You do not need a studio. You need one corner that always works, and a way to solve the three real problems of filming in a French home: floor space, neighbours and winter light.

Pick one corner and keep it

Find the spot in your home where window light comes in without direct sun and where the background does not distract. A plain wall, a tidy shelf, a light curtain.

Mark on the floor where the tripod goes and where you stand. A fixed set saves you twenty minutes per shoot and makes all your pieces look consistent, which is exactly what a brand wants to see in a portfolio.

The small flat, solved

Twenty square metres is plenty. Film closer and use detail shots: hands, product, face. Most UGC works better that way than on wide shots of the living room.

A tripod with an overhead arm for filming on a table multiplies what you can do in a corner of the kitchen.

Neighbour and street noise

In an old building everything is audible: the floor above, the lift, the traffic. And the microphone picks up far more than your ear does.

Three free solutions: film early in the morning or in the early afternoon, move away from the window facing the street, and fill the room with soft surfaces. An open wardrobe behind the camera absorbs a great deal of echo.

And the solution that does cost but changes everything: a lavalier microphone. It is the best purchase before any light or any lens.

Winter, the real opponent

From November to February, usable light stops around four in the afternoon in the north of the country, and the permanently grey sky flattens everything.

Two answers. First, plan your shoots at the weekend or during your lunch break, while it is still daylight. Second, buy an LED light: in France it is less a luxury than a seasonal tool, without which you lose four months of production a year.

Heating and reflections

A clanking radiator is audible in the edit. Switch it off during the take. And watch out for glasses: window light reflects in them, which often means shifting the angle by a few degrees.

The real minimum kit

A phone with a good camera, a tripod, a lavalier microphone, a white fabric and an LED light. That is enough to invoice all year, December included.

Where to go next

A fixed, reliable set is what lets you deliver fast and charge properly. Our guide on how to become a UGC creator covers the rest of the craft.