The researcher
You have a paper, report or result you want turned into a film people will actually watch.
Technical storytelling studio / London
Ideas worth
watching.
Specframe makes complete films about difficult subjects. Script, visual direction, animation, narration and an original score, made by people who can read the paper, follow the maths and get the detail right.
Selected film / Research explainer16:9 / HD
0:000:00
Made from a 60 page technical report, read in full by the people who wrote and directed the film.
Human reviewed before deliveryYou have something that is hard to explain.
A paper, a product, a mission, a course. If it is dense, technical or easy to get wrong, that is the work we want.
The founder or comms lead
You have a mission, an investor story or a technical argument the wider world needs to understand.
The engineering team
You have a product or a codebase that has to make sense to people who do not read code.
The lecturer, teacher or tutor
You want better materials, with topics explained properly to your students, film by film, as a coherent series.
The work makes the case.
Films that respect the intelligence of the subject and the attention of the audience.
02 / Commissioned explainer
A technical argument, rebuilt for film
03 / Commissioned explainer
Complex systems, cut with clarity
Ongoing studio project
Mathsy in motion.
Our education brand is where we keep testing how good design can make difficult ideas easier to understand.
Follow 115,000+ learners03 / What you are buying
We are academics who make films.
Not an animation supplier. A studio that understands your material well enough to argue with it, and builds the whole film around making that argument land.
We read the material ourselves. A sixty page paper, the derivations, the appendix nobody opens. Dense subjects are what we are best at, not something we work around.
Pedagogy is structural. The order of the argument, what appears on screen and when, and what gets cut are all decided by how people actually learn.
A normal animation agency can make something beautiful, but nobody in the room understands the subject or asks whether the audience learned anything. We do both.
Understanding
We read the paper and follow the maths ourselves, so the film is shaped by people who understand the argument.
Writing
A clear argument, written for the ear and sequenced around what the audience needs to understand first.
Direction
A visual language chosen for the subject, with a point of view that belongs to your film.
Animation
Precise motion, disciplined pacing and careful composition from the first frame to the last.
Sound and music
Narration and an original score written for your film. Full sound design is rolling out now.
Verification
A person checks every number, equation, label and final cut against your source before the film leaves the studio.
Priced by what the film does.
Length is guidance, not the unit of pricing. Compressing an idea into ninety seconds is a job in itself, not a discount. Every price is for a complete film, with two rounds of changes included.
- Script and story structure
- Original visual direction
- Animation
- Narration and an original score
- A human check against your source
- Two rounds of changes
Company film
A mission, investor story, product or internal argument, told as a complete film.
From £5,000Typically £5k to £10k
Research film
A paper, report or result turned into a film that stays faithful to the source, line by line.
From £3,500Typically £3.5k to £7k
University film
Degree level material and above, for lecturers and universities.
From £2,000One film
School film
GCSE, A level and equivalents, for schools, tutoring agencies and education companies.
From £1,500One film
Short film
One idea, under ninety seconds, compressed until it is impossible to miss.
From £1,200One film
Your explanation, animated
Send us a video of you working through a question, at a whiteboard or on your iPad, and we turn it into a narrated animated film. Maths, further maths, stats and mechanics at this price, other subjects by quote.
From £350One film
Series rates
Any film can become a series.
The first film builds the visual system. Every film after that reuses it, so film six speaks the visual language of film two. That is why the per film rate genuinely drops with volume.
Larger or ongoing work is a retainer: a set number of films each month, priority turnaround and your visual system maintained as a house style. Talk to us and we will quote it properly.
| Film type | One film | Series of 5 | Series of 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company film | £5,000 | £4,250 | £3,750 |
| Research film | £3,500 | £3,000 | £2,600 |
| University film | £2,000 | £1,600 | £1,300 |
| School film | £1,500 | £1,250 | £1,000 |
| Short film | £1,200 | £1,050 | £900 |
| Your explanation, animated | £350 | £250 | £199 |
Useful answers.
Why not a normal animation agency?
Most studios are full of excellent creatives who have never read your paper. Nobody in the room can follow the derivation, and nobody is designing for whether your audience understands the argument at the end. We are academics as well as film makers, so we do the reading and the teaching as well as the craft.
What is included in a film?
A complete piece of work: script, visual direction, animation, narration and an original score, with a human pass checking every number, equation and label against your source. Full sound design is rolling out now. Two rounds of changes are included.
Can any of these become a series?
Yes, and most do. The first film builds the visual system, the notation, the colours, the layout conventions and the voice, and every film after that reuses it. That is why the per film rate genuinely drops with volume and why your third film is better than your first. Every series includes a series plan up front: what each film covers, in what order, and what it assumes you have already seen.
What can you make?
Research films, technical explainers, product stories, company and mission films, teaching material and short social films. Difficult subjects are usually the most interesting.
Do you use AI?
We use modern tools where they improve the work, but people make the editorial decisions, direct the design and verify the final film.
How quickly can you deliver?
Short films can take a few days. Larger explainers usually take one to three weeks. We agree the schedule and review points before work begins.
06 / Start a project
Bring us the difficult thing.
Tell us what needs explaining, who needs to understand it and what a successful film needs to achieve. Send the paper, the report or the recording and we will read it properly before we reply.
WhatsApp +44 7403 070704 ↗