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Are you looking for a video studio or a video production company?

It might seem that they are the same thing and in fact, many video production companies do have their own studio. However, they don’t always go hand-in-hand.

While it is often assumed a studio will be needed to film a video, there are tons of potential options for setting the scene for your video. We often rent houses, film outside, on location at a company’s office or factor, or even using a car.

A video studio is any amount of space that is suitable for filming video (with audio). You’ll find studios of all sizes from something that can sit on a table to hold a product, up to the set of The Tonight Show. Some studios have giant white rooms, called white cycs, and those are perfect for a clean white background, blowing out the background, or even changing the color of the background. Green screen is also a type of studio and allows for the background to be removed and replaced with something else. Other studios, especially smaller ones, usually have options for pulling down a couple of neutral backgrounds that can work with most situations. Once you know what you are looking for in a studio, you can find the right one.

 

Things to know about video studios:

• Some studios have lighting rigged overhead so you can flip them on, bring in your camera, and start filming.

• Others let you rent the “empty box” but require a production company to bring in all the gear to do their project.

• If you need to film a person talking, you’ll want a smaller studio. It will be faster, cheaper and sound better.

• If you need to film a car, you’ll need a bigger studio space and should expect it to be more expensive, to rent not only the space but for use of the gear to light up that size space.

WMV Productions actually started with a studio space, here in Nashville, a few years ago. We quickly found that with the kind of videos that we filmed, products and people, that most of our work was creating real world scenarios and going to the actual companies. The video studio and upkeep wasn’t worth the time and cost to just keep on hand for the occasions when we did need a studio.  Instead, we created relationships with a couple of studios in town that allow us to rent space whenever we need it for a project. This small change allowed us to free up the space, put all our gear in a truck, and be ready to take on a project anytime, anyplace. So far, the longest truck trip has been 11 hours one way!

 

A few of our video studio partners in Nashville:

Kingswood Studios
◦ A good size video studio space, dressing rooms and located near downtown.

Skyway Studios
◦ They are equipped for super large productions but we get to rent their smaller spaces for our needs.

Citation
◦ Wonderful, large video studio with dressing rooms, places for people to hangout and rental equipment on site.

Behind the scenes from a couple video studio productions:

Behind the scenes of filming in Nashville video studio

Terms to Know When Searching For Video Studios:

 

Dressing Room
The dressing room is a place where your talent can dress, do hair and makeup, as well as practice their lines. You’ll find a mirror with lights, a place to hang clothes, possibly a clothes steamer and a comfy chair. The bathrooms are always nearby.

Green Room
This is where your talent and guests can relax. Much of production is hurry up and wait so having a green room stocked with chairs, tables, couches with food, drinks and wifi keeps them happier for longer!

White Cyc
A white cyclorama, or white cyc, is an all white wall that flows seamlessly into a white floor. Many have walls on each side as well. This is used to create a clean look, cut out the background, or even tint the background a different color.

Green Screen
This is the classic weatherman background. You can cut out the talent with ease (as long as they aren’t wearing green!) and replace that background with other video, pictures, or colors. This does take skill in both lighting and editing, as well as having a camera that can handle the needs to making a good quality image to cut out the green.

The best plan to get your project off the ground is to find the production company that you want to work with, start planning the concept with the script and then they’ll work out the logistics of who, what, when, where, why and how with you to make sure you have everything you need to create the perfect final product.

Picture of Video Production Studio
Huge White Cyc at Skyway Studios
Photo of Huge Green Screen