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I started sending spec briefs to studios after a particularly bad shoot day in Bermondsey — a warehouse-style space that looked great in the listing photos, was accessible enough for a van, and turned out to have 13A ring-main power, no ceiling rigging, a floor that was impossible to sweep clean before wide shots, and no working heating. None of that was in the listing. All of it would have been disclosed by a direct spec conversation before I paid the deposit.

Now every studio I book for the first time gets the same 12 questions before a deposit changes hands. Some studios answer all 12 immediately. Most answer 9 or 10. The questions that take a while or come back vague are almost always the ones where the honest answer is "we don't quite have that, but here's what we do have." Which is fine — but I need to know before the shoot, not during it.

This is the list. Use it.

Power

1. What is the power supply for lighting equipment?
Specifically: is there a dedicated circuit separate from general ring-main sockets? What is the maximum amperage, and is it 13A, 16A, 32A, or 3-phase? Is the lighting supply on a separate board from the general studio power?

Why it matters: a standard 13A UK ring main handles around 3kW before it trips. Two Profoto B10 Plus units, a laptop, a monitor, and a hair dryer from a styling table can clear that in one go. On a shared circuit, you're managing everyone's load at once. A dedicated 32A supply for lighting gives you 7.2kW of headroom — enough for a serious flash setup, some continuous fill, and the crew's monitors without worrying about it.

Three-phase power is the answer for very high-draw rigs: Arri SkyPanel S120-C units, large tungsten fixtures, HMI fresnels. Not every studio has it. The ones that do mention it prominently. The ones that don't tend to avoid the question or answer it vaguely with "we have plenty of power."

2. Where are the power sockets relative to the shooting area?
This sounds trivial but affects every shoot. Power outlets behind a cyc wall you're shooting in front of mean running cables across the floor or finding long extension runs. Sockets at multiple points around the perimeter make rigging faster and safer.

Ceiling and rigging

3. What is the ceiling height at the shooting position, and what rigging is available?
Floor-to-ceiling height in the main shooting area. Specifically. Not "about 4 metres" — is it 3.8m? 4.2m? The difference between 3.8m and 4.2m is meaningful for overhead lighting rigs on car shoots or anything with a large diffusion frame.

Rigging: are there grid bars, track systems, or drop-down points rated for lighting equipment? What's the weight rating per point? If there's no rigging infrastructure, you're working from floor stands — which is fine, but changes the setup approach.

4. What is the load-in door dimension?
Width and height of the main access door. Standard UK residential/light commercial doors are about 80cm wide; studio loading doors should be wider. If you're moving any large prop, piece of furniture, or equipment case wider than 80cm, you need to know this in advance.

Floor and background

5. What is the floor surface, and can it be swept clean to studio standard?
Polished concrete, vinyl, timber, tiled — and who is responsible for ensuring it's clean before your setup begins. In a hire studio, you should arrive to a clean floor. Some studios with high turnover don't always manage this.

6. What background rolls are available in the studio, and can I bring my own?
Standard paper roll widths are 2.72m. Colours available, condition of current rolls, whether you can mount additional rolls if you're doing a multi-background shoot. Whether you can bring your own muslin or canvas backgrounds and how they're hung.

Environmental controls

7. What is the heating and cooling setup, and can HVAC be silenced during takes?
A studio with no heating in November is a miserable place for models, clients, and equipment. A studio with air conditioning is necessary in a sealed space in summer. The question about HVAC silence matters for any video or audio recording work — a loud AC unit on the ceiling will appear on every take.

8. What is the natural light situation — windows, skylights, blackout available?
Even if you plan to shoot with artificial light only, knowing whether there's a skylight you can't control matters. A north-facing window that you can leave open or close: fine. A south-facing skylight with no blackout: a potential problem at certain times of day.

Access and logistics

9. What is the parking situation, and is there a loading bay?
Nearest public parking. Whether the studio has allocated spaces. Whether there's drop-off access directly adjacent to the load-in door. This matters more for large crew or multi-vehicle shoots than for a solo shooter with a rolling kit bag, but failing to ask it has cost crews significant money in parking penalties and loading tickets.

10. What time can I access the space before and after my booked hours?
Whether load-in can start 30 minutes before the booking starts. Whether breakdown and load-out is included in the booked time or additional. Whether there's a minimum or maximum booking adjacent to other clients.

Facilities and support

11. What catering and facilities are available on-site?
Kitchen: is there a hob, a fridge, a microwave? Or just a kettle and a sink? For half-day and full-day shoots with crew, this affects whether you need to bring catering in or can manage in-house. The difference between a studio with a working kitchen and one without is about £200 in outside catering costs per crew day.

12. Is there a studio manager or contact on-site during the booking?
Who is the emergency contact if something goes wrong. Whether someone is physically on-site or reachable by phone. What the protocol is if a piece of studio equipment fails during your booking. For a first-time studio booking, knowing there's someone to call makes a real difference.

How I use the answers

Most studios can answer 9 or 10 of these questions confidently and immediately. The remaining 2 or 3 are the ones that reveal something. Not necessarily a problem — sometimes the honest answer is "we don't have rigging infrastructure, but there's a hire company nearby who can supply a stand kit for £X." That's useful information. What I'm looking for is whether the studio knows what it is and communicates it clearly, or whether it deflects, hedges, or guesses.

A studio that answers all 12 clearly, including the ones where the answer is "we don't have that, here's the alternative" — that's a studio I'll book with confidence. One that answers the first three quickly and then becomes progressively less specific on the harder questions is one I'll either visit before committing or approach with more caution on a first booking.

Send this list. The responses tell you more than any listing photo can.

Reading the responses: what the answers actually tell you

The spec brief is only half of it. How a studio responds is at least as informative as what they say. I've found four response patterns that consistently predict something about the booking experience.

Quick, specific, confident answers: Usually the studios that have been doing this long enough to know their own spec intimately. They answer the power question with a specific circuit rating and amp figure. They tell me the ceiling height is 3.8m without measuring it in their heads, because they've been asked the same question 40 times. These bookings tend to be smooth.

Enthusiastic but vague: "We've got loads of power, don't worry about it." "The ceiling is really high — you'll have plenty of room." "The floor is perfect." These are answers from studios that probably have a decent space but haven't dealt with many technically specific briefs. Worth a follow-up asking for the specific numbers. Sometimes they come back with them; sometimes the follow-up reveals a gap.

Checking and coming back: The studio doesn't know the ceiling height off the top of their head and needs to measure it. That's actually fine — I'd rather have an accurate number than a confident guess. A studio that says "I'll check and send you the spec sheet" is being honest. A studio that says "I'll check" and then sends me the number plus photos of the power board is a studio that's done this properly.

Deflecting or reframing: "We've never had anyone complain about the power." "The floor is fine for most shoots." "Parking is usually okay." These non-answers are the ones to probe. Specifically: what does "usually okay" mean for parking? Have people had their vehicles ticketed? Is there no parking at all and you're on permit street? This response pattern usually indicates a known limitation the studio is reluctant to disclose upfront.

When to send the brief vs when to just visit

For studios I've never used before: the brief goes out before I pay anything. I won't commit a deposit to a first-time studio without answers to at least the power, ceiling, and load-in questions. Everything else can be worked around on the day; those three cannot.

For studios I've used before: I might drop the brief entirely and just confirm the date and rate. Once you've shot in a space, you know the spec. There's no need to ask questions you already know the answers to.

For the first time at a studio you've been recommended by someone else: still send the brief, but a shorter version. The relevant questions depend on the brief. For a portrait day, I care most about power, floor, and facilities. For a product day with high-draw continuous lighting, I care about power and ceiling above anything else. The full 12-question list is a starting point — edit it for the specific shoot.

Building the brief into your regular workflow

I keep a standard email template with the 12 questions. When a new studio enquiry goes into my calendar, the spec brief goes out the same day, usually within the same email thread as the initial booking enquiry. That way the answers come back before the deposit invoice, rather than after — which is when the information is actually useful.

Most professional studios respond to a clear, organised brief positively. It signals that you're a serious commercial booker who knows what they need. The studios that find a spec brief unusual or difficult to answer are studios that primarily serve consumer portrait clients — which isn't necessarily a problem, but it tells you something about the level of commercial production they're set up to support.

The brief costs you about ten minutes to send. The information it comes back with saves you from situations that cost an hour of troubleshooting on-set — or worse, a day that doesn't deliver what it was supposed to. The maths there are obvious.

Find studios across the UK to send your spec brief to at creativestudiohire.com.

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