Provision StudioProvision Studio

I knew that this was going to be a good shoot when I asked for a Hot Chocolate.

Normally, that question is met with a "sorry we don't have any". But at Provision Studios in Hoxton, the answer was "let me check, if not we'll go and buy you one". Five minutes later I was holding a perfectly prepared Green & Black's Hot Chocolate. 

The service and attention to detail here are excellent!

My client wanted to shoot some of his new furniture (will post images soon) against brickwork as well as traditional studio images. Marc put the time and effort into find Provision Studios and made all the booking arrangements. This was both Marc's and my first time at this studio.

Tucked just off the main road, a moments walk from Hoxton Station or 15 minutes walk from Old Street Station is a hidden gem. The two near identical shooting spaces are tucked underneath a railway bridge within its arches, a third arch contains the office space and studio reception.  Full, floor to ceiling windows let daylight in at one end of the studio with a white painted cove with infinity edge at the other. The massive window, has a rolling shutter door which can be rolled down to black out the daylight. Included in the space are two large old, worn, characterful and super comfortable sofas, large make up station, iMac workstation and a fridge with drinks facilities plus the free WiFi details. What more could you need... Parking. Yes, plenty of that too, with excellent access to move products and people in.

Whilst Provision don't have they're own lighting equipment hire onsite, they do have digital equipment hire including Hassleblad and Canon camera equipment, they asked me to provide them with a list of lighting kit I needed and then quoted us the rental fee. For this shoot I needed 4 Profoto D1 heads, plus modifiers, stands and triggers, which was very well priced. It was actually cheaper, not to mention far easier to book the equipment through ProVision than through another supplier. The equipment was onsite in the studio when I arrived very early in the morning. This saved the hassle of me having to pay deposits, and make my own equipment delivery and collection plans.

As for shooting in the studio, it was very good, there are plenty of power outlets, plus room to work efficiently, help from the team was never far away. After 30 minutes in the studio we'd juggled all the furniture around with the help of the studio assistant to allow us to shoot the furniture against the best bit of brickwork. The cove had been freshly painted, but did have some marks on the background that took some retouching to remove, and whilst a perfect width for fashion shoots, in a perfect world the background would have been extended around the corners into more of a full infinity cove to allow more shooting flexibility. With large pieces of furniture it is far easily to move the camera than the product, having the cove walls come around the corner would have enable more shooting angles, but this is being critical, the space worked very well for what we needed. 

In conclusion, ProVision is a very cool, fabulously designed shooting environment, somewhere with a wow factor that all clients will appreciate. I very much look forward to shooting there in the future.