Films for skin, made by people who actually understand how it behaves on camera.
Beauty is the largest single category of work in our studio, and it is the one we are most opinionated about. Skincare and cosmetics films look like the easiest brief in commercial production. A face, a product, a moment of application. They are quietly the hardest thing we shoot.
The reason is that a beauty film has two heroes competing for the same frame. The model's face, which has to read as human and alive. And the product texture, which has to read as luxurious and effective. Both are lit by the same key. Neither can compromise. Get the light wrong by one stop and glow becomes grease. Powder the skin flat and it stops looking like skin.
So we build beauty days differently from any other kind of shoot. A large soft key sized correctly at the subject. Negative fill shaping the cheekbone. An MUA sitting behind the monitor rather than in the vanity van, blotting and refreshing between every take. A controlled, air-conditioned location, because Mumbai humidity destroys makeup in twenty minutes. And a retouching philosophy built on subtraction, not addition, so the skin in the finished film still has pores.
If you want the long version of how we think about all of this, we have written it down in detail across our Journal.
These are the ranges we actually quote, not aspirational numbers. A beauty day is lighting-heavy and HMU-heavy, and that is where the money goes. It is also why the films look the way they do.
Ranges assume Mumbai, exclude talent fees for celebrity faces, media buys and travel outside the city. For a precise number, send us the brief. Our full tier breakdown lives in this Journal post.
Six to eight weeks is typical for a 30 to 45 second film. That breaks down as two to three weeks of pre-production, a half-day prelight, one to two shoot days, and three to four weeks of post. Compressed timelines are possible with more crew and higher day rates, but we push back hard on anything that skips the prelight day.
Three pack samples five days early, one for the makeup test, one for the lighting and macro test and one clean hero for the reveal shot. Plus your brand palette or Pantone reference, two or three reference films, and an ingredient and allergen sheet for anything touching the model's skin.
We handle it, and we start it on set. Our retouching philosophy is subtraction: we remove things that are temporary, like a stray hair or a blemish that will be gone in three days. We do not reshape faces, thin waists or smooth pores into paper. If your brand has a house retoucher, we are happy to deliver graded plates for them instead.
Yes, with one condition for beauty specifically. The space needs working air conditioning that can hold around 20 to 22 degrees. Makeup breaks down fast in Mumbai humidity and the light package throws its own heat. If the location cannot hold temperature, the film reads oily by the afternoon no matter how good the team is.
Yes. We shoot in Mumbai as standard and travel for the right project. Travel, accommodation and per diems sit outside the ranges above and get quoted separately.
Usually yes. Send the reference films or stills at the brief stage and we will build the lighting logic and grade to match. It is much easier to match a look at the prelight stage than to chase it in the grade afterwards.