Commercials
Thirty seconds that earn their airtime. A treatment in two days, a shoot in one or two, a cut that is shorter than the brief.
Rates
Commercials · Documentary · Branded film
Stories, shot properly.
A crew of five, eight to twelve films a year, and a rule that the idea is decided before the camera is. Commercials for brands with something to say; documentaries for people with something to show.
Aurora CyclesNorthbankKestrel CoffeeHollow Pine RecordsMeridian HealthThe FoundryLumenHarbour City
- 112
- Films since 2014
- 9
- Festival selections
- 5
- Crew, in-house, full time
- 2 days
- From brief to treatment
The idea is decided before the camera is.
Most production companies start with the shoot and work backwards. We start with the sentence: what the film is for, who has to feel what by the end, and what the one image is that carries it. Only then do we choose a camera, a crew size, a place and a day. It is why our commercials tend to be shorter than the brief asked for, and why the documentaries get into festivals. Five of us in-house — director, producer, cinematographer, editor, sound — and a bench of freelancers we have worked with for a decade.
- One director on every film, from the treatment to the final grade. No hand-off to a post house.
- Treatment, schedule and a fixed number within two working days of a brief.
- Camera, sound and the edit suite are ours, so the day rate is the whole cost of the day.
02The reel
Ninety seconds
The reel, 2026 — ninety seconds
03What we makeFour kinds of film
Four ways in
Documentary
Short and feature-length. We find the person, follow them for as long as it takes, and cut for the festival and the platform.
Rates
Branded film
Films for brands with a story rather than a slogan: origin films, series, the piece that lives on the site for five years.
Rates
Post-production
Edit, grade, sound and mix in our own suite, for our films and for yours. Day rates, no minimum.
Rates
Shorter than the brief. Every time.
A film is finished when nothing can be taken out.
04In depth
Aurora Cycles — "Uphill"
A bike brand that had never advertised needed to say one thing to a city: the hill is not the reason any more. One rider, one hill, one take.
- Client
- Aurora Cycles
- Industry
- Consumer · e-bikes
- Size
- Launch campaign
- Duration
- Six weeks, brief to air
- Services
- Commercial, 30s and 60s, six cutdowns
- Take
- 1
- Days to sell outfrom First production run
- 9
- Weeks, brief to air
- 6
The brief
Aurora had a good bike and a launch date and eleven pages of things to say about it. The hill their office looked out on was the thing every commuter in the city avoided. The brief we wrote back was one sentence: the hill is not the reason any more.
What we did
One rider, one hill, one continuous take at dawn, shot from a car on the same road at the same speed. No cutaways, no product shots, no voiceover. The sound is her breathing and, at the top, not much of it. The bike is never named until the last frame.
What happened
Thirty seconds on air, sixty online, six cutdowns for the platforms. The one-take film was shared more than every other asset combined; the launch sold through its first production run in nine days.
We sent them eleven pages. They sent back one sentence and a hill. It was the right hill.
How a film gets made
A brief becomes one sentence: what the film is for and who has to feel what. Two days from your email to a treatment.
A schedule, a crew list and a fixed number. Locations, cast and the one image that carries the film, decided before anything is booked.
One or two days on set with the same five people. The director who wrote the treatment is the one calling the take.
Edit, grade, sound and mix in our own suite. Two rounds of notes, then a film that is shorter than the brief.
05Kit
What is on the truck
Two cinema bodies, one for the run and gun
A RED for the commercials and a compact cinema body for the documentaries, with a set of primes we have owned for a decade and know by feel.
- RED Dragon 6K
- Compact cinema body for documentary
- Prime set, 18–85mm
- Gimbal, slider, a car rig
Recorded properly the first time
A sound recordist on every shoot day, a voice booth in the studio, and a mix room tuned for the platforms the film will actually play on.
- Recordist on every day
- Voice booth in-house
- Mix to broadcast and platform specs
The suite is ours, so the film stays with its director
Edit, colour and finishing in the studio. The person who called the take is in the room when it is graded.
- Two edit suites
- Grading with a calibrated reference
- Deliverables to every spec
A stills photographer on every commercial
Campaign stills shot on the same day, on the same set, in the same light, so the print and the film match.
- Same day, same set
- Retouched in-house
- Delivered with the film
5 out of 5 stars
“They cut our sixty-second brief to thirty and it said more. Then they told us not to spend on the version we had asked for. That is not what production companies do.”
M
Marketing Director
Meridian Health
In-house or partner
What we do ourselves
Honestly. The partners are people we have worked with for years and would hire again tomorrow.
- YesDirection and treatment
- YesProducing, schedule, budget
- YesCinematography and camera
- YesSound recording and mix
- YesEdit and grade
- YesCampaign stills
- PartnerMotion graphics and titlesA designer we have worked with since 2017
- PartnerOriginal scoreTwo composers, chosen per film
- PartnerCastingOne agency, or street casting by us
- PartnerDrone and aerialLicensed pilot, on call
- NoMedia buyingWe will introduce you to someone good
- NoAnimation
07Press
Written about
- ShotsMarch 2026“One take, one hill, and the most-shared launch film of the year.”
- Documentary MagazineNovember 2025“The Last Projectionist is a small film that knows exactly how long to look.”
- Creative ReviewJune 2025“A studio that treats a thirty-second spot like a short film, and gets away with it.”
Next
Tell us the story.
A brief, a budget bracket and a date. We come back within two days with a treatment, a schedule and a number.
Commercials, documentary and branded film. Eight to twelve films a year.