Scroll down to see General FAQs and then go a bit further to see specific FAQs about Showreel Material, Promotional Footage, Bespoke Projects and Workshops, each in their own separate sections below
If you don't find the answer to your question here, please don't hesitate to get in touch by visiting our Contact page
We are based in Kent. For any filming project where the location lies within the county boundaries of Kent, any travel costs are included in the project fee.Â
As per our T&Cs, if a location lies outside the county boundaries of Kent, an additional £0.55 per mile beyond the county border will be added to your invoice to cover the additional travel. Any additional cost will be discussed with you before the invoice is issued.
We provide showreel material (including monologues and scenes), promotional material for small businesses, bespoke projects and workshops. Visit our What We Offer page to see more details on each of these services, or scroll further down here on the FAQs page to see each service's individual section of FAQs.
Alongside our core services, we also love to create our own in-house film projects. Visit our More page to explore!
Get in touch by visiting our Contact page and we'd love to chat with you about how to book our services!
As per our T&Cs, a booking request has officially been made once we have decided on a proposed date for the filming session. After a date has been proposed, we'll block it out for 7 days in order for you to complete everything needed for your booking request to be confirmed, such as signing the legal bits and bobs, paying the deposit and arranging a pre-filming video call. After these things have been completed, your booking request will be confirmed - woohoo!
If you haven't completed everything needed within those 7 days, our agreed upon date may be released for other clients to book, however, it's never too late to find a new date if your original one gets booked up.
It really depends on the project. If you are booking a showreel scene or a promotional highlight reel, both of which require significant preparation time, we'd recommend booking at least a month before the proposed filming session. However, projects such as these can still be done with less notice, depending on availability and current workload.
For projects such as showreel monologues, or smaller bespoke projects where you will have prepared all the material yourself, the turnaround can be much quicker.
If you're unsure, get in touch by visiting our Contact page and we'll be able to advise on a good timescale.
Each project is different. Check our What We Offer page to see details on each service, or scroll further down here on the FAQs page to see each service's individual section of FAQs.
Yes, as per our T&Cs, each project requires a deposit before a booking request can be confirmed. The remaining balance will be due after filming is complete and before the final edited footage is delivered.
We require at least 7 days notice to cancel or reschedule a project.
If you'd like to reschedule more than 7 calendar days before the filming session is due to take place, any deposit you've paid will be transferred to the new date. If you'd like to cancel more than 7 days before the filming session is due to take place, your deposit is still refundable, minus the amount that covers any work already completed. For example, if you have booked a showreel scene and we have already completed your pre-filming video call and your script has also already been written and delivered to you, you will receive a refund of your deposit minus an admin fee and script writing fee.
If you'd like to reschedule or cancel 7 calendar days or less before the filming session is due to take place, any deposit becomes non-transferable and non-refundable. This reflects the likely inability to offer the production slot to another client due to the preparation time usually needed for a filming session and is not intended to act as a penalty.
Further details on our refund and cancellation policies can be found in the T&Cs for each service.
For visuals we shoot with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, which is a cinema grade camera. For audio we use a combination of the Rode NTG1 Shotgun Mic and the Rode Video Mic NTG, both of which are professional grade microphones.
It depends on the project, but generally, music is a big part of what we create.
The music we use is licensed through Epidemic Sound, who work with real artists and musicians to provide the perfect music for every project. We have never used and will never use AI to create music for any client or in-house project.
Yes, we have public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance.Â
For our workshops where the participants are under the age of 18, all members of staff at each workshop will hold a recent Enhanced DBS check.
We offer monologues and scenes.
For our showreel monologues, you shoot two contrasting speeches of your choice within a two hour shoot session.
For our showreel scenes, you team up with a friend and shoot an original scene, written by us. If you're looking to shoot more than one showreel scene, up to two scenes can be filmed in a day.
For showreel monologues, the service is priced at £160 for two contrasting monologues shot over a 2-hour shoot (plus any fees required for the location you choose, which could be nothing if you choose to shoot at home).
For showreel scenes, the service is priced at £320 for each scene, so if you team up with a friend and split the cost, you can each get a showreel scene for just £160 each (plus any fees required for the location you choose, which could be nothing if you choose to shoot at home).
For showreel monologues, no - you choose your own material, or you can write your own speeches.
For showreel scenes, yes - the service includes an original script that is personal to you. We will have had a pre-filming video call where we find out as much as possible about you and the type of scene you'd like to shoot, so that your scene can be fully tailored to you and your scene partner. Each scene will be roughly 3 pages long, providing you with a roughly 3-minute scene. You are welcome to write your own scene if you wish, however, as per our T&Cs, the price of the service will stay the same.
Also as per our T&Cs, if you are providing your own material, you are required to make sure you have the correct permissions and/or licences to perform the material you have chosen.
No, if you have chosen to do a showreel scene, you need to team up with a friend in order to shoot the scene (and if you have chosen to do a showreel monologue, you'll be working alone anyway).
The bonus of teaming up with a friend for a showreel scene is that the price is charged per scene rather than per person, so you can share the cost between you! You also know who you are working with in advance and know that you'll get along and be able to trust them, which is super important when creating a showreel scene.
If you are really stuck, please do still get in touch by visiting our Contact page and we'll see if we can help, however, we really do recommend teaming up with a friend because if we do end up finding a scene partner for you, an additional charge will be added to cover the actor's fees and you'll be paying for the full service by yourself rather than sharing the cost with someone else, so do ask around your pool of actor friends before coming to us.
For showreel monologues, you can choose and arrange to use any suitable indoor location, which could even be your living room! We just need a quiet space (so not directly adjacent to a busy road, railway line, construction site etc.), somewhere where windows and other sources of natural light can be covered by curtains or blinds and somewhere that has a minimum clear space of 2m x 2m (we may need to move some furniture to make this happen if you choose to shoot in your home).
For showreel scenes, if the scene requires an indoor location, you can choose and arrange any suitable space with the same requirements as described above for showreel monologues. If the scene requires an outdoor location, you can suggest spaces, however, we will be involved in seeking the correct permissions in case of needing to contact a council for a filming licence.
As per our T&Cs, any location we film in will be funded by you, so choosing somewhere you don't have to pay for is always recommended, such as your home!
No, as per our T&Cs, you are responsible for sourcing your clothing and preparing your hair and make up for any shoot.
For the showreel monologues, you receive a clean and colour-graded version of every single full take we do. You will also receive two colour-graded edits (one for each monologue) of your best takes together in a more dynamic version of your monologue that combines different shots.
For showreel scenes, you receive one colour-graded edit of your best takes. The edit will always be as balanced as possible for both actors and every effort will be made not to favour one actor over the other, as it is not possible to provide two different cuts of the scene for each actor.
For both showreel monologues and showreel scenes, you are also welcome to have the raw footage, however, please note that these files will be in Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) format and so you need to have the necessary software to read these files and enough storage space to store them, as they take up a lot of space.
Absolutely anywhere! Once you have received the final footage, you are granted usage of that footage indefinitely and can use it in any showreel, any casting submission, put it on any socials or just generally share it around - go and show the world your acting skills!
The only thing to consider is that if your footage has music attached to it, you will need to clear the URL of wherever you upload the video with Epidemic Sound, who licences the music we use. This is really easy to do - we send you an invite link, you copy and paste the URL of your video(s) into the provided link and the video is cleared for copyright forever.
No, absolutely not. Whilst it is generally professional actors who require showreel material, anyone is welcome to book a filming session - we'd love to work with you!
Our promotional footage service is designed for small businesses who may not otherwise have access to professionial promotional material, however, any sized business is welcome to book with us.
Our main promotional material service is the promotional highlight reel, which is a film that captures the essence of your company, is usually set to music and is about 1 minute long. Before filming, we will have had a pre-filming video call where you can tell us everything we need to know about your business and we will then go away and plan a shoot that we hope will capture everything you have told us. We work closely with you throughout the whole process and are completely led by you.
In addition to the promotional highlight reel, we also offer the dual service of promotional highlight and talking-head reels. With this service, you will receive two videos at the end of the process - one promotional highlight reel as described above and another slightly longer video where a member of your team talks on camera about what you have to offer, which is then interspersed through the highlight reel footage.
A promotional highlight reel alone is priced at £320 and if you'd like the dual service of the promotional highlight and talking-head reels, the total for the whole project is priced at £400.
Yes, absolutely! We will have a pre-filming video call where you can tell us everything we need to know about your business and this will include us taking note of any particular fonts you use, the exact colour shades you use and asking for access to any logos you use (including logos with a transparent background).
Absolutely anywhere! Once you have received the final footage, you are granted usage of that footage indefinitely and can post it on any online platform your business uses - go and show the world what you have to offer!
The only thing to consider is that if your promotional material has music attached to it, you will need to clear the URL of wherever you upload the video with Epidemic Sound, who licences the music we use. This is really easy to do - we send you an invite link, you copy and paste the URL of your video(s) into the provided link and the video is cleared for copyright forever.
Not at all if you don't want to! We always tailor any promotional footage to what you would like to see. This could mean we focus on your products or services rather than you, or if you'd like people in the footage, you can ask members of your team (or even regular customers) if they'd like to be involved instead.
Anyone appearing in any footage will always be asked for permission first and will be asked to sign an image release form.
Pretty much anything that doesn't fit into the showreel material or promotional footage services that we offer! Our most recent bespoke project was creating an online singing course for a singing school, but it could be anything from your own short film, to documentaries, to education content, to interviews, to personal projects and beyond.
The only this we cannot offer as a bespoke project is event coverage. The team at the film studios are all professional actors and due to the nature of the acting industry being very last minute at times, we have to allow for last minute rescheduling, as per our T&Cs. Rescheduling is possible when we have arranged a filming session between ourselves and a client privately, however, when an event is involved that cannot have its date moved, it is not, which is why we cannot offer event coverage as a bespoke project.
We'd love to help you create the vision you have in your head, so do get in touch by visiting our Contact page and we can advise on whether we would be able to help you.
Every bespoke project is different and therefore, every bespoke project will require different amounts of work, so get in touch by visiting our Contact page and we'll be able to provide a quote for your specific project.
Yes, absolutely! We can tailor the filming locations and schedule to the needs of your specific project.
Absolutely anywhere! Once you have received the final footage, you are granted usage of that footage indefinitely and can post it on any online platform you use - go and show the world your project!
The only thing to consider is that if your final footage has music attached to it, you will need to clear the URL of wherever you upload the video with Epidemic Sound, who licences the music we use. This is really easy to do - we send you an invite link, you copy and paste the URL of your video(s) into the provided link and the video is cleared for copyright forever.
Currently we run workshops for 14-18 year olds (or Year 10 upwards in school) at various points throughout the year.
Depending on demand, we may look at opening up adult workshops for beginner actors at some point in the future.
The workshops run for two days at various points throughout the year. Keep you eye on our socials and our Workshops page for exact dates.
We are currently planning our very first workshop for the school summer holidays!
We are currently planning our very first workshop. Cost will depend on venue hire, additional staff costs and class size. As soon as we have made these decisions for our first workshop, we will be advertising the price.
We have six different workshops, so even if you've been to one already, you can always come back for more when we run a different one!
Our workshops range from getting used to being in front of the camera, to character development, to script work, to the technical details of acting for camera, to learning how to self-tape for auditions. Visit our Workshops page to find out more details.
No matter what the main focus of the workshop is, each participant will spend a significant amount of time in front of the camera and will come away with a professionally shot scene. As well as this, when the participants are not acting in a scene, they will have the chance to work as crew when shooting other participants' scenes and learn the ropes behind the camera as well.
Not at all! We welcome participants of all acting abilities to our workshops.
Yes, each participant in every workshop will have the opportunity to shoot a scene and will then receive the edited footage soon after.
At the moment, we only offer workshops to teenage participants. Therefore, we ask that workshop footage is not shared further than domestic usage, as per our T&Cs.
Where permission is given by an appropriate adult, workshop footage may be used for Sophie Ash Film Studios' promotional purposes.
