Production Process

1.  INITIAL DISCUSSION
We will be happy to talk through your ideas and add a few suggestions of our own for you to think about.  This consultation can be done by phone or by email.  You will be assigned a Producer who will supervise your project and always be on hand to talk to if you have any questions.

2.  AGREEMENT
If you are happy with what we can offer, we will speak again.  It is at this point that we work out a rough project outline and schedule for your approval.  We also give you an itemised budget for approval and a contract of our obligations and responsibilities. For example, we promise that the content of your film will be treated with the utmost confidence and we will provide you with a written guarantee of security and confidentiality. Once agreed, we require a non-refundable 50% deposit to cover pre-production costs paid either by cheque, or by BACS.  We will also ask you to sign a disclaimer making sure that the people in your photos and home movies have given their permission for inclusion and that you will only use the film in the manner agreed.  This will have an implication on the amount of copyright we have to clear and ultimately on your budget. It will be our responsibility to get permissions for any specially shot material. 

3. PRE-PRODUCTION
We will provide you with easy-to-follow guidelines on what to do next and work together on the finer details: music, presenting style, and so on.  A final project outline and/or script will be drawn up for your approval. Any changes made to the script after this point may have cost implications.

4. FILMING AND COLLATING MATERIAL
We can either come to your home, you can come to us or we can go through on the phone any material from your home media collection that you want to include.  During a home visit or a visit to our offices, we can help you select and organise your imagery, scan in photos and documents and record commentaries.

If you are happy to send us your home media, we will only use reputable couriers.  We will transfer old footage, scan in photos and memorabilia and return them to you in the same condition by courier.  All media will be stored securely during this process.  If your film is specially shot, we do all the planning and logistics and direct the filming.

5. EDITING
The editing will be done at our edit suites within our Your Story offices on Final Cut Studio Pro 2 and can combine the skills of a professional editor with a composer and a graphic designer to give your film the edge. 

6. FINAL APPROVAL
When we have completed your film we will either upload it onto the secure client area of our website for you to view on line or send you a VHS or watermarked DVD for final approval. We then require the final 50% of the payment. 

7. DUPLICATION AND DELIVERY
We include two copies of your final film within the budget.  This can be on DVD or as a movie file that can be uploaded onto the internet. 

If you want DVD duplications, we can do those too. Your film and any copies we make will be sent to you by registered post in specially designed packaging.  We can also provide gift packaging for that extra special present.  We will keep a digital copy of the film we send you and the various digital project files for six months so that we can make further copies or make additions at a later date.  After six months your project will be removed from our computers and a single hard copy of the final film will be kept.

CANCELLATION AND REPLACEMENT POLICY
We have built in several stages of approval throughout the process so that we can be sure you are happy with the service we are offering and nothing will come as a shock.  However, we need to point out the non refundable 50% of the agreed budget which is paid before we start production and the final payment which is made before you receive your final copy.  If for any reason you want to cancel the project during production, the final payment will not be required.  If you do approve the final film and the final payment is exchanged, we will be unable to refund any payment.

We will provide you with two copies of the final film and you can also purchase extra copies.  If you loose or damage both copies, we would be happy to discuss a replacement but after six months this would be a transfer rather than a 1st generation copy.

We hope you enjoy putting Your Story on film.