The brand film, which has to be about something

AED 35,000 to AED 250,000 covers most of what we are asked to build. The number moves on shoot days, cast and locations, whether it is filmed across multiple sites, how many finished cuts, and whether original music is commissioned. Anything quoted before those are known is a guess. We scope first, then price, and the scope document is yours whether or not you proceed. These are market ranges rather than a fixed rate card — the proposal carries the real figure.

Less often than it gets commissioned. It earns its cost when you have something genuinely distinctive to say, when you are entering a market that does not know you, or when recruitment is a real constraint. If the honest position is that you do good work reliably, that is better served by case study films and photography than by a brand piece.

A brand film argues a position and is made to be felt. A corporate video explains something and is made to be understood. Different scripts, different budgets, different success measures. Most briefs that arrive asking for a brand film actually describe a corporate video, and we will say so.

Ninety seconds for most uses, with a sixty and a set of shorter cuts from the same shoot. Two to three minutes works for a launch screening or a recruitment page where the viewer has already chosen to watch. On a homepage, anything past ninety seconds is mostly unwatched.

Real staff where they can carry it, because authenticity is usually the reason for the decision. It is worth being honest at casting though: an uncomfortable employee on camera undermines exactly the thing you were trying to buy. A mix is common and sensible.

Six to twelve weeks. Development and treatment take two to four, the shoot is usually one to three days, and post-production is three to five weeks including grade and sound. Multi-location shoots extend it.

Everyone with an opinion should see the treatment. That is the stage where changing direction costs a conversation rather than a reshoot. The most expensive brand film problems we have seen were senior stakeholders seeing the film for the first time in the edit.

Yes. Filming in Dubai requires permits for most public and many private locations, and drone work has its own approvals with real lead times. We handle it and we build the lead time into the schedule rather than discovering it in week one.

Not by views. Completion rate tells you whether it held people. Beyond that it depends what it was for: recruitment applications, sales team feedback on how meetings start, or brand search volume around a launch. Agreeing the measure before the shoot avoids the awkward conversation afterwards.

You should, and it is the most under-used part of most productions. A one-day shoot typically yields enough material for months of social content if the coverage was planned for it. That planning has to happen before the shoot, which is why the deliverables list is agreed at treatment.

Yes, and we recommend it on almost every brand shoot. A photographer alongside the film crew adds a modest amount to the budget and typically produces a year of brand photography from a set and cast you have already paid for.