Photos and video that get a small business seen online
CNRY Studio is my film and photography practice, and it is early. I have no studio address and no crew, and the client list is short enough that I could name everyone on it. What I do have is the work of getting individuals and small to medium businesses the pictures and video their site, their listings, and their feed have been missing.
What this is
A camera that comes to you
Nothing to book and nowhere to come to. There is one person with a camera who works where you already work, at the hour the place looks the way you want it seen.
Working together
Start with a fifteen-minute call
Tell me what your business is and what you are trying to show. If it is a fit we carry on. If it is not, I will say so and point you at somebody better suited.
Every project is quoted individually against scope, licensing, and turnaround. There is no rate card, because a half day of product photos and a two-day car shoot have nothing in common. You get the number before anything is booked.
One person from the first call to the finished files. Nothing gets handed to a second unit halfway through, and nobody sells you something on a call they are not going to shoot. Toronto and the GTA, and further out for the right job.
On the table
What it usually turns into
- 01 Photos for your website and listings
The pictures a small business is usually missing: the place, the people, the thing you sell. Shot where you already work, so it looks like you and not like a stock library.
- 02 Video for social and the front page
One short film about what you do, cut down into the vertical clips your feed keeps asking for. One shoot, a month of content, rather than filming something new every week.
- 03 Cars
Rolling and static coverage, interiors, detail. For dealers, detailers, and owners who want the car photographed properly instead of in a parking lot at noon.
- 04 People, and things that happen once
Headshots that look like the person, team pictures nobody dreads, and coverage of an opening, a workshop, or a launch while it is still happening.
How a project runs
Five stages, agreed in writing first
The quote and the deliverables list are agreed in writing before the first shoot day. Nothing after that is a renegotiation.
| 01 The call | Fifteen to twenty minutes, free. What your business is, what you need to show, and where it has to end up. |
|---|---|
| 02 Quote and scope | One page: shoot days, deliverables, licensing, turnaround, and the number. Agreed before anything is scheduled. |
| 03 A look at the place | Your space seen at the hour we will be shooting, in person or over a video call. The shot list comes out of that, not before it. |
| 04 Shoot | Selects reviewed on location. If something is missing, we are still standing in the place where we can get it. |
| 05 Post and handoff | Colour, cut, one revision round inside the agreed turnaround, then files at every size and shape the destination needs. |
Fit
Where this is a good call
Every studio is the wrong choice for something. Saying which saves us both the call, so here is both halves of it.
Good fit
- You are trying to get online properly
- A new site, an empty feed, a listing with one bad photo on it. Starting from nothing is the normal case here, not an awkward one.
- You have something real to show
- A workshop, a kitchen, a process, a car, a team. Watching beats staging, and watching needs something to watch.
- One person suits the room
- No crew turning up in vans. Small spaces and small teams usually relax, and the pictures get better because of it.
Not the right call
- Large-crew productions
- Multi-camera sets with a full lighting department are somebody else’s speciality, and they are good at it.
- Same-day turnarounds
- Colour and cut take the time they take. Rush work exists, but it is agreed in the quote, not assumed.
- Volume catalogue shoots
- Hundreds of identical product frames want a fixed rig and a production line, not one person with a camera.