Hire Studio
Pilots, sizzles, presenter links and factual interviews in a hire studio: what a small stage suits, what it does not, and why the commissioner's spec leads.
Television is made in a long chain, and a hire studio is one small link in it: the day something has to be put in front of a camera, in a room that works, without a stage's overheads. Pilots, sizzle reels, presenter links, factual interviews. That is most of what a small stage is good for, and it is what this guide covers.
It is written for production-company producers and the people who commission from them. It is blunt about what a small stage is for, because a small stage sold as a big one costs a production its day.
What a small stage suits, and what it does not
Scope is a small stage. Studio A is 1,200 sq ft with a white drive-in infinity cove and full blackout; Studio B is a sound-treated room within a room. Scope is not a sound stage with a lighting grid, not a broadcast gallery and not an outside-broadcast facility, and it has no live link. No in-house kit list is published, so ask what is on site and bring or source anything else. A room booking is the room; whatever else the day needs is brought in or sourced, and quoted.
- Suits: pilots and sizzles, a presenter on a cove or a dressed corner, links and pieces to camera, factual and documentary interviews, promos, a small panel recorded for edit.
- Does not suit: anything that goes out live from the room, a show with a studio audience (capacity is not published), flown or gridded rigging, a set that has to stand between bookings (set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time).
- Worth asking first: a large unit, a vehicle through frame, a build that needs the ceiling. Ceiling height and power are on request, so ask with the tallest and heaviest thing in mind.
What a sound stage is and when you do not need one draws the line in more detail.
Pilots and sizzles: the low-risk formats
A pilot or sizzle exists to be shown to someone who will decide. It has to look like the show; it does not have to be the show. A set built in front of the white cove, or Studio B's cyclorama washed in a colour, gives a recognisable world without a build, and the same room can be re-dressed for a second look.
Two cautions. Whoever decides on a pilot has usually seen others, and bad sound reads as a bad idea, so the room matters more than the camera: Studio B is the room for dialogue and Studio A is not sound treated. And do not pilot a set the series could not afford to build, because the pilot becomes a promise. Takes can be reviewed on site in Studio B's edit and playback area, and the workshop's ten iMac workstations work as an edit suite (ask what software is installed), so the person pitching sees what they shot while the crew is still there.
Presenter links and pieces to camera
A link is a presenter talking to camera to join items together. It is usually short, shot in sequence from one set-up, and recorded with the sound that will be used. Sequence them by look, not by running order, and shoot each with a clean beat at the head and tail so the edit has room to join.
Eyeline matters more than it looks. Mark where the lens is, put anything the presenter reads or reacts to directly beside it, and agree where a graphic or an insert will sit so the frame leaves room. No in-house kit list is published, so if the presenter needs autocue, ask what is on site and bring or source it. A link with a keyed background is a green-screen job, and Studio A is the room used for green screen, with the screen supply confirmed when you enquire. Studio A is not sound treated, so if the link carries dialogue that must be clean, plan it for Studio B or accept replacement in post.
Factual interviews: the same room every time
Factual and documentary programmes turn on contributors who were filmed weeks apart and have to cut together as one conversation. That is the strongest argument for a studio, and the method is the one in documentary interviews in a studio: the same room, blackout so there is no season in the frame, a set-up written down and photographed, and one eyeline for the whole series. For a second angle, multi-camera interview set-ups covers matching cameras and keeping both on the same side of the line.
Lights are a separate line. 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.
A sizzle is watched briefly by someone who has seen many. Make it look like the series and sound clean, and spend nothing on what they will not see.
Broadcast delivery: ask the commissioner first
How a programme is delivered is set by the commissioner or broadcaster in a technical specification. It covers the file formats, the audio levels, subtitles and captions, and the paperwork that goes with the programme, and it is the commissioner's document that wins, not the studio's or the editor's habits. No numbers appear here because they differ between buyers and they change; check the current specification, and ask for it before the shoot rather than before delivery.
Some of it is decided on the shoot day. Flicker from lights set against the wrong shutter, noise in underexposed shadows, dropouts on wireless microphones and a boom dipping into frame are the things quality control finds, and none of them can be fixed after the room has been struck. The sound guide covers the microphone side. For UK broadcast content, Ofcom's Broadcasting Code applies; the current text is the one to check, and compliance sits with the broadcaster and the production, not the room.
Running the day, and what is quoted
A half day is four hours and a full day is eight, with set-up and pack-down inside the block. Studio A is £160 for two hours, £320 for a half day and £620 for a full day; Studio B is £120, £220 and £420. Both have online calendars, nothing is held until it is booked and paid for, and cancellation needs 48 hours' notice. Clients must hold appropriate insurance, and the client owns the content. The running of the day itself is in planning a studio shoot day, and the bids-and-wrap side is in booking a hire studio for a production.
Scope is more than room hire: the team can source and manage crew, camera, lighting, grip and sound kit, set builds and props, talent and casting, catering and transport, and post-production, on productions of every size. None of that is priced here, it is quoted by the team, and nothing is assumed to be in a room booking. The TV production studio hire page has the booking-side detail. If a multi-set day needs privacy, the whole building is from £1,500 a day, with the DJ room outside it.