What does a VFX Studio Do?
A VFX studio creates or enhances visuals in video using digital effects, compositing, CGI, tracking, and post-production to show things that are hard, expensive, or impossible to film in camera. It helps brands, filmmakers, and advertisers make scenes look more cinematic, believable, or visually striking.
Why is VFX so expensive?
VFX is expensive because it is not one task. It is a chain of specialized labor and technology where many artists solve different problems shot by shot, often frame by frame. The real cost comes from time, precision, revisions, and the fact that good VFX has to look invisible or flawless. CGI, tracking, rotoscoping, compositing, lighting, simulations, rendering, cleanup, and supervision all stack together, and one weak step can break the illusion.
Every project is different, but broadly speaking the production process can be broken down into three phases:
Pre-production: This is when we work with you to learn all about your business and together define what it is you need from video. Some of the questions we might explore are: Who is your target audience? What platforms do you want to publish on? What are the key messages you want to communicate?
From there we’ll create a video outline and/or detailed script, confirm budgets and arrange any filming dates with you.
Production: AKA ‘filming’. This is bit most people think of when they talk about creating videos. Our crew will capture all the required footage – such as interviews, event footage or product demonstrations. We might film at your premises, at our studio or at some other locations relevant to the video messages.
Post-production: Once we’ve captured all the footage we’ll get to work on the edit, crafting the footage into a coherent narrative and adding graphics, titles and music as appropriate. You’ll have chance to review one or more drafts and give feedback before everything is finalised.
This depends on the type of job. For simple talking heads interviews or case studies we can provide a ‘self-shooting’ videographer, who will work alone to capture all the necessary footage.
However our preference is for a two- or three-man crew, consisting of a producer/director to oversee the filming and conduct interviews, plus one or two camera operators to concentrate on the visual and technical aspects. This ensures the key messages of the video are covered more effectively.
For more complex filming requirements we may also recommend extra crew members, such as additional camera operators, a sound recordist, or a drone operator. These will all be costed separately in our quote.
Not every project requires a voiceover, but when it does we can provide you with a range of different voiceover samples to choose from and we’ll take care of the rest.
When a background music track is required we can source a suitable track from a royalty-free music library and provide a license for usage in the finished video.