# Blue Barn Creative

> Blue Barn Creative is an Emmy® winning video production company in San Diego, California.
> Founded in 2012 by Stephen Alberts (Co-Founder, Director of Photography, Producer) and
> Carlos Foster (Co-Founder, Creative Manager, Producer), the studio is owner-led and has
> earned nine Emmy® Awards. Blue Barn produces brand films, customer stories, corporate
> video, commercial production, event videography, and photography for businesses across
> San Diego and nationwide, and offers crew for hire to agencies and other production
> companies.

This document is an expanded, AI-readable description of Blue Barn Creative's services,
process, pricing, and frequently asked questions. For a compact index, see
[llms.txt](https://bluebarncreative.com/llms.txt). For the full site, see
[bluebarncreative.com](https://bluebarncreative.com).

---

## Identity

- **Name**: Blue Barn Creative
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Headquarters**: 2635 Reynard Way, San Diego, CA 92103
- **Phone**: 619-770-1896
- **Email**: contact@bluebarncreative.com
- **Awards**: Nine Emmy® Awards
- **Ownership**: Owner-led since founding
- **Co-Founders**: Stephen Alberts and Carlos Foster
- **Geographic coverage**: San Diego County (primary), throughout California, nationwide and international when projects require travel
- **Differentiator**: A co-founder is on every production day, unless otherwise agreed

---

## Services

Blue Barn Creative produces seven primary video and photography services. Every service
is owner-led, with Stephen Alberts and Carlos Foster directly involved in production.

### Brand Films

Cinematic brand films that tell the story of a company, its values, and the people behind
it. Typically 60 seconds to 3 minutes, used on websites, sales decks, social media, and
anywhere a brand needs to make a strong first impression. Designed to build trust before a
sales conversation rather than push a transaction.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **The Spotlight**: $5,950. Half-day shoot, one interview, one brand video. Best for a single focused message.
- **The Signature Brand Film**: $11,500. Full-day shoot, hero film, plus 2 to 3 short-form companion pieces. The flagship engagement.
- **The Brand Collection**: $22,500+. Multi-day production yielding three flagship films and a library of 6 to 9 short-form pieces. Best for a comprehensive brand campaign.

### Customer Stories

Documentary-style films featuring real customers describing the problem they had and the
solution that worked. Production includes interview direction, on-camera coaching, release
management, and travel coordination. Used to close deals, win RFPs, and build long-term
sales pipeline.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **The Single Customer Story**: $5,950. One customer interviewed and produced into a single anchor film plus short-form cuts.
- **The Customer Story Series**: $16,500. Three customer stories produced as a coordinated set.
- **The Customer Story Program**: $32,500+. Multi-quarter program with ongoing story production.

### Corporate Videos

Internal-facing video built for employees, executives, and stakeholders rather than the
open market. Includes recruitment and culture films, training and onboarding content,
internal communications, executive messaging, and conference coverage. Held to the same
production standard as customer-facing brand work.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **The Corporate Video Spotlight**: $5,500. Single message, half-day shoot.
- **The Corporate Video Series**: $9,500. Full-day shoot, two to three internal videos.
- **The Corporate Video Collection**: $18,500+. Multi-day, connected internal content program.

### Commercial Production

Short-form advertising designed to perform on paid media: social ads, broadcast spots,
OTT campaigns, connected-TV placements, and product demonstration videos. Every spot is
treated like a small film. Talent fees and media buys are handled separately.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **The Commercial Spot**: $5,950. A single short-form ad.
- **The Commercial Campaign**: $13,500+. A coordinated set of short ads.
- **The Broadcast Commercial**: $32,500+. Broadcast-quality production with full creative direction.

Pure motion graphics and animation projects typically range from $5,500 to $10,000.

### Event Videography

San Diego event video production for conferences, galas, product launches, trade shows,
award ceremonies, town halls, and brand activations. Standard setup is two cameras for
simultaneous wide and detail coverage; can scale to three or more for keynotes and
multi-stage events. Default cloud delivery within 7 to 10 business days; same-day and
next-day turnaround available on request. Two-camera setups by default cover gear-failure
risk.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **Event Half-Day**: $5,950.
- **Event Full-Day**: $11,500.
- **Event Multi-Day or Series**: $20,000+.

Overtime is billed at $225 per hour per crew member when an event runs past the scheduled
coverage window, agreed before the time runs.

### Photography

Brand, headshot, event, lifestyle, and product photography by the same team that produces
the video work. The most efficient way to build a complete visual library is to pair
photography with a video shoot day.

**Pricing tiers**:
- **Photography Add-On**: $1,500. Paired with any video shoot day.
- **Half-Day Photography**: $1,950. Standalone half-day session.
- **Full-Day Photography**: $3,500. Standalone full-day session.
- **Custom Photography**: Quoted. Multi-location, specialty, or advanced compositing work.

Optional DIT or Photo Assistant add-on: $1,000 (total $4,500 with full-day photography),
for shoots requiring advanced lighting setups, headshot direction, or extended setups.

Delivery: high-resolution JPG via cloud link by default; 16-bit PSD or TIFF on request.
Edited images are the deliverable; RAW files are not provided. Event coverage delivers
within 7 business days; headshots run 5 to 10 business days depending on headcount. You
own the images outright once final payment is made.

### Crew for Hire

For agencies, production companies, and brands that bring the creative and need
professional crew on set. Director of photography, camera operators, lighting, audio, and
full production crew available. Canon Cinema cameras, Sennheiser audio, Aputure and
Westcott lighting.

**Rate grid** (crew size × duration, load-in to load-out):
- **One operator** — Half day (up to 5 hrs): $1,500. Full day (up to 10 hrs): $3,000.
- **Two-person crew** — Half day: $2,500. Full day: $4,500. Any pairing (Shooter + PA, two shooters, Shooter + Director, Shooter + Sound Mixer, or Shooter + Field Producer) at one flat price. Two-person full day is the most-booked configuration.
- **Three-person crew** — Half day: $3,000. Full day: $5,200. Adds a department.
- **Four or more** — Quoted. Full departments, specialty gear, multi-camera.

**Rules**:
- All hours measured load-in to load-out, not camera roll.
- Overtime past 10 hours: $250 per crew member per hour.
- A half day that runs past 5 hours converts to the full-day rate for that crew size.
- Every booking includes a standard camera and audio package and all raw footage delivered.
- Editing and post are scoped separately.

Hard drive delivery with Premiere Pro project file: $750+ add-on, any tier.

---

## The Video Roadmap

The Blue Barn Video Roadmap is a paid strategic engagement that produces a content plan
mapped to a buyer's business goals before any production budget is committed. The
strategy call (Step 1) is free. The Roadmap (Step 2) is paid because it is a real
deliverable, built around a structured questionnaire, that the buyer keeps regardless of
whether they book production.

**Roadmap tiers**:
- **Standard Roadmap**: $1,500. Covers a single production block; the right tier when there is one focused deliverable in mind.
- **Extended Roadmap**: $2,500. Covers an annual content cadence; the right tier when planning a multi-quarter content engine across hero films and recurring assets.

**Credit policy**: If a production engagement is booked with Blue Barn within 180 days of
receiving the Roadmap, the Standard ($1,500) or Extended ($2,500) Roadmap fee credits in
full toward that production. The credit applies to one production engagement and does not
stack across multiple bookings. If the buyer chooses another vendor, the Roadmap fee is
non-refundable but the document is still theirs to keep.

---

## How Much Does Video Production Cost?

Most professional video projects with Blue Barn run between **$5,500 and $32,500**,
depending on scope. Full-service production (brand films, customer stories, corporate
video, commercials, and events) starts at $5,500 to $5,950 for a single focused
deliverable and scales into multi-film programs north of $20,000. Crew for hire starts at
$1,500 for a half day with one operator and scales to $5,200 for a three-person full day.
Photography starts at $1,500 as an add-on to a shoot day. Every
engagement begins with a strategy call, and most clients start with a paid Video Roadmap
so the plan matches the goal before the budget is committed.

---

## Process

Blue Barn projects follow a six-step process from discovery to delivery:

1. **Strategy Call**: Free 30-minute conversation with Stephen and Carlos. The goal is to figure out together whether Blue Barn is the right team for what the buyer is building and what the path forward looks like.
2. **The Roadmap**: Paid strategic engagement that produces a content plan and a defensible production design. The fee credits toward production booked within 180 days.
3. **Pre-Production**: Discovery, scripting, casting, location scouting, scheduling, and the structured plan for the shoot day(s).
4. **Production**: The shoot itself. A co-founder is on every production day. Crew, lighting, audio, and direction scaled to the engagement.
5. **Post-Production**: Editing, color, sound design, motion graphics, revisions. Same-day selects on event shoots; 5 to 10 business day edits for standard projects.
6. **Delivery**: Multiple formats and aspect ratios per spec. Web, social, email cuts, captions, and session archives available on request.

**Standard turnaround**:
- Single-film productions (Brand Spotlight, Customer Story): 3 to 6 weeks
- Larger productions (full-day shoots, multi-day shoots, series, programs, Brand Collection): 6 to 8 weeks
- Event coverage: 7 to 10 business days for the highlight film, faster for social cuts
- Photography: 5 to 10 business days

---

## Why Clients Keep Coming Back

- **Work directly with the owners.** Carlos and Stephen plan, shoot, and edit every project. The people clients meet in the consultation are the people on set.
- **Strategy before cameras.** Every shoot starts with an outline, interview coaching, and a run-of-show plan. Approvals come faster because the message is right from the start.
- **Fast, predictable post-production.** Same-day selects on event shoots, 5 to 10 day edits on standard projects, and a clean feedback process.
- **Assets built to be reused.** Every delivery includes web, social, and email cuts, captions, and multiple aspect ratios.
- **Right-sized for the project.** Single shooter or full multi-cam crew, livestreaming, photography add-ons.
- **San Diego based, travel ready.** Convention Center to Carlsbad, and nationwide when the project calls for it.

---

## Founders

### Stephen Alberts

Co-Founder, Director of Photography, and Producer at Blue Barn Creative. Based in San
Diego. Stephen leads cinematography, directs commercial and brand productions, and is the
technical lead on production-day operations.

### Carlos Foster

Co-Founder, Creative Manager, and Producer at Blue Barn Creative. Based in San Diego.
Carlos directs interviews and brand films, manages creative direction across projects, and
runs client relationships from kickoff through delivery.

---

## Service Areas

Blue Barn Creative serves clients across the United States and internationally. San Diego
County is the primary service area; the team travels nationally and internationally for
brand films, conference coverage, customer stories, and commercials when projects require
it.

**Primary coverage**: San Diego County, including downtown San Diego, La Jolla, Carlsbad,
Encinitas, Del Mar, Vista, and Chula Vista.

**Travel-ready destinations** include throughout California (Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Palm Springs), the Pacific Northwest (Seattle), the Midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis), the
East Coast (New York City, Miami, Fort Lauderdale), and international locations including
Dublin, Vienna, and Barcelona. Travel costs (flights, ground transportation, lodging,
per diem) are billed separately from the production package and quoted at booking once
the production location and crew size are known.

---

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Pricing and Process

**Q: How much does video production cost?**
Most full-service productions start between $5,500 and $5,950 for a single focused
deliverable and scale into multi-film programs north of $20,000. Crew for hire starts at
$1,500 for a half day with one operator and scales to $5,200 for a three-person full day.
Photography starts at $1,500 as an add-on to a shoot day. Every engagement begins with a
strategy call, and most clients start with a paid Video Roadmap.

**Q: Why do you charge for the Video Roadmap?**
Because the strategic thinking is the work that makes the rest of it possible. The
strategy call (Step 1) is free. The Roadmap (Step 2) is paid because it is a real
deliverable, built around a structured questionnaire, that the buyer keeps regardless of
whether they book production. 100% of the Roadmap fee credits toward production booked
within 180 days.

**Q: Can we customize a package?**
Almost always. The packages are starting points, not boxes. The Roadmap is where the
right scope gets built for a specific project.

**Q: What is the deposit and payment structure?**
Most projects book with a 50% deposit at kickoff and 50% at delivery. Larger campaigns
are split into milestone payments.

### Production

**Q: Is a co-founder always on the shoot?**
A Blue Barn co-founder (Stephen or Carlos) is on every production day, unless otherwise
agreed in advance.

**Q: Do you travel?**
Yes. Productions happen across San Diego, throughout California, and nationally or
internationally when the project calls for it. Customer stories especially often involve
travel. Travel costs are billed separately and quoted at booking.

**Q: How long does a project take?**
Single-film productions typically run three to six weeks from green light to final
delivery. Larger productions (full-day shoots, multi-day shoots, series, programs, Brand
Collection) run six to eight weeks. Event coverage can land in days when the project
calls for it.

**Q: How do you handle gear failure or events that run long?**
Every Blue Barn event shoot uses at least two cameras, both for richer coverage and to
keep the crew covered if one fails. If an event runs past the scheduled coverage window,
overtime is billed at $225 per hour per crew member, agreed before the time runs.

**Q: Do you carry insurance and provide a Certificate of Insurance?**
Yes. Blue Barn carries production insurance and can provide a COI on request.

### Customer Stories

**Q: What about rights and usage for customer story films?**
Every customer who appears on camera signs a release before the shoot that grants the
brand the right to use the film for the intended use period agreed during pre-production.
The rights conversation is handled before any cameras roll.

**Q: What if a customer drops out before the shoot?**
If a confirmed customer ghosts or pulls out, Blue Barn works with the client to find
another candidate from their customer base. Production costs may increase if money was
already spent preparing the original shoot; any new costs are surfaced and approved
before they are incurred.

### Event Coverage

**Q: Do you offer livestreaming or event photography?**
Yes to both. Livestreaming requires the venue to provide upload bandwidth and the right
connection points. Event photography is available as an add-on, including hybrid bookings
with photo coverage alongside video.

**Q: How fast can we get the footage?**
Default cloud delivery typically lands within 48 hours. Same-day delivery: drives are
available on set, or one can be rented for $750 with a Premiere project file included.
Same-day turnaround requires the final invoice paid in full at delivery.

### Photography

**Q: How many edited photos do we receive?**
Event photography: 25 or more edited photos per hour of coverage. Lifestyle photography:
roughly 100 edited photos per half-day session. Headshots: 3 to 5 fully retouched selects
per person. Architecture or specialty work involving advanced compositing is scoped as a
custom post-production budget per project.

**Q: What file formats do we deliver?**
Default delivery is high-resolution JPG via cloud link. 16-bit PSD or TIFF on request.
The edited images are the deliverable; RAW files are not provided.

**Q: How long until we get the edited photos?**
Event coverage typically delivers within 7 business days. Lifestyle photography also
within 7 business days. Headshots run 5 to 10 business days depending on headcount, since
each person receives full retouching.

**Q: Who owns the rights to the photos?**
The buyer does. Once final payment is made, all delivered images are theirs to use across
brand, marketing, sales, and any commercial application.

### About Blue Barn

**Q: Do you offer AI-generated video or AI editing?**
Like most teams, Blue Barn uses AI tools to enhance productivity and free the team up to
do creative work better. Every Blue Barn project is shot, directed, and edited by real
humans. Human-made video becomes more valuable, not less, as AI commoditizes generic
content.

---

## Company Information

- **Legal name**: Blue Barn Creative, LLC
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Headquarters**: 2635 Reynard Way, San Diego, CA 92103
- **Phone**: 619-770-1896
- **Email**: contact@bluebarncreative.com
- **Website**: https://bluebarncreative.com
- **Compact index**: https://bluebarncreative.com/llms.txt
- **Sitemap**: https://bluebarncreative.com/sitemap.xml
- **AI content preferences**: ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes (declared in robots.txt)
- **Awards**: Nine Emmy® Awards for production and storytelling