FAQ — twenty answers, no sales call required
The questions we get before every kickoff.
Answered here so the first call can be about your business instead of our terms.
Working together
What size of brand do you usually work with? +
We are set up for teams between five and two hundred people, with a marketing lead in place and something real to say — a single-venue restaurant and a developer with a portfolio are equally good fits. What matters is that someone internal can make a decision in under a week.
Where do you work? +
Wherever the work is. Strategy, editing and channel management run remotely as standard; production days happen at your location or somewhere we scout for it. Travel and accommodation are billed at cost and agreed before anything is booked — everything else stays at the published rate.
Can you work alongside our in-house team? +
That is a good half of our work. A common arrangement: we run strategy and production, your team handles posting and community. We build the templates and the shot list so your side can keep the standard between shoots.
Do you take on competitors in the same category? +
Not in the same category and market. Retainers include category exclusivity for the term of the agreement — written into the contract, not promised on a call.
What languages do you produce in? +
English and Arabic in-house, with Farsi and Russian through long-standing freelance writers. Arabic is transcreated rather than translated — the second version is written, not converted.
Production
How long until the first post goes live? +
Four to five weeks from signature: two weeks of discovery and strategy, one of pre-production, the shoot in week four, and the first assets live at the end of week five. Rush timelines are possible for launches with a fixed date — say so early.
Do we need to be on set? +
Someone from your side for the first hour is ideal — to approve the look and answer questions about the product. After that we prefer to be left alone; shoots run faster and the results are better.
What happens if the weather or a location falls through? +
Every call sheet carries a backup location and a wet-weather cover set. If a day is genuinely lost, it is rescheduled at no charge within thirty days — crew cancellation costs are ours, not yours.
Can you use footage we already have? +
Almost always, and we usually find more than you expect. Most brands are sitting on a quarter's worth of unused material; re-cutting it is the cheapest content you will ever buy.
Do you handle permits and location clearances? +
Yes. Filming permits, venue and property clearances, and drone approvals where the airspace allows them. Permit fees are passed through at cost with the receipt attached.
Commercial
Who owns the footage and the files? +
You do — rushes, project files, templates, LUTs, everything. On request at any point, not only at the end. The only exception is licensed music, which carries the licensor's own terms.
How does billing work? +
Retainers are invoiced monthly in advance, net 15, in US dollars. Project work is 50% to book the dates, 50% on delivery. Pass-through costs appear as a separate line with the supplier invoice attached. Any applicable tax is added at invoice.
What if we need to pause or stop? +
After the minimum term, thirty days' notice either way. You can also pause a retainer for up to two months a year — useful if your business has a quiet season — and keep your rate and slot.
Will you sign an NDA? +
Gladly, and before the first call if you prefer. We ask for the reverse where a shoot involves an unreleased product — and we always ask permission before showing your work in our own portfolio.
Is ad spend included in the retainer? +
No. Media spend goes on your own ad account, billed by the platform directly to you — so you keep the data, the pixel history and the account if we ever part ways. We charge a flat management fee, never a percentage of spend.
Results & reporting
Do you guarantee results? +
No, and be careful of anyone who does. What we guarantee is volume, consistency, and honest reporting — including the months where something did not work. Those are the only three things a studio actually controls.
Which metrics do you actually report on? +
Saves, shares, watch-through at three and twelve seconds, profile visits, and whatever your business counts as a lead. Follower count appears last, and only because people ask.
How quickly should we expect to see change? +
Plan on engagement signals first — saves and shares in the second month — with enquiries and bookings following once the format has settled. Anything faster is usually a single post getting lucky rather than a system working, and we will tell you which one it was.
Can we see the strategy before committing? +
Yes — the audit and 90-day strategy can be bought on its own for $3,400. If you go on to a retainer within sixty days, that fee comes off your first invoice. Taking the plan and running it with your own team is a perfectly good outcome; it is written to be handed over.
What makes an engagement fail? +
Three things: feedback arriving from five people at once with no decision-maker, a calendar rewritten every fortnight, and stopping at month two because the numbers have not moved yet. We will name any of them out loud the week we see it rather than at the end of the quarter.