Corporate Videos, business videos, promotional videos, whatever you want to call them can be as simple and as complex as you want them. But before you start shooting make sure your team goes through a few important starters (of course, it’s always great to engage your production company at this point). But here are a few things to consider:
- What are you trying to achieve? Are you slinging products, are you starting a movement, downloading critical information, educating, recruiting… Other than wanting to get eyeballs on your corporate profile, you want to make sure that they are the right eyeballs.
- How will this be delivered on screen? Talking head, Voice Over, Story Driven, Animation, FP, something a little more experimental, the possibilities are endless. Pick one that you know will work, stick with it, evolve it, and measure the success of that style.
- What image do you want to portray? Pay attention to setting (i.e. boardroom, on-location, in a swanky space, in the middle of nowhere, on set), all of this says something to the viewer. Don’t forget wardrobe or hair and makeup. It doesn’t have to be lavish but once it’s been filmed, it’s more costly to go back and fix. Blurring out, or removing logos or errant hair all takes additional time in post.
- Make sure to plan to shoot additional footage/illustrative footage (B-Roll). This is highly dependent on the story that you’re telling. It has to be relevant and each shot has to be motivated. Know the “what” and the “why” before you shoot.
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Video Disclaimer: Most of these blog videos that we do are experimental. They are produced in a way that allows us to test out new approaches, effects or treatments.Video Transcript: So, we we’re engaged to shoot a number of educational videos to teach the art of knot tying. We needed some B-Roll to support a very short intro. It had to be slick and immediately identifiable, and leave a big enough canvas for graphics, so it would also have to be clean and not busy. That’s the what and the why. The motivation for the very short sequence came from something we’re all familiar with – the sound of rope on rope tying and the visual of rope tightening. It’s one of the first things we learn as a child so that sound and visual is something very familiar. Except in this case, the sound and imagery had to also be representative of the arborist culture. This motivated us to use a macro lens to capture the detail in the rope, as if the viewer was right there pulling on the rope. We also wanted to add some subtle movement to each shot to make it a little more dynamic and interesting. Of course, we tried out a number of colour combinations that would work with the graphic titles to be added. These are the three shots that we settled on.
- Execute with a plan. A written, drawn out, highly detailed plan. At the least, write a script and develop a storyboard. Some people are naturally talented on camera, but you want to make sure what you want to say and do, comes across in the right way.
These are just a few points to consider when the idea to start producing corporate videos slides across your desk. Over the next few weeks, we will go into more detail on the planning process and include some tips to ensure you’ll get to your planned corporate video shoot date without bumps or setbacks.
Until then, Happy Planning!
If you’d like to speak with a producer to discuss you video needs, give us a call or fill out the form.