Swanson Studios

Two sets in every room.

A stills set on grey paper and an interview set on green paper, built each morning and struck each night.

The enquiry came through our crew hire form on 10 November 2023, 19 days before the first shoot day. Swanson’s team would run the cameras themselves: their DOP and photographer on two RED cameras, a stills photographer and a studio assistant. They needed a UK team to make three locations work, back to back.

Every location got the same two sets, so the portraits and the interviews would match across all three cities. The interviews ran 10 to 20 minutes each, one after another: the call sheet had 17 slots across the three days.

Their cameras, our country.

That split is how a production service job works for an overseas team: you run the camera and the creative, and we make the country work. More on it in working with a UK production service company, and how our rates work.

Portsmouth, London, Oxford.

• Day 1 · Portsmouth · 29 November 2023A hospital in PortsmouthSwanson landed at Heathrow at midday on the 27th, and Ed met them and drove them south. Call at 09:00, with three hours planned to build both sets, then interviews and portraits through the day. Planned wrap at seven, then on to London that night.
• Day 2 · London · 30 November 2023A hospital in LondonThe same two sets in a new room, in the same order. Pack both vans, and drive to Oxford.
• Day 3 · Oxford · 1 December 2023Intuitive’s office at Oxford Science ParkThe last build of the week, then back to London. The sound recordist sent the whole week’s audio, with the reports, the next day.

How each day ran.

• 09:00 CallCrew in, both vans unloaded, and about three hours to light the stills set and the interview set.
• InterviewsTen to twenty minutes each, back to back, on Swanson’s two REDs, with timecoded sound.
• PortraitsOn the grey paper set, with strobes and softboxes, and a few chairs for the sitters to play with.
• DataOur DIT ingested the RED footage and the audio, made proxies, and backed up to two mirrored drives: one for Swanson, one for their client.
• 19:00 WrapPlanned: strike both sets, pack the vans, and drive to the next city.

Kit, vans and hotels.

• LightingSeven Aputure LS 600Ds, strobes, softboxes and backdrops, from two London hire houses.
• VansAn eight-seat van for the team and a kit van, with Ed driving.
• HotelsOur crew’s, booked in each city. Swanson stayed where their client suggested.
• ChairsProp chairs for the portraits, found in the UK because the ones Swanson picked weren’t sold here.