CONNISTON STUDIOS
BOOKING · Q4 2026
Tell me the story.
If you want a vanity video, I'm not your guy. But if there's something real behind what you're building a product, a position, a reason you exist that nobody's said out loud yet. I'd like to hear it.
START A PROJECT
THE VIDEO IS JUST PROOF
THE STRATEGY WORKED
Most brand video starts with a shot list. This one starts with a question: what
is the video actually supposed to move? Until that's answered, everything
after it is decoration.
Conniston Studios is a one-person production studio in Durban with strategy,
script, camera and edit under one name, for brands including Heineken,
BMW, Mercedes, Savanna, Nivea and Johnson's.
30 minutes · No deck, no pitch · You'll leave with a direction whether or not we work together
WHO THIS IS FOR
MARKETING MANAGERS WHO OWN THE NUMBER
If you're accountable for what the campaign does and not just whether the asset
arrives on time, we'll get along. You know the brief you were handed upstairs is
thinner than it should be. You've had beautiful footage land flat. You've paid for a
video that everyone liked and nobody acted on.
The work starts by fixing the brief, not by lighting a set.
PRIOR WORK
BRANDS ALREADY THROUGH THE PROCESS
RUNNING ORDER
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS
Five stages, in this order, every time. The order is the method — you can't grade your
way out of a weak diagnosis.
01
DISCOVERY
A call, then a written diagnosis: who you're actually talking to, what belief has
to shift, and what the video has to do that a static ad can't.
30 MIN CALL
02
STRATEGY & SCRIPT
The angle, the structure, the script. Signed off before a camera is booked. If
the script doesn't convince you on the page, it won't convince anyone on
screen.
3–5 DAYS
03
SHOOT
Full production day. Small crew, tight call sheet, everything shot against the
script — including the cutdowns and verticals, not as an afterthought.
1–3 DAYS
04
EDIT
Offline, colour grade, sound design, motion graphics and subtitles — all in the
edit day, not billed as extras.
2+ DAYS
05
DELIVERY
Master plus every ratio and cutdown the channels need: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1,
subtitled and clean. Named and organised so your team can find them in six
months.
ON SIGN-OFF
INVESTMENT
WHAT IT COSTS, BEFORE YOU ASK
Published rates, so nobody wastes a call. Most projects land between R34,000 and
R90,000 depending on shoot days and how many cuts the campaign needs.
LINE ITEM
RATE
Production day ( crew, kit, direction )
R14,000 / day
Edit day ( offline, grade, sound design, motion graphics, subtitles )
R10,000 / day
Revisions & additional cutdowns
R1,500 / hr
Smallest sensible project — 1 shoot day + 2 edit days
R34,000
Discovery and script are included in every project, not billed separately. Revisions
carry a two-hour minimum.
FIT
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF FIRST
NOT A FIT
The brief is "we need content for the socials"
The script is already locked and unquestionable
You're collecting three quotes to pick the cheapest
The deadline is this week and the concept doesn't
exist yet
GOOD FIT
You have a budget from R34,000 and a decision
you're allowed to make
There's a real commercial problem behind the
request
You want the strategy interrogated, not agreed with
You need one accountable person, not a chain of
producers