Customer Story Series: short films your customers will share

One reel costs £249, or £699 for a set of three. The price covers consent, the interview, the script, voiceover, edit, captions, a cover and the 4K master, plus the versions it takes to get it right - our own reels went through between 6 and 21 versions each before we were happy. There is no day rate and no charge for changes the person in the film asks for. Three is the better buy if you want a series people recognise.

Yes - nothing starts without written consent from everyone who appears, and a parent's consent for anyone under 18. Under UK GDPR a person must be able to withdraw consent as easily as they gave it (Article 7), so if they change their mind later, the reel comes down. We also tell them before it posts, not after, and they see a preview first. If you need a proper record of who agreed to what, the GDPR Compliance Kit sets one up.

That is the point of the format - they never have to be on camera. The film is built from their photos and their story, read by a voiceover, so all they do is answer a few questions and send pictures. Phone photos work; the sharper the better, because a soft photo shows at 4K and we will tell you which ones will not hold up. If they would rather talk for themselves, a recorded chat suits Podcast Production better.

Yes, as long as it never pretends to be your customer. The voice is a narrator telling their story, not an imitation of them, and it says what they told us rather than putting words in their mouth. Claims they make are credited to them; facts we state are ones we have checked. On GigXchange that rule once cost us a full rewrite, when a band pointed out that one line about them was wrong.

As many as it takes to get it right before the master, within the same story. Our own reels went through 6 to 21 versions each, and the price is set with that in mind. Changing the story itself - a different customer, a new angle - counts as a new reel. Once the 4K master is approved, small fixes such as a typo in a caption are still free, so nobody has to live with a mistake.

Anywhere vertical video goes: Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and your own website. You get a 4K master, phone-sized copies, a cover and a caption written for each channel. Your customer gets the file too, because a reshare to their own followers reaches people your account never will. To keep the rest of your feed in the same style, pair it with the Social Content Retainer.

The first video is ready in 10 days from the day your customer says yes. Days 1-2 are consent and photos, days 3-4 the script, days 5-8 the build and review cut, and days 9-10 their feedback and the 4K master. The slow part is usually waiting for photos, so we ask for them on day one. In a set of three, the second and third start while the first is in review.

We use them for the reel and nothing else. Photos and answers are kept only as long as the project needs, then deleted, apart from the finished files you and they keep. We never put contact details, addresses or anything private on screen, and we check every frame for things that should not be there - a phone number on a van, a stranger's child in the background. If they withdraw consent, we delete the lot.