What sets the scope of a shoot
A one-day shoot in Los Angeles County can mean two people and a camera bag, or eleven people, two trucks and a permitted lane closure. Both are one day. The word carries almost no information about what a job takes to organise.
Six variables set scope: how many shoot days, how many locations, how large the crew is, whether talent is cast or found among real employees, whether the deliverable is one film or a matrix of cuts, and how much post the work needs. That last one is routinely the longest block on the schedule and the one clients underestimate.
The company move surprises people most. Two locations in one day is not two half days. Striking, loading, driving, unloading and relighting takes two to three hours out of a shooting day, and everyone on the call sheet is paid for all of it. One location with three looks inside it usually out-produces two locations with one look each.
Property work makes the point from the far end. A listing film and a brand film are scoped from the same six variables, but the binding variable on a listing is turnaround. An agent with an open house on Saturday is not buying a bigger department, they are buying a shorter gap between wrap and delivery, and real estate work gets scoped backwards from that date.
Where a budget moves, and what moves it
A production budget is organised in blocks. Above the line covers the people attached to the idea: director, producer, writer, principal talent. Below the line covers everyone who executes it. Post sits in its own block, and insurance, permits and contingency sit outside both.
No prices appear on this page, and any company quoting a rate before hearing the scope is quoting a guess. What is worth knowing is which lines move.
Crew and kit are separate lines even when one vendor supplies both, because a camera package travels at a different rate to the person operating it. Locations move on access rather than looks: a house with a driveway that fits a truck costs less to shoot than a better house without one. Insurance is a fixed cost that behaves like a variable one, since a venue can demand a higher liability limit than the standing policy carries. Talent moves on how the finished work is used rather than on hours worked, which is set out on the commercial page. Post moves on the number of versions, not the length of the film.
Contingency is the line clients cut first and regret fastest. A day rate structure with no slack in it fails on the cheapest available problem.
The call sheet, and how a shoot day gets its shape
The call sheet is the only document everyone reads. It carries crew call, shooting call, the address, parking, the nearest hospital, sunrise and sunset, the setups in order, and who is expected when.
Crew call and shooting call are not the same time. Camera, grip and electric arrive to build while hair, makeup and talent prepare. A schedule that treats those as one number loses its first hour on day one and never gets it back.
Order is chosen by light and by lift. Exteriors go where the sun allows, the heaviest lighting build goes first while the crew is fresh, and anything with a hard release time goes early enough to survive a delay. A cover set gives the day an interior to move into if the exterior fails. A tech scout puts the director of photography, the gaffer, the key grip and the first assistant director on the ground beforehand, which is when power, parking and the ceiling height that ruins a shot get discovered.
What you get at the end, and in what formats
The deliverable list belongs in the brief, not in the handover email, because it changes what we shoot.
A standard delivery is the finished film in a high quality master, a compressed version for web, and the cutdowns agreed up front. If the film is going on a broadcast platform or into a paid buy, it gets built to that platform's specification from the start, because retrofitting a finish is slower than doing it correctly the first time.
Vertical versions are the item most often forgotten. A 16:9 film cropped to vertical loses the framing you paid for, so if vertical is part of the plan we compose for both on the day, usually by leaving headroom and keeping the subject off centre. That costs nothing on set and cannot be added later.
Captions ship as a separate file rather than burned into the picture, so you can edit the text without a re-render, and so the film stays usable when a platform generates its own.
Everything we produce for you is yours to use. Project files, raw footage and archives we can hand over on request, and we keep a copy for a reasonable period so a future cutdown does not start from nothing.
Crew and call times along the 101 corridor
Studio 47 works from Westlake Village, on the county line. Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks are minutes away. Burbank, Culver City, Hollywood and Santa Monica sit one direction, Oxnard, Camarillo and Ventura the other.
The corridor sets call times. A seven o'clock crew call in Burbank means leaving Ventura County before the eastbound 101 loads, which is scheduling rather than complaint. Coastal exteriors carry a second constraint, because the marine layer can hold light flat into the morning at Oxnard. Crew sourcing follows the same geography: a base on the county line draws from the deepest freelance pool in the country without paying for distant travel, and Thousand Oaks sits partly inside the thirty-mile studio zone and partly outside it.
What a full production actually costs to staff
Staffing is the largest below the line block on most jobs, and it is where scope decisions become visible.
A full department crew looks like this. A director makes the picture. A producer holds the money and the logistics. A first assistant director runs the day and calls the safety meeting. A director of photography designs the image, a camera operator executes it, and a first assistant camera keeps it sharp, which is a full-time job at wide apertures. A gaffer lights and a key grip shapes and rigs. A production sound mixer records while a boom operator places the microphone. Hair and makeup holds continuity. Art and props dress what is in frame. Production assistants lock up sets and move the day forward. A data manager offloads cards, verifies checksums and builds the backups.
Cutting a position does not remove the work. It moves the work onto someone who already has a job. A shoot without a first assistant director still needs the schedule tracked, and that falls to the director, who then stops directing. A shoot without a gaffer still needs light, so the camera department lights, and the day runs long.
Two people and a camera is a legitimate configuration for an interview, a walkthrough or a batch of clips. Eleven is what a scripted spot with talent and a lighting build takes. The gap between them is arithmetic, settled at scoping rather than on the morning. Studio 47's coverage of a Rick Ross car show sat at the moving end of that range, where the schedule belonged to the venue rather than the crew, and the full services list routes everything else.
Frequently asked questions
How much does video production cost?
Scope sets it, and scope here means six things: shoot days, locations, crew size, whether talent is cast or drawn from real employees, whether one film ships or a matrix of cuts, and the weight of the post schedule. Runtime is not on that list. Studio 47 quotes against a scoped brief rather than a length.
How long does it take to produce a video?
Published industry timelines run one to two weeks of pre-production, one to a few shoot days, then two to four weeks of post. The elastic parts sit at both ends. Permitted locations add lead time before the shoot, and post production stretches with the number of versions rather than the length of the film.
What are the three stages of video production?
Pre-production, production and post. Pre-production is the planning: brief, script, casting, locations and schedule, and it decides most of what the finished film will be. Production is the shoot day itself. Post is edit, colour, sound and delivery. Most projects that go wrong went wrong in the first stage, which is where we spend the most time with you.
Do I need a videographer or a full production company?
Count what has to happen at the same moment. A walkthrough, a single interview or a batch of clips is one operator and a sound person, because nothing is being built. A scripted spot with a lighting build, cast talent and a permitted location needs camera, light, grip, sound and the day itself covered separately. Cut a position and the work lands on someone who already has one.
Do I need a permit to film my video?
Two tests decide it: whether the filming carries commercial value, and whether it affects the surrounding area. Private property with no public impact usually needs nothing. Public ground does. FilmLA coordinates the City of Los Angeles, the unincorporated county and its contracting cities, other cities run their own desks, and unincorporated Ventura County goes through the Resource Management Agency. Studio 47 confirms the authority per address, mapped in the Los Angeles County guide.
Who owns the raw footage after delivery, and who owns the finished film?
Whatever the agreement says, which is why it gets settled before the shoot. Footage and finished film are separate things and can sit with different parties. A licence grants defined use for a defined period, an assignment moves ownership outright, and keeping the raw material carries a storage cost.
How do I prepare for a video shoot?
Lock five things and the day builds itself: location access in writing, the number of setups, whether talent is cast or supplied, the delivery date, and who signs off the cut. Then the practical layer, which is truck parking, a room for hair and makeup, and power. A tech scout beforehand is when the ceiling height that ruins a shot gets found.