FAQs.
Here are some questions we’re regularly asked. If you have other questions, please email or contact us via our contact form or call.
How long have you been in business? We’ve been trading as Make Believe Productions Ltd. since 1997, and we also run an animation and post-production studio in Asia. We have been involved in many corporate, commercial and broadcast projects, with budgets ranging from a few thousand pounds to several hundred thousand.
Who will I deal with? You will always deal with someone senior based in the UK or in Asia. Your regular contact will most likely be a person with over 25 years of production experience. You can also speak to any member of the team involved in your production, but day-to-day project management will be handled strictly at the senior level. We do not manage production at a junior level; other companies often take this approach.
What are your payment terms? For commercial reasons, we usually require a deposit before we commence work. We are open to the deposit being held in escrow until an agreed period of time or deliverable is completed, but we cannot work on credit unless we know you well. Please don’t be offended. We usually ask for 1/3 payment in advance, 1/3 on completion of the production draft, and 1/3 on final delivery. Unfortunately, we will not provide all completed assets until the final payment is made – unless we know you well, of course.
How cheap can you make it? Believe it or not, most clients want things fast and cheap, but there’s always a trade-off. The famous triangle with three points is worth remembering: 1) quality, 2) speed and 3) price. You can always attain two of these if you try hard enough, but never all three at the same time. Look for an attractive price, but please don’t ask for a price that makes achieving quality highly prohibitive.
We combine both Western and Asian talent to keep our prices as low as possible, but we never sacrifice quality for a low price. No matter how low the production cost, we ensure a certain standard is attained that makes our work worth talking about.
Which markets can you service? We can, of course, service you anywhere in the world, including providing a full production crew. We are UK-based, so the UK/Europe is our closest market. Our areas of expertise are the UK/Europe and Asia, as this is where we have managed the most productions thus far.
If you are looking for production shooting in the US, we can recommend and provide support services based in the UK and Asia. However, we are not able to directly provide production capability in the US at present and will work with a third-party partner.
Can you work in-house part of the time? We can allocate a set number of days per month to work with you in your offices.
How big a project can you take on? We can scale up accordingly. A few years ago, we provided over 200 minutes of completed 3D animation for a client, handled entirely in-house by our production team. We don’t maintain a high staff count, as this would require us to charge higher rates to cover downtime; however, we have access to many talented individuals in the UK, across Europe, and in Asia. We also more recently provided over 50 hours of completed video eLearning content for a client.