Documentary production in the UK and worldwide
Real people, real places, stories filmed as they happen.
Uganda · 2025 · Three weeks in the field for EcoTrust
- Formats
- Documentary series, charity and foundation films, broadcast and festival documentaries, documentaries for brands
- Filmed in
- The UK, Portugal, France and Uganda
- Recognition
- Overall Winner, Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival 2026 · Regional Panorama Award, CineEco 2024 · BBC · Top Documentary Production Company, UK, Clutch 2026
- Studios
- London HQ, Manchester, Bristol, Cornwall
- From
- £9,500
We’re Here Now Films, a UK video production company built on documentary. We handle documentary production for charities, foundations, broadcasters and brands from London, Manchester, Bristol and Cornwall, and we go where the story is: a year on four South West moors, three weeks across Uganda, two weeks in Portugal’s Serra da Estrela, a world record over the French Alps.
12
Months on four moors
The Living Layer, August 2023 to summer 2024.
3
Weeks in Uganda
Five landscapes for EcoTrust’s 25th year.
17
Airings on BBC News
Survival: To the Brink & Back, December 2020 to January 2021.
2
Festival awards
Documentary series
One subject, several films, planned from the start so a single shoot serves every one of them.
Beekeepers · Uganda, 2025
Coffee drying · Uganda, 2025
Lead film
EcoTrust, 25 years in Uganda
Documentary series · a hero film, three programme films and a social layer · Uganda, 2025
EcoTrust wanted its 25th year to show funders, partners and the public what its conservation work means for people and land. We spent three weeks in the field across five landscapes, from the Albertine Rift to the Rwenzoris, with its leadership, its field teams and the farmers in its programmes.
One shoot became a hero film, Trees for Global Benefit, The Budongo-Bugoma Corridor & Biocredits and The Land Trust, all graded to a Kodak Vision3 500T film look. Dehancer later wrote up how we did it.
For charities, partnerships and foundations
Films that go in front of funders, partners and the public, and have to hold the room in all three.
Sphagnum moss · South West moors
The Living Layer, 2023 to 2024
Lead film
The Living Layer
Documentary · 12 minutes · Dartmoor, Exmoor, Bodmin Moor and West Penwith · Overall Winner, Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival 2026
The South West Peatland Partnership brings more than 20 organisations together to restore peat across four moors, and needed one film to carry the whole programme to funders and the public. Restoration only happens between August and March, outside the nesting season, so we embedded from August 2023 to summer 2024 and filmed it as it happened.
Directed and shot by Ollie Couch. Produced by Ed Smit, with Justine Read as executive producer for the Partnership.
More for charities and foundations
Documentary · Somerset
In Our Nature
Nature prescribing in Somerset for the Local Nature Partnership. Shot in a week with more than eight partners, then screened at 12 events.
Documentary · Cornwall
The Sustainable Catch
Four South West fishermen who had to find new buyers when Covid closed their export markets. Made with The Wildlife Trusts.
Short documentary · Cornwall and Devon
Sky Seeding
A week sowing more than 75,000 native seeds by drone for the Woodland Trust, with Ted Simpson of Scout Studio. On tour with Rainforest Recovery.
Documentary · North Cornwall
North Cornwall B-Lines
The pollinator pathways Buglife is building from field margins and meadows, made for its stakeholder events.
Broadcast, festival and culture
Films that go out under someone else’s name, or in front of a jury.
Bodmin Moor, Cornwall · 2020
Woodland, Cornwall
Lead film
Survival: To the Brink & Back
Broadcast documentary · commissioned by BBC Spotlight · Cornwall, 2020
Robin Hanbury-Tenison, the explorer who founded Survival International, had spent weeks in a coma with Covid when he set out to climb Brown Willy, Cornwall’s highest hill, to raise £100,000 for the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s healing garden.
BBC Spotlight commissioned the film, and BBC News aired it 17 times between December 2020 and January 2021. It’s listed in the British Council’s UK films database.
Documentary · Portugal
The Bio Estrela Project
Two weeks in the Serra da Estrela with the shepherds and farmers replanting native trees after the 2022 fire, for C Level and the charity URZE. Regional Panorama Award, CineEco 2024.
Documentary · Sony World Photography Awards
Joel Meyerowitz
A film on the photographer for his Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, premiered at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony in London in April 2026.
Documentaries for brands
The same method, with a brand paying for it. The test is whether the story would stand up with the logo taken off.
Centenary film · London
JA Brooks, 100 Years of Trust
A hundred years of a London mechanical services firm, told by the welders, fabricators and families who work there, filmed at its Pod factory and on live sites. Used at the centenary, in pitches and in recruitment.
Adventure documentary · the French Alps
Turner Twins × Panasonic
Hugo and Ross Turner fitted an electric motor to a paraglider and set the altitude record for an electric paramotor over the French Alps, with an official observer watching. A hero film, partner cuts, social edits and more than 40 photographs.
Documentary · Cornwall
Heligan, The Regenerative Farm
A year with the Lost Gardens of Heligan as it brings its farmland back, soil first. It plays in its own room at Heligan and was selected for Good Fest.
Serra da Estrela, Portugal · 2023
Where the documentaries took us
Headquartered in London, with studios in Manchester, Bristol and Cornwall. The crew goes wherever the story is, and stays as long as it takes.
Dartmoor, Exmoor, Bodmin Moor and West Penwith
The Living Layer
12 months
From the Albertine Rift to the Rwenzoris, Uganda
EcoTrust, 25 years in Uganda
3 weeks
Serra da Estrela, Portugal
The Bio Estrela Project
2 weeks
The French Alps
Turner Twins × Panasonic
Somerset
In Our Nature
1 week
Cornwall and Devon
Sky Seeding
1 week
Brown Willy, Bodmin Moor
Survival: To the Brink & Back
London
JA Brooks, 100 Years of Trust
Where the films went
A documentary’s job starts when we hand it over.
| The Living Layer | Overall Winner, Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival 2026. The Partnership’s film for funders and public engagement. |
|---|---|
| Survival: To the Brink & Back | Commissioned by BBC Spotlight. Aired 17 times on BBC News, December 2020 to January 2021. |
| The Bio Estrela Project | Regional Panorama Award, CineEco 2024. The project has since received its early-stage funding. |
| EcoTrust, 25 years in Uganda | A hero film, three programme films and a social layer for funders, partners and the public. Featured by Dehancer. |
| In Our Nature | Screened at 12 events across Somerset for health, business and local government. |
| Sky Seeding | Woodland Trust events and exhibitions across the UK, on the Rainforest Recovery tour. |
| The Regenerative Farm | Its own screening room at Heligan. Selected for Good Fest. |
| Joel Meyerowitz | Premiered at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony, London, April 2026. |
| JA Brooks, 100 Years of Trust | Centenary events, new-business pitches and recruitment. |
| The Sustainable Catch | Shown to South West fishermen to encourage sustainable practice. |
How a documentary gets made
The camera stays on after the answer. That’s usually where the film is.
Access
Before anything else: who will talk, where we can film, and when the story actually happens. The Living Layer’s calendar was set by the nesting season.
Treatment
Recces and conversations off camera, then a written treatment and a shoot plan your funder or board can sign off.
The shoot
A crew small enough to go where the story is, for as long as it takes: a week in Somerset, two in the Serra da Estrela, three in Uganda, a year on the moors.
The edit
Edit, grade and sound with our post team, reviewed online frame by frame. The EcoTrust films were graded to a Kodak Vision3 500T look.
Release
Festival submissions, broadcast delivery, funder events and touring screenings. The table above is what that looked like for each film.
On location for EcoTrust, Uganda · 2025
What a documentary costs
We publish prices because it saves everyone a week. What moves the number is time in the field, how far we travel, how many films come out of it, and how much the edit has to do.
Short documentary
£9,500to £25,000
One film, two to ten minutes. Research and a written treatment, a small crew on location, edit, grade, sound and music, cutdowns for social and events.
Long-form or series
£25,000to £100,000
A film of 10 to 30 minutes, or a series of shorter ones. Weeks in the field or months embedded, travel and logistics abroad, festival submissions.
Broadcast and multi-part
£100,000and up
A broadcast-length documentary or a multi-part series, delivered to the broadcaster’s specification, with archive, music and clearances.
The first call, the treatment outline and the estimate cost nothing.
“These are amazing places. On a day like this, coming up here, it renews the spirit. That’s real.”
Questions
What kinds of documentary do you make?
Four kinds. Documentary series, like the four films for EcoTrust Uganda’s 25th year. Films for charities, partnerships and foundations, like The Living Layer for the South West Peatland Partnership. Broadcast and festival documentaries, like Survival: To the Brink & Back for BBC Spotlight. And documentaries paid for by brands, like JA Brooks’ centenary film.
How much does documentary production cost in the UK?
A short documentary of two to ten minutes runs from £9,500 to £25,000. A long-form film or series runs £25,000 to £100,000, and broadcast-length or multi-part work starts at £100,000. Time in the field, travel, the number of films and the edit move the number. The first call and the estimate cost nothing.
How long does a documentary take?
It depends most on the time in the field, and that varies more than anything else: In Our Nature was shot in a week, The Bio Estrela Project in two, EcoTrust in three, and The Living Layer over a year, because the restoration it follows only happens between August and March.
Do you make documentaries outside the UK?
Yes. We’ve spent three weeks across five landscapes in Uganda for EcoTrust, two weeks in Portugal’s Serra da Estrela for The Bio Estrela Project, and filmed an electric paramotor record over the French Alps. We handle travel, kit and local logistics, and size the crew to the place.
What’s the difference between a documentary and a micro-documentary?
Length, and whose story it is. A micro-documentary is a short film, typically 60 seconds to three minutes, made for a brand using documentary method: real people rather than actors, real places rather than sets, contributions drawn out in interview rather than read from a script. The documentaries on this page run longer, and the story is the whole point.
Can a brand pay for a documentary?
Yes, as long as the story would stand up with the logo taken off. JA Brooks’ centenary film, the Turner Twins’ electric world record for Panasonic and Heligan’s Regenerative Farm were all paid for by the brands in them.
Where are you based?
Our HQ is at 124 City Road, London, with studios in Manchester, Bristol and Cornwall. Most of our conservation documentaries were shot in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. For London commissions, see documentary production in London.
Got a documentary in mind?
Send us the story, the access you have and who’s funding it, or just the idea. We’ll come back with a treatment outline, an estimate and a timeline, and that part costs nothing. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours.
Or call us on 07412 543822
