Filed / Process Know Studio

§ Process · Brief → Deliver · 5 stages

How a shoot runs.

Brief, scout, fly, grade, deliver. Five stages, one pilot, a visual observer from the network when the brief calls for it. The window is the unit; everything else schedules around it. This is how a Know Studio shoot actually runs.

The clock.

Three numbers run the project: how far out we book, how long we hold the air, how fast the RAW lands on your editor’s drive.

Lead time

1–6 weeks · brief-dependent

book.window >= 7d · brief.shape

Weather window

1–6 days held against the brief

primary + backup · scoped pre-quote

RAW hand-off

To your editor · grade quoted separately

R3D · BRAW · ProRes · H.264

The window is the unit. Everything else schedules around it.

Stage 01 · Brief

Send a brief.

Send a brief. A vision, a deck, or three sentences and a number — even rough. We’re best with creative briefs that have structure. Bring a director if you have one; if you don’t, we can fold one in from the network. The filter isn’t budget — it’s clarity on the client side. We’ll come back inside two business days with a rig list, a crew, and a number. If the brief is wrong-sized for what you actually need — under-scoped or over-scoped — we’ll say so before we quote.

You do

Send the brief. A vision, a deck, or three sentences and a number.

We do

Come back within 2 business days with a rig list, a crew, and a number.

Stage 02 · Scout

Fly the location before the take.

Airspace, LAANC, sun line, weather window — pre-computed for the shoot day and the day on either side. We walk the property when the brief supports it; satellite + airspace check when it doesn’t. Backup window scoped before the primary is locked. The actual flight is the third pass; the take is the fourth. This is the stage that turns the brief into a shootable plan — and the stage that gets cut first when a studio under-quotes. We don’t under-quote.

You do

Send the property contact, any access constraints, the brand spec.

We do

Walk it (or fly it on satellite), file LAANC, scope the backup window.

Stage 03 · Fly

Pilot on comms. Window decides the day.

Pilot on comms with a visual observer. Battery cycles. Sub-60-second swaps when the take demands them. The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta gave us the discipline — eight hours a day of flying non-stop, battery swapping, two terabytes of footage of quite literally just chasing cars on a 3-week run. The window decides the day, not the schedule — we fly when the air is right and we don’t fly when it isn’t. If the primary window closes, we re-tool to the backup scoped at Stage 02. Honest go/no-go before every flight: wind at altitude, gust factor, visibility, ceiling, anything the rig manufacturer flags. Hull is insured; the cost of a crashed rig is on us. The cost of a missed window is on the schedule, not the client.

You do

Show up, watch the monitor, call the takes you want to keep.

We do

Fly it. Slate it. Hand off the RAW.

Stage 04 · Grade

A separate brief.

Grade is a separate brief. Default delivery is RAW; grading is quoted as an add-on. When we do grade, we do one round of revisions, additional rounds at hourly. The grade is brand-controlled — your color profile, your reference frames. The aim is a plate that a colourist a year from now can conform without our notes. If you already have a DI you trust, we hand off and step aside.

You do

Tell us if the grade is in scope, or if RAW to your editor is the hand-off.

We do

Quote the grade separately if you want it. Match your color profile and reference frames.

Stage 05 · Deliver

RAW footage. To your editor.

RAW footage delivered to your editor. Format depends on the body the brief called for — R3D for the Komodo, BRAW or ProRes for the Z Cam, H.264 / H.265 from the Mavic 3 Pro, MP4 from the action-cam payloads. Edit packages are quoted separately as their own brief. We hand off to whatever pipeline you’re set up for — a Frame.io project, a Dropbox handoff, a hard drive on a courier. After hand-off we close the window: the project moves to the archive, the rig list goes back to the fleet, and we send a one-line note inviting you back when the next project lands.

You do

Receive the RAW. Hand it to your editor. Tell us when the next one lands.

We do

Deliver on the agreed pipeline. Close the window. Stay on call for the next brief.

§ Brief · Intake

Working on something atmospheric?

Send us the shape of the project. We’ll come back inside two business days with a rig list, a crew, and a number.

Send a brief↗ Reply · 2 business days