FAQs.

General

  • Our work is structured around our Seed, Form and Flow approach, so investment depends on the level of clarity and creative output you need.

    Strategy begins from £1,750 + VAT.

    Hero films, animation and design projects typically range from £6,000 + VAT to £7,500 + VAT.

    Larger scale productions start from £20,000 + VAT.

    For ongoing support, our Flow retainers begin at £1,050 per month.

    Every project is scoped with care, so you always know what you’re investing in and what impact it’s designed to create. If you have a figure in mind, we’re happy to explore what’s possible within it.

  • Well, it very much depends on what that video is. We calculate that the average project takes just under 7 weeks to deliver. But, there are also some projects that we delivered in as little as 4 days!
    The short answer is that we are flexible. Business films can’t just materialise overnight, but when you and your team are facing an uphill battle to meet your deadline, we’re ready and waiting to get you over the line.

  • We work with a variety different businesses, agencies and charities. That variety is intentional, as is the variety in the type and style of work we produce. However, the common thread is that we love working with businesses that want to make a difference. Whether it's social, environmental, health or anything else. We believe all businesses have the power to do more than just deliver a service, and we want to work with those that share that vision.

  • It very much depends. Some projects require a lot of planning, and typically the larger the production the more time we might need to get everything into place. That's because we'll need to book location, crew, kit etc... and get everyones diaries aligned. On the flip side we undertake some smaller productions that are commissioned filmed and delivered within a week. Short anwser is that if you're up against it time wise it's best to get in touch ASAP and we'll see what we can do.

  • Not all that many people have spotted it immediately, but it’s actually just an anagram of Lewis’ surname Darby… he loves an anagram and the name was actually suggested by his sister, the honourary president of Yard B.

  • If you're asking this question then a few alarm bells are already ringing... but in all seriousness our priority is to make good work for good people. If we think what you do doesn’t necessarily align with our ethos, and that of our existing clients, then we’ll let you know.

Film

  • Typically our interviews will be conducted by Lewis, who has years of experience interviewing senior executives and leaders. However, sometimes it can be appropriate for an expert within your organisation to conduct the interview if a deep understanding of the subject is needed.

  • We aim for our interviews to come across as real and sincere. To achieve that the interview itself has to be quite relaxed and conversational. While there is no harm in going over the content you’ll be looking to cover in the interviews, and making notes on key points, we’d advise against scripting what you want to say as your mind tends to focus more on what you have written than how you might answer that question in an every day conversation.

  • We have a minimum of two people on any shoot. This is partly for safety reasons, but it also means at any given moment there is always one person focused on audio and visuals and another on the content. If budget permits this can be scaled up so that we have multiple camera operators, sound recordist, make up artist, camera assistant etc...

  • As with most things we do, this varies. For simpler shoots we might have quite a condensed kit, with just a couple of lights, DSLR camera, lapel mic and tripod. For other shoots we might use a much higher grade of camera and lenses, or start to integrate camera moves with sliders and jibs. Once we know your budget range we can suggest the best fit for your project.

  • A choice of two outfits can be helpful, just so we can decide what works best on camera. How formally you would like to dress is entirely up to you. However, what we would typically advise is to consider a scenario in which you were delivering the same information in person, be it a meeting or event. What might you wear for that?

    We recommend avoiding close stripes or checked clothing as this tends to interfere with the camera, but don’t shy away from bold colours as this can really lift the visuals and provide contrast between interviewees.

  • For a typical business film we tend to limit this to around 10, and sometimes it might only be 5. Obviously some subjects might require more interrogation, but generally we want to avoid the interview process becoming tiring and the enthusiasm level dropping. In most cases 30-45 minutes is a great amount of time to capture what we need to tell your story.

Animation

  • We specialise in motion graphics and 2D digital animation, but that's not where our skills end. We can also turn our hand to 3D animation, hand drawn animation or even stop motion. As with everything we do its all about taking a pragmatic approach and to your project and finding the solution that is going to give you the biggest impact within your budget and timescales.

  • There are several factors that can impact the cost of an animation project. These include thing like the complexity of design, style of animation, use of voice over, duration or sound design requirements. Part of our initial discussion will be to show you a variety of projects that we've produced at varying budgets, so you can get an idea of what you might get for your investment.

  • Absolutely. Our ideal projects are ones where we work in partnership with you from the off, determining the visual style, tone of voice, script and subsequently storyboard. That said we're well versed at coming into projects at different stages and, having clients that are often marketing experts themselves, we're very happy to pick up the baton from whichever stage you need us to.

  • Very much so. We have several examples in our portfolio of character based animations that we have designed from scratch. Using characters doesn't always have to mean that the animation will become hugely more expensive as there are ways to be economical with the animation and, if designed smartly, you can still get a lot of impact without having to animate hundreds of body movements or facial expressions.

  • This is the fun part for us. Even if you only have the bare bones of a brand, with a logo, maybe a few colours and font, we can expand upon this into a broader world of design that compliments your style but brings a whole host of opportunities in an animated format. The hidden benefit of this is that we very often find the designs we create for our animations end up being adopted for other areas of marketing. It should be said that if you do only have the bare bones of a brand, we can help you develop brand guidelines and video guidelines to bring clarity to the appearance and tone of your organisation, and hold you in good stead for the future.

  • The thing about create videos for business is that we understand the there are many different reasons to have a video in the first place. Sure, if you're creating a marketing video, you really want it to be a short as possible (we tend to aim for 45 to 90 seconds) but a lot of the stats you might see floating around about this subject tend to be based on consumer goods and quick fire marketing campaigns that need to capture the attention of an otherwise completely uninterested party. What we do is a little more targeted, it might be a video to explain a product or service in more detail to an already intrigued potential customer, or a video for an event full of people keen to hear about your new strategy. It's all about context. That said, we'll always suggest ways to avoid your videos being a second longer than they need to be.

  • Yes. We have a wide array of voice over artists on our books with a mix of accents and nationalities. If you need a voice over on your animation we'll usually provide you with around 5 options with voice over artists reading a short sample of your script, along with a draft music track, so you can get a feel for how your project might sound.