Corporate videos play a crucial role in today's digital landscape, serving as powerful tools for brand establishment and customer engagement. However, not all corporate videos are created equal. To stand out in the crowded digital space, it's essential to follow best practices that elevate your content from ordinary to exceptional. Below, we outline the key elements necessary for producing high-quality corporate videos that resonate with your audience and boost your online presence.
1. Pre-Production: Strategic Planning
We’ve all heard it before but the best thing you can do to ensure your project’s success is to know what you need to get before you get so set. Prioritize meticulous pre-production planning to ensure the success of your project. Develop a comprehensive shot list, schedule, and list of interview questions tailored to meet your client's objectives. Having a well-defined plan keeps your production on track and enhances efficiency. Regardless of how detailed that plan ends up being – you gotta have something in your back pocket to keep you on track!
2. Lights: See to Believe!
The reason you need specialized lights is because cameras don’t “see” the same way we do. Cameras need extra light to help with focus and increase the blurriness of the background (called bokeh) which provides for better, and more cinematic, overall image quality. Invest in specialized lighting equipment to enhance visual quality and create cinematic appeal. While natural light is valuable, supplemental lighting is often necessary to optimize focus and background aesthetics. Select locations with ample natural light or invest in professional lighting setups to achieve optimal results.
3. Camera: Quality over Size
There are some BIG brand names out there when it comes to cameras and while yes, having one of those very expensive cameras on set is super cool – it’s not exactly necessary. There are many fantastic, professional video cameras out there that will give you the perfect image you need for your delivery, especially a video that’s designed for viewing online only. It’s honestly not about the amount of “K”’s you have. It’s about whether you know how to use them or not. Focus on understanding your equipment and leveraging its capabilities effectively. Consider renting specialized lenses to enhance visual appeal without breaking your budget.
4. Action: Capturing Authenticity in Your Interview
With most corporate videos, the heart and soul of the piece is the people you’re interviewing. The trick to getting a successful interview is very simple: Smile. It’s important to be friendly, kind and understanding of your subjects. Maybe your subject is having a tough day or is nervous about public speaking. After all, there’s a reason you’re behind the camera and not in front of it. Establish a rapport with interviewees to create a relaxed and engaging atmosphere. Prioritize preparation to keep interactions smooth and enjoyable for your subjects, ensuring authentic and captivating content.
5. B-Roll Footage: Enhance Visual Storytelling
Although most B-Roll (the footage we use to cover up our edits) for corporate videos is fairly straightforward, it can be kind of tricky to get in an office environment. As mentioned above, a lot of it has to do with people not wanting to be on camera, other factors may have to do with proprietary content your client might not want the general public to be able to see. So what can you do to set yourself up for success? Plan ahead. If you can get a tight list of shots over to someone on your client’s team a week before the shoot, they can be a friendly tour guide as you navigate the waters of their place of business. This significantly increases the odds of people being willing and able to help you get what you need.
6. Audio: Ensure Clear Sound
The fastest way to sink your project to the bottom of the internet is to mess up the audio. Quality audio recording is paramount to the success of any video project. Try simplifying your setup to minimize technical issues and prioritize clear sound capture. Although sound doesn’t have to be perfect, it cannot bebad. Music and other tricks can help smooth out some rough moments, but nothing will save you from audio that’s recorded way too low, way too high, or simply not recorded at all. If you have the budget, consider hiring a professional Audio Technician to manage audio recording and mixing for optimal results. Bonus points if the same professional mixes your final audio track.
7. Editing: Fix it in Post?
It’s said that a film is made three times, “First in the writing of the script, once again in the shooting, and finally in the editing.” This means editing is your last, best chance to have a successful video. You must have reviewed all the footage you have and know the goal of the video because this is when all that hard work planning and shooting come together. Take your time to understand what your subjects are saying so you can cut what doesn’t need to be there, find threads that hold their ideas together, and tell a story that keeps your audience engaged and informed. It’s also important to find a song that vibes with the company’s culture and the overall tone of the video you’re making. This is where all that b-roll comes into play as you’ll need a lot of it to hide all your clever edits as well as provide visual engagement.
8. Final Delivery: Attention to Detail
There’s a lot more to delivering a professional video than hitting the “export” button. You need to color-correct your interviews and every clip of b-roll you use to ensure you get the most out of your camera crew’s hard work. You must review every edit on the final timeline to make sure there are no flash frames or jump cuts and you need to spend extra attention on your final audio mix. Your interviews must all be set to the same levels and the music track can’t overpower your dialogue. You need to also check each and every cut to see if it needs a crossfade to finesse the interview transitions. Once you’ve done all that, be sure to watch the exported final video file in its entirety to make sure no rendering errors occurred or if you missed any final details. This is your last chance to give your client the quality product you’ve been working so hard on – don’t mess it up this close to the finish line!
9. Take Two: Building Long-Term Partnerships
The ultimate goal for anybody making any kind of video or film or creative endeavor of any sort is to be able to do it all again. The single greatest way of getting that next opportunity is to do a good job of it the first time around so that your clients will want to hire you again. With that being said, corporate video production is much more than just your final product that gets clients to call you back, it’s your general demeanor. Honestly, there are lots of people who can make good-looking videos, but do they respond quickly to emails? Do they listen patiently to their client’s feedback? Are they willing and able to provide solutions to problems that arise or are they happy just to point out the troubles and expect someone else to solve them? Being an accountable partner and forming solid relationships will lead to repeat business. As an added bonus - the more times you work with a client the easier the whole process becomes. You’ll understand how they work; they can count on the way you work and soon the entire experience is streamlined, efficient, and hopefully enjoyable for all parties.
Conclusion:
Here at Maximum Flavor Media, we’ve been doing our best to check all those boxes since 2011. There’s always more to learn, there are always mistakes that will be made, but as long you put your best foot forward on any given and trust in your clients and crew – you’ll be able to produce a video worth watching. And hopefully, get the chance to do it again!