#WeekdayAttitude

Mai Yukol

We ended up not wanting to sell it right away since it was our first house...

What are you up to?

I’m currently managing a studio called “Pavang Studio.” It is a cozy home-studio where people can do commercial or photography shooting.

How did Pavang Studio start?

It was such a long story. My husband (then boyfriend) works in real estate and we initially were interested in buying an old house near my home. We went to see the place but it was overpriced. The agent then took us to see this place where Pavang Studio is now. We decided to buy it since the rate we got was very affordable due to the old condition of the house. It was the first house that my husband bought with his own money.

Why studio?

This wasn’t our first plan. The initial plan was to buy it, renovate it, and then sell it. After we renovated the house, we ended up not wanting to sell it right away since it was our first house. However, we still wanted to make use out of it. My family and relatives have been in film production business and I know this business makes good money, so I came up with the idea of making this house into a photography studio.

How did you start promoting?

Online. Facebook, to be exact. Our friends and family were also helping us by talking about us on their social media. We also hosted Pavang Studio opening event where we invited a bunch of people to the studio and gave them drinks and free photoshoot. I think that helped a lot too.

THE SHIFT

Why shifted it from photography studio to videography studio?

At that time, I was also selling things online and noticed that myself and a lot of people often looked for new places for to do photoshoot for their products. That was why I initially built and decorated the place for photoshoot purposes. We later got a client who was using our space for a commercial video shooting and we got more and more clients using our space for that. The demand for using our studio for commercial and video shoots outweighed product photoshoots eventually so we made some adjustments to accommodate video shooting more.

What needed to be adjusted or changed?

Mostly the layout. We needed to free up more space for the production crew as they usually have a lot of people on set. We also redecorated and moved some furniture around.

Did you have any obstacles?

Too many! Mostly the house renovation process. As I mentioned, the house was old when we bough it and it needed a lot of maintenance work. The leaking roof was one of the biggest problems, not to mention the clogged toilet. There was also the issue of the lack of parking spaces. Lucky, our neighbors are kind enough to let our clients park in front of their properties.

How do you manage your studio booking?

This part is pretty easy. Our clients can book us through Facebook, Line or even call. Our potential clients usually ask to come over and do the block shots first to see if they can work with our space. They might ask us if things can be added or moved around before agreeing on using our service.

I'm lovin' it.

Do you enjoy it so far?

I totally do. I get to learn a lot of things. Business management is one thing, people management is another. I only hired another person to help me out, but I get to learn a lot about people management from all the production crews.

What would be your selling point?

I think we offer a reasonable price. For a whole day shoot of 12 hours, we only charge 15,000 Baht. We want the price to be affordable so that people keep coming back.

Any other plan(s) after this?

We plan to do an annual renovation, including the garden as well. We also need to replace some old furniture with new ones. We want our existing customers to feel like they are not repeating the same sets all the time.

You seem to work a lot, do you even have free time? What’s your secret to be lively?

I actually do. I’m lucky that I can just do my work over the phone, so I can be anywhere and still working. In my free time, I’d sleep as much as I possibly could. I just love sleeping. I also try to eat healthy and drink plenty of water.

Let’s talk about makeup and skincare.

Well, I normally don’t wear makeup. I only do my eyebrows, curl my lashes, put some tint on my cheeks, and that would be all. I don’t know a lot about beauty products and I only use Aesop for my skin.