The main advantage of studio shoots is that every aspect of filming is 100% controllable. In a natural environment, there’s a lot of time spent waiting for pesky clouds to pass over so that the light on your shots doesn’t change. Similarly, planes flying overhead can cause havoc during interviews, not to mention enthusiastic members of the public waving at the camera when you’re out in the open, or (a personal favourite) cars beeping at you as they pass. None of the above are a problem in the studio environment – with no windows and being completely soundproofed, you can create the exact environment that you want and not have to worry that it will be changed by any external factors.
However in a natural setting, you have all of the props that you need: the sofa for the interviewee is already in the lounge, the lights hanging from the office ceiling make an interesting backdrop, and the bar has… a bar. There is, therefore, a huge amount of pre-production planning that goes into a studio shoot – if you don’t bring it onto set, then you don’t have it. And many studios tend to be out in the wilderness where land (and therefore space) is cheaper, therefore needing something at the last minute can mean a member of the production team having to go and find a wooden spoon, a jester’s hat, or very specifically branded golf club when you’re 30 miles from the nearest town. Pre-production is everything.
