Hiring A Videographer In London: What To Actually Look For

Search for a videographer in London and you get thousands of results, most of them one person with a camera and a website. Some of them are excellent. The problem is that the word covers everything from a wedding shooter to a full production studio, and the brief that lands in our inbox is usually somewhere in the middle: a brand that needs a film with a job to do, and no clear idea of what that should cost or involve.

Here is how we think about it, using a London job as the worked example.

One day, three films

For Checkout.com’s padel day we had a single day on a court in London and a client who needed more than an event recap. So the day was planned as three films from the start: a main event film, a vertical Olympics-themed piece, and a Diary of a CTO interview cut. Same crew, same day, three edits built for three different audiences.

That is the difference between a videographer and a studio. A videographer shoots what happens. A studio works out what the footage needs to become before anyone presses record, and shoots to that.

Day rate or fixed quote

Most London videographers quote a day rate, and it looks cheap until the edit, the licence, the second camera and the revisions arrive as extras. We quote the whole job: shoot days, crew, edit, grade, deliverables and revision rounds, as one number. If the brief changes, the number changes, and you know before we start. There is nothing clever about it, it is just the only way a client can compare two quotes properly.

What to ask before you book anyone

• Who is actually turning up? The person on the showreel or a subcontractor. We are the same people who quoted the job, on set and in the edit.
• What cameras, and does it matter? It does for anything going on a big screen or being graded properly. We shoot on cinema-line cameras, not because it sounds good but because the footage holds up in post.
• Is aerial included, and is it legal? London airspace is complicated. Ask for the CAA operator ID and the insurance. Ours is on the aerial page.
• What do I get, in what ratios? A master is not enough any more. Ask for the vertical cutdowns and the platform versions up front, not as an afterthought.
• How fast? For events, same-day is possible and we do it. For brand films, two to four weeks from brief to master is normal.

When a videographer is the right call

Sometimes it is. A single interview, a simple product piece, a talk that needs recording. If that is the brief, say so and we will size the crew to it, which usually means one of us and a small kit. The point is not that bigger is better. The point is that the crew should match the job, and the job should be defined before the crew is.

What we are

Northworks is a London video production studio: director, director of photography, producer and camera operator, with aerial, stills and post all in-house. We shoot brand films, events, construction and content, and we travel when the job does. If you are weighing up a videographer against a studio, send us the brief and we will tell you honestly which one you need.