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Corporate Video Production

"We need a video" is how most corporate briefs begin, and it's why so many corporate films are dull. Corporate video production covers almost any film a business makes about itself, for customers, candidates, investors or its own staff, and it gets good when somebody asks what the film is for. Given a clear job and an honest idea of who's watching, it can be the best thing a company puts out all year.

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First Last Film is a video production company in Woodbridge, Suffolk, working in London and across the UK, making corporate, brand and social films for businesses, charities and schools. Our clients have included OakNorth and Dojo, alongside commercial work for global brands like LEGO and Pepsi.

What do businesses use corporate video for?

The answer is usually a problem rather than a format. A sales team spends the first twenty minutes of every call explaining the same thing, or a new process has to reach four hundred people who won't read the document. The film follows from the problem.

That's why the phrase covers so much. A brand film tells people who you are, and an explainer video shows them how something works. The list goes on through testimonials and training films, and most of our corporate video production services end up being one of those, or two of them cut from the same shoot.

Corporate video is a marketing tool as much as a communications one, so the useful question is what the film is worth if it works. If a sales team explains the same thing on every call, a film that does it for them is easy to weigh against the time that goes on it, and that usually makes the budget question easier.

Rubicon Partners, Who we are. A film made for a private equity organisation showing the breadth and depth of their investments while hearing their USPs and offering. — Rubicon PartnersWho we areA film made for a private equity organisation showing the breadth and depth of their investments while hearing their USPs and offering.

Recruitment video production

A recruitment film should let candidates meet the people they would work with before they apply. They have already read the careers page, so a film that repeats it tells them nothing. What they want to know is what it's like on a Tuesday, and the only people who can tell them are the ones who work there.

So our recruitment video production is built on staff interviews rather than a presenter reading out the company values. OakNorth asked us for a recruitment film while the bank was growing and hiring. We kept the crew small and spent time with the organisation before and around the interviews, so people knew us by the time the camera was on. Staff from different parts of the bank were filmed in the spaces where they actually work, with the office running around them.

The OakNorth recruitment film is cut as one argument for joining, carried by what those people said in their own words. The point is that candidates see the place before they walk in, and a short recruitment film can do that on a careers page or in the email that invites someone to interview.

How a corporate video gets made

Every project starts with a thirty minute conversation about what the film has to do and who it's for. A corporate film made without a clear brief tends to look like a corporate film made without a clear brief, so this part matters more than any piece of kit. From that we write a treatment, which sets out the approach and comes with a fixed price.

Preproduction is the planning. We agree who's being interviewed and where, scout the locations, plan the shots and book the crew. Most corporate shoots are one or two days, and the edit takes longer than the filming.

We edit the film in our own suite, then it goes to you for notes, and the revision rounds are agreed before the shoot so nobody's counting. The grade, the sound mix and the music come last. You get a master file plus the versions you need for the website, LinkedIn, a sales deck or a conference screen. Most projects take four to six weeks from the first conversation to delivery.

OakNorth, Simmons Bars case study. Simmons Bars' CFO Tom Henry on why they need a funding partner that moves as quickly as they do. — OakNorthSimmons Bars case studySimmons Bars' CFO Tom Henry on why they need a funding partner that moves as quickly as they do.

Who's on the crew?

We direct, film and edit every project ourselves, so nothing gets lost between the shoot and the cut. As a corporate video production agency we keep it that way, so the corporate videographer on the day is one of us. The crew scales to the job, with a sound recordist on almost every shoot and a second camera operator or a gaffer when the brief needs one.

A small crew suits corporate work. Offices aren't film sets, and people who've never been interviewed relax faster with two or three people watching than with eight. It also keeps the cost in the parts of the film you'll actually see.

If you're searching for business filming or a business videographer rather than a production company, it comes to the same thing here: the people who plan the film are the people who shoot it.

What being filmed is like

Nearly all of them tell us they'll be terrible at it, and it's what we hear more than anything else. So we spend time with each person before anyone films them, keep the crew to two or three, and make it a conversation rather than a script, so the words come out the way they'd say them to a colleague. If someone really won't, there are other routes, from customers on camera to animation. Our page on never being on camera explains the approach in more detail.

Some of the work

We've made several films for Dojo, the payments company, and most of them put a merchant at the front and let the product sit in the background. The Dojo case study covers those, a film for its Walkup app and a trade show film cut from footage we'd already shot.

For ASK Partners, a property lender, we built a set of investor films as a funnel, from a short film cut from three investors' interviews to the full interviews and films with the team. The interviews were unscripted, which is why they carry a recommendation the way a conversation would. You can see all four case studies in the work.

FAQ

What is corporate video production?

Corporate video production covers almost any film a business makes about itself, for customers, candidates, investors or its own staff. Brand films, explainers, testimonials, recruitment and training films all fall under it.

How long does a corporate video take to make?

Most projects take four to six weeks from the first conversation to delivery. Most corporate shoots are one or two days, and the edit takes longer than the filming.

How many people come to a corporate video shoot?

Usually two or three. We direct, film and edit ourselves, with a sound recordist on almost every shoot and a second camera operator or a gaffer when the brief needs one.

Where is First Last Film based?

First Last Film is based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, and works in London and across the UK.

Corporate films are the largest part of our video production services. If accuracy and a careful tone matter most, video production for healthcare explains how we work with clinical sign-off, and banks and lenders should read financial services video production.

If you haven't got a brief, that's fine, because most people haven't. A half-formed idea, a problem or a link to something you liked is enough to start.

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Work in this area

Signet Collection, Hospitality case study. Hector Ross of Signet Collection on the origins of his business and building The Retreat at Elcot Park with OakNorth. — Signet CollectionHospitality case studyHector Ross of Signet Collection on the origins of his business and building The Retreat at Elcot Park with OakNorth.

ASK Partners, CEO on the Q2 2024 market. We made a 'state of the economy' film with CEO, Dan Austin. — ASK PartnersCEO on the Q2 2024 marketWe made a 'state of the economy' film with CEO, Dan Austin.

Avove, We Are Avove. A film to promote the diverse offering of Avove, an infrastructure company, shot across the UK. — AvoveWe Are AvoveA film to promote the diverse offering of Avove, an infrastructure company, shot across the UK.

Paymentsense, Sponsored sleep out. Paymentsense wanted to raise awareness of homelessness in West London and give staff a way into a sponsored sleep out. — PaymentsenseSponsored sleep outPaymentsense wanted to raise awareness of homelessness in West London and give staff a way into a sponsored sleep out.

All the work. Films like these often sit alongside brand films.

Three things people ask

What does it cost?: Most production companies won't tell you until you've had a call. What things cost
How long does it take?: Four to six weeks from brief to delivery, for most projects. How we work

This is one of the ways we work, and the whole range is on the video production services page. People reading about corporate video often go on to brand films and explainer videos. You can see the approach at work in the Dojo case study, and for a sector where accuracy and a calm tone matter most, read video production for healthcare. Guides that go with it: types of corporate video, how long a corporate video should be, how to brief a video production company and video for HR teams.

About 6 minutes to read.

Tell us the problem.

We'll tell you honestly which kind of film would solve it, or whether a film is the answer at all. Thirty minutes with one of our team.

Tell us about your film See what things cost