Adding a Product Video to a Stills Shoot

Can you also do a quick video of the hero SKU while you're in there?

That line usually lands after the stills are priced and the shot list is already a grid of fronts, backs, and details. Adding a product video to a stills shoot is a second scene on a shared set. It is not a free extra frame.

Answer three questions before anyone moves a light. Is this the same job? What does the stills list fail to specify? Does the motion need its own setup?

Decide whether it is the same job

A clip can stay on the same project when the product, the set, and the day are the same. It becomes a different job when it needs another location, a person on camera, or a script the stills never had.

Keep it on this project when:

• The clip is the same SKU, on the same set, of the product already in the frame.
• The client names the length, the aspect ratio, and where the clip will run.
• The stills rows stay stills rows. The clip gets its own scene.

Open a separate job when:

• Someone has to be on camera, or the clip needs a voiceover the stills day cannot absorb.
• The cut is for a channel the stills brief never mentioned.
• The request is still the word "quick," with no length and no ratio.

The message is a request. The studio still decides whether it becomes a project. Do not let a sentence in the email rewrite the call sheet.

What the stills list does not cover

A stills shot list can say front, 45, detail, white. That row is a view of a product. A clip needs decisions the row does not have.

• Length. "Quick" is not a duration. Name the seconds before the set is booked.
• Aspect ratio. A square frame and a vertical frame are different compositions, not a resize you promise after wrap.
• Where it will run. A product-page loop and a paid social cut are not the same edit.
• Audio. Silence, music, or a voice. Pick one before anyone rolls.
• People. A hand in frame is a different shoot from a product on a sweep.

The field-by-field list — style, ratios, length, audio, people, scenes, file format — lives on the product video project guide. Use that page when the client is filling the request. Use this post to decide whether the stills day can hold the clip at all.

A note on a frame is not a note on a still

A stills comment is a crop, a color, a dust spot, a label. You can find it on the frame. A video comment that says "around the middle" cannot. The note has to name a moment. A useful one looks like [0:12], the lid opens too early.

Sort the note the same way a revision policy sorts a still:

• Fix in the cut. Trim, a caption, or a color pass on footage you already have.
• Reshoot the motion. The product turns the wrong way, a hand covers the mark, or the action never happens.
• New requirement. A second ratio, a longer cut, or a scene that was not on the list.

The project can hold the file you sent, the comment, and the approval. The edit stays in the studio's video tool. Nothing in the client review step cuts the footage for you, and nothing on the project page publishes the clip for the public to play.

When the motion needs a new setup

"While you're in there" is honest only when the stills lighting and the stills framing already serve the clip. Book a separate setup when any of these are true.

• The clip needs a turn, a pour, or a movement the stills lighting will not survive.
• A person has to be in frame.
• The product has to be opened, worn, or assembled, and then put back to the stills look.
• The aspect ratio crops off the stills composition, so the product has to be reframed.

If none of those are true, shoot the clip in the same setup, after the stills for that SKU, before you strike. Write the scene on its own row. QC should not go looking for a still that was never ordered.

Lock this before the set is booked

Seven lines. If any line is blank, the clip is not ready to share the stills day.

1. Which SKUs get a clip, and which stay stills-only.
2. Length of each clip.
3. Aspect ratios to deliver.
4. Where each cut will run.
5. Audio, or no audio.
6. Whether a person is in frame.
7. What approved means: the cut you sent, not a feeling about the vibe.

Once those are named, the client can send the request on a Start a project page and you can review it before it is a project. The stills list does not grow a video column. The clip gets a scene.

FAQ

Can the stills shot list cover the video too?

No. A stills row names a view: front, side, detail. A clip needs a duration, a ratio, and a scene. Keep the stills rows as they are. Add a scene row for the clip, with the seconds and the frame shape written on it. If you fold the clip into the word packshot, the set will improvise it, and the improvisation will not match what the client thought they bought.

When is a video note a reshoot instead of an edit?

If the footage already contains the action, and the note is a trim, a color pass, or a caption, fix it in the cut. If the product moves the wrong way, a hand blocks the logo, or the action never happens, reshoot that scene. A second aspect ratio, or a longer story than the one you shot, is a new requirement. It is not a repair of the first cut, and it should not be booked as if the camera already rolled on it.

Can the client review the clip next to the stills?

Yes, when both files sit on the same project. The client should comment on a moment in the clip, the way they mark a crop on a still, and approve the file you sent. The edit happens in the studio's video tool before that file is uploaded. The project keeps the brief, the cut, the notes, and the approval. It does not cut the footage, and it does not publish the clip.