Filmroom
Corporate video production company for brand and company films
A company film has a harder job than a product advert. It has to explain who you are to people who may never buy a single product: investors, new recruits, your own staff, a partner doing due diligence on a Sunday evening. It has to be honest enough to trust and good enough to finish watching.
Who the film is for
The first conversation is about the audience and where they will see it. A film for the home page is watched with the sound off, often on a phone, and needs to make sense in its first few seconds. A film for an investor meeting or an all-staff briefing can take its time. A recruitment film has to show the real place, because the people watching it will soon be walking through the door.
Most briefs end up needing one main film and several shorter versions, so we plan those from the start.
The treatment
Before anything is filmed, you receive a treatment: a short written document setting out the tone, the structure, the visual references and how the film will be made. It is the document where scope and expectations are agreed, and it is far cheaper to change a paragraph in a treatment than a day of filming.
Once the treatment is signed off, it becomes a storyboard or shot list, a schedule and a list of the people, places and things that need to be on camera.
On the day
Most company films feature people who aren't actors. We plan interviews so that nobody has to read lines, keep the crew small enough not to crowd a working office or factory floor, and shoot plenty of the real work going on around them.
Where the story needs something built, such as a set, a display or a scale model of a new site, it is designed and made under one roof by the same team, which saves a great deal of coordination. If you also need stills of your people or premises, they can be shot in the same session with the lighting already in place.
Filming days are planned around your business, so the working day carries on while the camera is there.
Edit, grade and delivery
The edit is shared with you at agreed points, usually a first cut and a fine cut, with your notes collected in writing. The grade then sets the final colour and mood so every shot looks as though it belongs to the same film.
You receive the main film, the shorter versions, subtitled files for silent autoplay, and the aspect ratios each channel needs: widescreen for the website and presentations, vertical and square for social. Everything is named and organised so your team can find the right file in a year's time.
About brand and corporate film
What is a treatment in corporate video production?
A short written document, agreed before filming, that sets out the film's tone, structure, visual references and how it will be made. It is where scope and expectations are fixed, so everyone knows what the finished film will look like before the camera comes out.
Can our staff appear in the company film if they have never been on camera?
Yes, and they usually come across better than actors because they know the work. We plan interviews as conversations, so nobody has to learn lines, and keep the crew small so the room stays relaxed.
Which versions of a company film will we receive?
Usually a main film, shorter edits for specific uses, subtitled versions for silent autoplay and the aspect ratios your channels need, from widescreen to vertical. The full list is agreed in the treatment so nothing is an afterthought.
Send us the shot list you have, or the CAD file if the product isn't made yet.
Either is enough to start. The reply sets out how the film, the stills and the renders fit together for your launch.
info@stillroomcreative.com