Video production in Dubai. The shoot day is the short part
Everybody budgets for the camera. The camera is one line on the schedule.
The decisions that make a film good are made in the week before it, and most of the days are spent after it. Which is why we do all three in-house — so nothing is lost between the person who planned it, the person who shot it and the stranger who was going to edit it.
A shoot day, hour by hour.
This is what photography production actually looks like on the day, and it is the least glamorous document in the business. Note how much of it is not the camera.
- Crew call and load in06:30–08:00Kit checked against the list made two days ago. Nothing is discovered missing on location.
- Light and block08:00–10:00The set-up the shot list was written around. Change this and every following block moves.
- Shoot — set-up one10:00–13:00Hero frames first, while everybody is fresh and the light is where it was planned.
- Lunch and reset13:00–14:00Also when the first frames are checked properly on a real screen rather than a monitor in the sun.
- Shoot — set-up two14:00–17:00Cutaways, verticals and the social variants. This is where a day pays for itself.
- Pick-ups and stills17:00–18:30The list of things somebody will ask for in three weeks, shot now while the set is still up.
- Wrap, backup, load out18:30–20:00Two copies of the cards before anybody leaves the building. This is not optional.
7.5hours rolling13.5hours on site7blocks, one list
Seven and a half hours of a thirteen-hour day are rolling. The rest is what makes those seven work, and it is the half that gets cut when a quote is being squeezed.
One master.
Every format you owe.
The reason to shoot properly once rather than cheaply four times. A frame composed with the crops in mind gives you all of them; a frame composed for one gives you one and three apologies.
The master. Site, YouTube, presentations, and the one the grade is built on.
- 16:9 — Wide. The master. Site, YouTube, presentations, and the one the grade is built on.
- 1:1 — Square. Feed, ads, and anywhere a platform will square you without asking.
- 4:5 — Portrait. The tallest a feed post is allowed to be. Takes the most screen for the least money.
- 9:16 — Vertical. Reels, stories, TikTok. Composed for on the day or cropped badly forever.
Every one of these is framed at the shoot, not rescued in the edit. It costs nothing on the day and it is the difference between four deliverables and one.
The edit is where it is made.
A shoot produces material. A film is made afterwards, one track at a time, and this is the part clients almost never see quoted separately — which is why it is the first thing cut.
- Picture
- Cutaways
- Voice
- Music
- Sound design
- Titles and graphics
- Grade
Seven tracks, and the two that run the whole length — music and grade — are the two nobody notices until they are wrong. Sound is half of video and gets a tenth of most budgets.
What comes out of it.
One graded master, and everything that is exported from it. All of it yours, including the files you would need to take the work somewhere else.
Social cuts
- 60s hero, 16:9
- 30s cut-down
- 15s, 9:16
- 6s bumper
- Silent-first subtitled version
Stills
- Hero frames, retouched
- Product on white
- Behind the scenes
- Crops at 1:1 and 4:5
Source
- Project file and bins
- Graded and ungraded exports
- Licensed music receipts
- Raw footage on your drive
The raw footage and the project file go to you at the end. An agency that keeps the rushes is an agency you have to come back to, and that is a business model rather than a service.
What one good
day produces
Production planned so the shoot is the easy part and the deliverables are already decided before anybody picks up a camera.
01
Every format, from one shoot
Composed for four crops on the day, not rescued afterwards.
02
A schedule that holds
Planned to the half hour, so overruns are a decision not a surprise.
03
In-house post
The people who shot it cut it. Nothing explained twice.
04
The files are yours
Rushes, project file and licences, handed over.
Worked across
fintech · FMCG · hospitality · lifestyle · retail
botim
Campaign, motion and social launch for the fintech app.
alshifa
Social and campaign production for the FMCG brand.
Mal
Product launch, end to end.
Tree House
Brand and social presence, built from the ground up.
SOL Perfume
Brand and packaging.
Planning, shooting and post all happen in the same building. The person who wrote the shot list is standing there when it is shot and sitting there when it is cut.
Go deeper
Questions
we get asked
Three phases and only one of them has a camera in it. Pre-production is the shot list, the schedule, locations, permits and casting; the shoot is one or two days; post is the edit, the grade, the sound and every cut-down. A quote that only prices the middle one is not a quote, it is a day rate.
Usually yes, and it is the cheapest content you will ever buy. The lighting set-up is most of the cost and it serves both — so a day planned for stills and motion together produces a month of social material for barely more than a stills-only day.
Often, and it depends on the location, whether it is public or private, and whether there are drones or talent involved. It is handled as part of pre-production rather than sprung on you, and locations that need long lead times are flagged in the first conversation because they change the schedule more than the budget.
It is driven by crew size, how many set-ups the shot list needs and how much post there is — not by the length of the finished film, which is what most people assume. A one-minute film with twelve set-ups costs far more than a three-minute one with three. We scope the set-ups first, and quote pre-production, shoot and post as separate lines.
Still not answered?Ask us directly
What does video production in Dubai involve?
Three phases and only one of them has a camera in it. Pre-production is the shot list, the schedule, locations, permits and casting; the shoot is one or two days; post is the edit, the grade, the sound and every cut-down. A quote that only prices the middle one is not a quote, it is a day rate.
Can you shoot product photography and video in the same session?
Usually yes, and it is the cheapest content you will ever buy. The lighting set-up is most of the cost and it serves both — so a day planned for stills and motion together produces a month of social material for barely more than a stills-only day.
Do we need a permit to film in Dubai?
Often, and it depends on the location, whether it is public or private, and whether there are drones or talent involved. It is handled as part of pre-production rather than sprung on you, and locations that need long lead times are flagged in the first conversation because they change the schedule more than the budget.
How much does a corporate video cost in the UAE?
It is driven by crew size, how many set-ups the shot list needs and how much post there is — not by the length of the finished film, which is what most people assume. A one-minute film with twelve set-ups costs far more than a three-minute one with three. We scope the set-ups first, and quote pre-production, shoot and post as separate lines.