Pre-production consultancy
The earlier a problem is found, the more options remain, and most of what post cannot rescue was decided in a room nobody from post was standing in.
The short version
What starts working. Footage that arrives to be worked on rather than rescued, consistent light, separated sound, the angles the edit will ask for, which is cheaper than fixing any of it and considerably better.
Is this for you? For partners filming with their own crew or equipment who want the capture plan checked before the shoot. Sending a crew is outside this service; the production and shoots page says where that stands.
What leaves your plate. Setup advice, capture specifications and practical checklists within the Retainer or Partner System scope.
Start with the Free Audit.
Where advice stops being a shot list emailed the night before
Your crew, working from a shared production plan
Partners film all over the world, with their own local teams or with a creator holding the camera themselves. So the advice has to travel: written to be understood by somebody we have never met, in a room we have never stood in, and followed on a morning when we are asleep. That constraint is what makes the notes good.
Start with the material and the next shoot
When footage is available, we use it to identify specific needs: a reflection at noon, a missing angle or b-roll the edit keeps asking for. For a new setup, we work from the brief and test recordings. The advice is written for the crew who will use it.
The format is specified upstream
At one partner the footage arrived as heavily compressed, eight-bit mp4 shot in a standard picture profile, which is a perfectly reasonable file to watch and very little to grade. The container was never the problem, since mp4 will hold high-quality ten-bit log just as easily; what was missing was the log profile and the bit depth. The local crew was asked to record those instead, and the grade suddenly had somewhere to go. The best decision available to a colourist is often one taken weeks earlier by somebody who never opens the software. Read more: colour grading →
None of this is a separate invoice
Pre-production advice is included within the agreed Retainer and Partner System scope. Preventing an avoidable fault makes the shoot and the edit easier for both teams.
Advice that arrives before the camera does
What the service covers
Studio choice and setup. Equipment purchases, and how to use what has already been bought. Light positions. Microphone placement design. Shot lists and b-roll lists. Remote set-up sessions by video call, and room acoustics discussed the same way. The capture and delivery formats that decide what post can do. All of it lands as a checklist a crew can hold on the day.
Problems to catch before the shoot
Changing light, inconsistent levels, continuity gaps and missing angles can restrict the edit. We identify the relevant risks before filming and put the checks into the shoot plan. Some faults can be repaired, but avoiding them usually leaves better options.
Who the checklist is written for
Written, plainly, in the language of whoever has to act on it. A checklist read at seven in the morning on a shoot day is not the place for our vocabulary, and a note that only works while its author is in the room has not been handed over to anybody.
At the bench
The work, demonstrated
Try a decision from the craft: drag, tap or toggle, then read the trade-off.
These are illustrative models; no partner’s results are shown.
More demonstrations at the bench →The best post-production decisions are often made before the shoot, by the people who have to live with them after.
Find a constraint early enough and it becomes a choice instead of a repair.
What changes for you
Your crew starts with agreed shots, levels and capture formats. Test recordings and a practical checklist help catch avoidable faults before they become editing problems.
Related: Shoot planning · Camera and lighting setup · Microphone setup · Remote direction
Send recent videos. We will identify changes to the recording setup that could improve the next shoot.
Request your Free Audit.
Three fields, and a written reading back.
Your audit usually arrives within three working days. We use your details only to reply to your enquiry.
What you will get
What is working, what could improve and whether we can help.
Two or three priorities, with the reason for each.
A recommended next step, even if that step is not us.
There is no obligation to continue. We only arrange a call if you ask for one.
The work, written up
The case studies keep their dates, sources and limits visible.
See the casework →