About Us

We specialise in in Direct Response Television (DRTV), Brand Response TV (BRTV), Commercial Versioning, Radio advertising, Online/Social Media content, Cinema Advertising, Sponsorship Bumpers, Bespoke Music Composition,  On-Set Stills, Studio/BTS Photography,  and Creative Idea Generation & Scripting. We regularly work with challenger brands and first-time TV advertisers.

Space City will take care of all stages of production – from script to screen. Our script writing, creative expertise and production management give you peace of mind throughout the entire process

Whether you are new to TV, a challenger brand or a well known company. Based on a client brief, we come up with a number of creative ideas, each accompanied by a storyboard and/or an animatic video, as well as an itemised budget and a detailed production schedule.

We then assign a dedicated producer to each project. They will then be the main point of contact throughout the production process.

Space City has extensive in-house facilities, including three 4K edit suites, a recording studio, a casting studio and CGI graphics.

 

This means we can take care of all stages of post-production, cost-effectively and quickly.

TV advertising in the UK is strictly regulated by Clearcast. All scripts and commercials are checked against the UK Codes of Advertising (the BCAP and CAP Codes) to ensure they are not misleading, harmful or offensive. Space City has an excellent working relationship with Clearcast, so we can ensure our productions are cleared without undue delay.

Once a commercial is finished, we will retain all of the production assets at our London office, as well as back-up copies off-site. This means we can easily amend, update or re-edit commercials in the future.

We also arrange the distribution of transmission copies to the various TV stations, both in the UK and abroad. So we upload finished commercials to a delivery platform, where technical quality checks are carried out. Based on our production schedules, we will aim to get commercials to stations for transmission about 3-5 days before the first air date.

 

Our Team

Being a small team of experts allows us to not only save you money, but also means we can tailor each of our clients production experiences individually. Whether you’re a challenger brand wanting a full campaign across multiple platforms, TV, Radio, Social etc. Or you’re new to TV and just want to chat through the Creative Process and understand what’s involved and how much it costs to get on TV? We are happy to help, and what is ‘Home’ without kindness, which is why we keep our circle small.

Our Office

We have been in our Hammersmith office since 1992 that’s over 30 years experience doing what we do best, and what is home without a sense of belonging. Clearly it appears to be working, considering some of our recent awards. We always encourage our clients to visit us face-to-face at our offices, so that they get to meet the whole team and experience what we mean when we say The Home of TV Productions.

Our Approach

We provide a complete service from ‘script to screen’. We operate a tailored approach with each individual client, backed up by years of knowledge and our problem solving attitude. After all a home supports!

Check out Our Ethos for a look into who we as a team are.

 

We’re Experts

We are a tight knit team of TV, Radio and Online Advertising specialists. Our dynamic team ensures your campaign process is a breeze from start to finish. Don’t believe us, then there’s probably a few awards we should give back.

We’re Cost-Effective

With 30 years of experience in DRTV & BRTV advertising we have incredible industry knowledge. With a great In-House team and a diverse pool of freelancers at our fingertips we know exactly how to keep your costs down whilst providing a high production service.

We’re Creative

We believe the creative process is paramount to producing a successful campaign no matter what the deliverables. This is why our idea generation and scripting phase alone encompasses four stages.

We’re Ambitious

We’re determined to create campaigns that deliver against set objectives and deliver proven ROI.

We Always Deliver

We are proud to deliver high production cost effective deliverables, with the majority of our clients becoming repeat business. Clearly we’re doing something right!

Taking Your Brief

We encourage a face-to-face briefing session to understand your business and objectives. We will welcome you to our London studio where you can meet the team and take a tour of our facilities. Of course we are happy to travel to you if this is more convenient. We take away your brief and spend two weeks working up creative ideas.

Idea Generation

During this creative Idea Generation stage, firstly our entire In-house team meet to discuss potential creative avenues that your campaign could take. We believe this is an essential stage of the creative process, as it allows for an array of minds both creative and strategic to come together. This allows for an idea to go through different people’s channels of thought, as well as allowing all areas of production to be considered right from the get go, which perhaps would not be initially be considered with a smaller brainstorming team. Therefore stamping out any foreseeable issues immediately, (Clearcast approval, budget restrictions etc.)

Creative Alterations

After this we often approach our on-hand ‘Creatives’ with our ideas to see if there are any alterations or changes to the ideas before they are scripted, and to see if they have any other ideas.

Idea Refinement & Scripting

Once the idea generation and brainstorms have been exhausted, the entire team regroups and condenses the idea amount to 3 or 4 creatives, which we then give to our Creative writers Victor van Amerongen and Lucy Hodder, in order to script.

Where Do The Scripts Go?

Once we have our scripts, or sometimes just idea synopsises (depending on what deliverables are wanted) we begin the storyboard and pitching process, whereby a bespoke presentation document will be designed by our in-house Graphic Designer – Frankie Price, in order to present our ideas back to you in the most informative format. The pack commonly includes our three or four creative options, storyboards, production quotes, artist fees (if applicable) and schedules. For more info on these areas, click here

Pre-Production

• We like to arrange a face to face briefing session with you to understand your business and needs as best as possible. This meeting usually takes less than an hour and we are happy to travel to you if that makes your life easier. Alternatively you are very welcome to Space City and can take the tour at the same time!
• We take away your brief and spend a couple of weeks working up creative ideas to present back to you. We usually script and storyboard three or four creative options on varying budgets to give you a full picture of what we believe is possible.
• All our creative work is done free of charge so there’s nothing to lose by finding out how Space City might be able to help.
• Hopefully you love our ideas and decide to move in to production!

Production

• Once an idea has been selected we move full swing in to production mode! A typical production has a schedule of eight weeks from concept sign off to going on air, but we can be flexible if time is tight.
• A director is selected based on who would be best to work on your advert – whether it’s comedy, testimonials, lifestyle or special effects we will give you the best person for the job.
• We organise a casting either virtually or at our in-house casting studios in Hammersmith which you will be invited to attend. In person we can see up to 80 actors a day for you to find the best person / people to represent your brand.
• In the meantime, behind the scenes we are busy conducting location recces to give you a selection of venues we believe are suitable for filming.
• Once all production details are in place, a face-to-face pre-production meeting (PPM) will take place. This covers cast, crew, locations, wardrobe, hair & makeup and timings for the big day. Everything is signed off in advance so you know exactly what to expect.

Clearcast

• We are experts in Clearcast approval, with all members of the production team being fully trained. We will never suggest a script or concept that isn’t achievable so you are in safe hands.
• Once a concept has been agreed, the Clearcast script approval process will begin. We may ask you to substantiate any claims being made in the script.
• We never film anything until full script approval has been granted, meaning there’s no worry your commercial won’t be able to go on air.

Shoot

• A typical shoot would be one or two days on location or in a studio, usually within the M25. The crew arrive very early for breakfast and set-up but the client is usually invited to attend a little later just before filming begins.
• We love you to attend and take part as much as possible so everyone is happy with the final result. You will watch the monitor carefully and see how the director brings the script to life. As we encourage a collaborative approach you might have some great ideas we can incorporate on the day!

Post Production

• The post-production stage usually takes around two weeks.
• After the shoot, we ingest the rushes storing them safely on our system forever more!
• We generate an initial edit called an ‘offline’ which we send over for you to review.
• Based on your feedback we have a day of offline amends before the final ‘online’ edit.
• You are invited to attend the online edit and make decisions on graphics and grading before the commercial is finalised.
• On the day of the online we invite the voice over artist in to our studio to record the final script. The track is then mixed with specially composed music before being laid in to the advert.
• The final advert is sent back to Clearcast for video approval and is then ready to go on air!

Transmission

• We are happy to organise transmission of the advert to stations based on a list provided by your media buyer.
• We are unable to include this in our production budget as the cost will be dependant on how many stations you decide to play out on, but please let us know and we can provide you with a quote.

What We’re Known For

Space City specialise in Direct Response Television (DRTV), Brand Response TV (BRTV), Radio advertising, Online/Social Media content, Cinema Advertising, and Sponsorship Bumpers, Bespoke Music Composition,  On-Set Stills, Studio/BTS Photography,  and Creative Idea Generation & Scripting.

Our Post-Production Expertise

We also offer post production services such as commercial Versioning, Re-Versioning and Transmission for new and existing commercials to improve response or refresh old creatives.

Our In-House Facilities

A majority of our services also benefit from our In-house facilities such as:

• Our three HD Edit Suites using Premier, Avid, as well as Da Vinci grading.
• Our Casting Studio with a separate casting reception, a runner/receptionist, basic equipment included or competitively priced freelancers with their own specialist kit.
• Our Audio Recording studios, these can be booked by the hour, half-day, full-day or week. We offer discounted rates for larger projects and can accommodate complex multi-language productions.

For more information contact our team.