Videography Studio Checklist: What to Check Before You Book

A videography studio is not a photography studio with the strobes swapped for continuous light. Video adds sound, movement and time: the light has to hold for the length of a take, the room has to be quiet if anyone speaks, and there has to be floor for the camera to travel. This checklist runs through what to confirm before you book, one item at a time.

1. The background

Decide what is behind the subject before you look at a single listing. A seamless white cove removes the corner between floor and wall so the subject floats in white; a colour-washable cyclorama lets the background change with a wash or a gel; a dressed set or a plain wall each want something different again. Ask what colour the cove is, whether it can be painted or lit a colour, and what it costs to return it to white afterwards.

• Is the cove white, or sold as a colour cove?
• How wide is the usable background at the lens and distance you plan to shoot?
• Can the subject walk or move on the cove, and does the floor need protecting?

2. Light you can control

Daylight changes through a take and between takes, which is beautiful in a still and a continuity problem in an edit. For interview, product and brand work that has to cut together, you want a room that blacks out completely, so the only light is the light you rigged. Check whether the blackout is total, and whether lights are included in the rate or quoted separately — the answer varies a great deal between studios.

If you are bringing continuous LED, check the room's own fixtures for flicker at your shutter and frame rate, or ask whether they can be switched off.

3. Sound

If anyone speaks to camera, ask how the room is built for sound. Keeping outside noise out is isolation; stopping the room echoing is acoustic treatment; a room within a room does both. A large room built for picture may have neither, and that is fine for B-roll and music videos shot to playback, but not for an interview. The difference is set out in soundproof or sound-treated.

4. Floor for movement

A slider, a gimbal walk or a dolly move needs clear floor in front of the background and room for the operator behind the camera. Ask for the floor area, then subtract the cove's curve, the lights and the people. Two or three cameras on an interview need the same: space for each position without one camera seeing another.

5. Ceiling, power and the numbers studios leave out

Ceiling height decides whether a top shot, a boom or a tall light stand fits; power decides how much you can run at once. If a studio does not publish either, ask for the exact figure in writing rather than relying on a photo. The same goes for door size if anything large is coming in.

6. Load-in and parking

Ask where the van parks, whether load-in is at ground level, and whether there are stairs or a lift between the vehicle and the floor. A heavy kit list carried up two flights eats the first hour of a two-hour booking.

7. Somewhere to review, and somewhere to wait

A client watching over the operator's shoulder slows every set-up. Check for a playback area or a separate room where the director and client can review takes, a lounge for people waiting their turn, a dressing and make-up room, and Wi-Fi that can move files before you leave.

8. The small print

• Whether set-up and pack-down come out of the booked time.
• What overrunning costs, and how it is charged.
• How much notice a cancellation or a date change needs.
• What insurance the studio expects you to carry.
• Who owns the footage, and whether the studio can use behind-the-scenes material.

How Scope answers the checklist

Studio A is 1,200 sq ft with a white drive-in infinity cove and full blackout curtains: the room for movement, several cameras, a vehicle or a set. It is not sound treated. Studio B is a sound-treated room within a room that blacks out, with a colour-washable cyclorama, an adjustable backdrop system and an edit and playback area — the room for interviews and pieces to camera. The podcast room is acoustically treated and camera-ready for seated formats.

Studio A is £160 for two hours, £320 for a half day and £620 for a full day; Studio B £120, £220 and £420; the podcast room £80 for two hours with extra hours at £30. Set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time. Lights are charged separately, so please enquire about our lights. Ceiling heights, cove dimensions and power are on request rather than published — ask and you will get the exact figure. Parking is on site in the yard, and Studio A loads in at ground level.

On the small print: changes need 48 hours' notice, same-day cancellations and no-shows are non-refundable, productions need appropriate insurance cover, and clients keep all rights to what they shoot. The rooms side by side are on the video studio hire page.

Common mistakes

• Booking by floor area alone and finding the room is not quiet enough for the interview.
• Assuming lights are in the rate and arriving with none.
• Booking two hours for a shoot whose set-up alone takes one.
• Shooting only horizontal when the client also wanted vertical cuts from each set-up.
• Not recording room tone before the first take.