The first video studio I ever booked, I treated it like a photo studio. Showed up with a camera and three lights, expected to be shooting within twenty minutes, and figured the rest would be obvious.

It was not obvious. I spent the first hour fighting an HVAC hum that ruined every audio take. The second hour rebuilding my lighting because the ceiling was too low for the boom. By the time I had something usable I had burned three quarters of my booking and shot maybe four minutes of footage. That session cost me about £300 and taught me everything that follows.

Sound is louder than you think

Photo studios get away with being noisy. There is no audio track. A bit of traffic, an air-con hum, a fridge in the kitchen room next door, none of it shows up in the final image. So most photo studios do nothing about acoustics, and most photo people never think about them.

Video flips that on its head. The microphone picks up everything. A faint mains hum will sit under every line of dialogue. A dustbin lorry passing the building at the wrong moment ruins the take. The studio that looked perfect in photos can be unusable for video because of one rattling vent.

What I do now: ask the studio to send me a 30-second audio clip recorded inside the space with the HVAC running. If they cannot or will not do that, I assume the worst and look elsewhere. It takes them five minutes and tells me more than any feature list. I also check whether the studio sits next to a road, a railway, or a school. Unpredictable noise is the worst kind.

Ceiling height is the part nobody warns you about

You can light a portrait in a studio with a 2.4m ceiling. You cannot easily light a wide standing shot with an overhead boom in the same room. Once you start factoring in a soft box hanging above the talent, a top light, or any kind of haze rig, you need real height. I would call 3.5m a working minimum and 4m comfortable. Below 3m, plan around it before you book.

The other thing nobody mentions: the listing photos always make ceilings look higher than they are. Wide-angle lenses lie. If the studio does not give you a number on the listing, ask. If they refuse, that is its own answer.

Power matters more for video than photo

I have tripped more breakers on video shoots than on photo shoots by a factor of about ten. The reason is simple. Continuous lights pull power continuously. Strobes only pull power when they fire. A 600W LED panel running for an hour is doing the same load on the circuit as a 600W heater, which is to say a lot.

Add a smoke machine, two camera batteries on chargers, a laptop, and a director monitor, and you can easily push past what a single domestic circuit can handle. Most photo studios have one or two 13A circuits in a room and that is fine for them. Video studios should have proper 16A or 32A circuits, ideally split across multiple rings. Ask. If you do not see this on the listing, send a message before you book.

Bring at least two extension leads with surge protection too. The studio's own gear lives on those circuits. If you trip a breaker mid-take you lose the take, the studio's wifi, and probably your dignity.

How long you actually need

Photo shoots run on a familiar rhythm. Set up, shoot, tweak, shoot, pack up. A four-hour booking gives you maybe three hours of actual shooting time. Video does not work that way.

For every minute of finished video you want, expect about an hour of studio time when you are doing it properly. Lighting takes longer because you are matching exposure across multiple cameras and dealing with hot spots that move when the talent moves. Audio takes longer because every change of location or angle needs a level check. Talent direction takes longer because takes get re-done for tiny mistakes that would not matter in stills. And the camera moves take time to rehearse.

What this means in practice: I book half day minimum for any video, even a simple interview. If you read our honest take on hourly versus day rates, the same logic applies double for video. The hourly rate looks tempting but you will hate yourself at minute 75.

What the listing photos do not show

The listing always shows the room at its best. Lights up, props out, no cables, hero angle. What the listing does not show is the stuff that matters for video.

I now ask for a phone-camera tour video before I commit. Five minutes, walking around the space, showing the corners, the cable channels, the audio booth if there is one, and the load-in route. Studios that say no get crossed off my list. The good ones already have a tour video ready because every other video producer asked for it before me.

The other thing the listing photos hide is storage. Where do you put the road cases that are not currently being used? Where does the talent change? Where does the director sit? These all need real square metres and you only notice them when they are missing.

The verdict

Photo studios and video studios share a postcode, not a use case. The features that matter for stills mostly do not matter for motion, and the features that matter for motion are mostly invisible in stills-friendly listings. Treating them as the same kind of booking is how you lose half your day.

If you are crossing over from photo to video, the best thing you can do is rebook a space you already trust as a photo studio and try a proper video shoot in it. You will fail in informative ways. Then you will know exactly what to look for in your next booking, and you can use a directory like Creative Studio Hire with a much better idea of what filters actually matter to you.

FAQs

How much should I budget for a half-day video studio hire in London?

Honestly, I rarely get out the door under £450 for a half day in London if I want a space that is genuinely usable for video. The £180 spaces exist, but they are usually photo studios with one cinema flag added and they fall apart the moment you need real sound or proper power. The two video-first studios I trust in East London sit around £550 for a half day, which sounds like a lot until you compare it to the cost of a half day where nothing actually works.

Do I need a sound-treated room or will any quiet studio do?

Depends on what you are shooting. For an interview or anything with dialogue, you want real acoustic treatment with wall panels, a treated ceiling, and ideally a separate audio booth. For a music video where you will lay sound over the top in post, a normal quiet room is fine as long as the rumble is not bad enough to vibrate the camera. The thing I would not do: assume the word "soundproof" on a listing means anything specific. Always ask for a sample clip.

Can I find a video-ready studio on Creative Studio Hire?

Yes, but use the filter properly. Filter for video production or film studio rather than just photography studio with high ceiling. It matters. The studios listed under video have usually been verified as having the right power, height, and sound treatment for video work. We also do not take a cut from your booking, so what you see on the listing is what you actually pay the studio.