Earlier than most schools expect. Christmas shows start booking in September and summer showcases from February, and competition weekends go quickly because everyone is on the same dates. If your date is in the diary, it is worth pinning down.

There is no fixed package, because a one-act showcase in a studio and a two-night production with a dress run are not the same job. What sets the price is how long the show runs, how many performances you want covered, whether you want photography as well as film, whether it goes out live, and how much editing sits behind it. Tell me the date, the venue, the running time and what you need afterwards, and you will get a quote and a delivery date against that.

Most shows are edited and delivered within 4 to 7 days, depending on the size of the project — a single showcase comes back sooner than a two-night run cut with a trailer, a highlights film and vertical clips. If you are working to a deadline, tell me when you enquire and the delivery date is confirmed before you book.

Access before doors for the tech or dress run, a position with a clear sightline that is not in an audience seat, and a power socket if the show runs long. If the venue has its own rules on tripods or leads, I would rather find out in the week than on the night.

I have filmed and photographed at the Unity Theatre, the Everyman, the Playhouse, the Epstein Theatre, the Royal Court, the Lantern Theatre, the Lighthouse Theatre and the Little Theatre, as well as school halls, studio spaces and community venues across Merseyside. If your show is somewhere else, I speak to the venue directly about access and camera positions before the day.

Yes. Liverpool and Merseyside are home ground, and I regularly film across the Wirral, Sefton and St Helens, with the wider North West covered as part of the booking. Travel outside Merseyside is quoted with the job rather than added on afterwards.

Yes. Where a show runs more than once and it helps the finished film, I film both and cut the strongest version of each number or scene into one edit.

The whole show, curtain to curtain, edited to your running order with the routines labelled. The highlights film is cut from it afterwards — you get both, because they do different jobs. Families want the full performance; you want two minutes you can advertise next year with.

No. Flash in a dark auditorium is distracting for the audience and for the performers on stage. Everything is shot on available light with fast lenses, exposed for the stage lighting rather than the room.

Ideally yes. Knowing how bright the brightest state goes and how far down the darkest one sits lets me set exposure against your actual lighting rather than correct for it afterwards. Some productions want a short run of the lighting states before doors, and ten minutes with your LX operator is usually all it takes.

Yes, that is normal stage work. Fast lenses and available light, exposed for the spot rather than the room, so faces hold and the rest of the stage stays as dark as it was lit to be.

Yes, and it is usually the same booking. Production stills come mostly from the dress run, where I can move without an audience behind me, with more taken during the performance itself. One person, one day, both sets of files.

Yes, and plenty of shows are. A hall is usually darker and flatter than a theatre rig, so it is shot on fast lenses and available light with no flash, and sound is taken from the desk or a dedicated recorder rather than a camera microphone at the back of the room.

Yes. Youth theatre, amateur dramatics, college and drama school productions, pantomimes, company tours, showcases and comedy nights all book the same way, and the day runs identically.

Yes. Club nights, showcases and touring sets, filmed from a fixed position with audio taken from the desk so the laughs are on the recording, then cut into clips for socials, promoters and booking enquiries.

Yes. A photocall can run off the back of a dress run or as its own call, sized for listings, press and the programme, and I can record short pieces to camera with cast, director or choreographer at the same time for press and socials.

Yes, and it is worth doing. A short session in the rehearsal room, in the studio or on stage under lights gives you a trailer, teasers, vertical clips and stills for the ticket page, press and socials while the run is still on sale — rather than content that only exists once the show has closed.

Yes, within whatever the rights holder allows. Licensed titles normally permit a recording only on set terms — archive use only, a capped number of copies, no public posting — and that permission sits with you, not with me. Tell me what yours says and the filming, the edit and the gallery are set up to stay inside it.

Yes. Fixed, unobtrusive coverage of the full piece, delivered either per student or as one file for the department, to whatever spec the course asks for.

A private, password-protected gallery on this site. You get the link and decide who receives the password. Families stream or download it themselves — no discs, no USB sticks, no waiting for the school office to hand things out.

You hold the consent list and I need it before the show, not after. Anyone opted out is kept out of the edit and out of anything that is ever seen publicly. Nothing from a school show goes on social media, this site or a showreel without written permission from the school.

Yes — individual portraits, class groups and costume frames, shot at your school around your timetable and delivered to the same private gallery your families already use.

Yes — solos, duets and troupes, filmed from a fixed position with clean audio so the footage is actually usable for entries, feedback and applications afterwards.

Yes — ballet, tap, jazz, modern, contemporary, street, acro and musical theatre are all filmed the same way: the full running order curtain to curtain, every group covered, with production stills from the same performance.

Yes. Anyone who could not be in the room on the night can watch it on a private link as it happens, and the edited film still follows afterwards. It needs a decent connection at the venue, so it is worth raising early rather than on the day.

In high resolution to a private, password-protected gallery. You get the link, you decide who gets access, and nothing is published anywhere unless you have said in writing that it can be.

Yes. Short clips cut vertical for Reels, TikTok and Stories come alongside the horizontal edit, so the show works on socials as well as on YouTube and your ticket page. Tell me where you are posting when you book and both formats are framed for on the night, rather than cropped in afterwards.

The licence for recorded music in your show is the school’s to hold, not the filmmaker’s. A private gallery avoids most of the issue. If you want the film or clips on YouTube or Facebook, we should talk about it first — platforms will mute or block a commercial track automatically, whatever permission you have.

Yes. The film and the photographs are yours to use for your own promotion — ticket pages, socials, programmes, press, funding reports and next year’s advertising. The only limits come from recorded music and licensed titles, and those sit with the rights holder rather than with me.