Corporate video in Auckland
Company profiles, staff and customer interviews, testimonials, recruitment video and internal comms. Filmed and edited by one person, so the cut is decided by someone who was in the room.
Examples
A corporate job, so you can see the shape before you brief one.
What this usually is
Two to three minutes on who you are and what you do, for the website homepage or a pitch. The most common one, and the one most likely to end up being watched by someone deciding whether to work with you.
One person on camera, properly lit, properly miked. Used for testimonials, culture pieces, and as the backbone of most longer films.
A customer saying the thing you can't say about yourself. Short, usually 60 to 90 seconds, and the highest-converting piece most businesses own.
What it is actually like to work there. Runs on your careers page and on LinkedIn.
Straight, clear, not trying to be a brand film. Usually the fastest to shoot and the easiest to get signed off.
Most corporate video lives or dies on the person in front of the camera.
And most people are not used to it. Four things that help, none of which cost anything, are below.
Interviews are the hard part
Most corporate video lives or dies on whether the person on camera is any good, and most people are not, because they have never done it before and they are nervous.
Things that help, and none of them cost anything.
People who have rehearsed a script sound like they are reading. People who have had a day to think about three questions sound like themselves.
The more colleagues in the room, the worse the interview. Ideally it is them, me, and nobody else.
The first answer is always the stiff one. I ask it again at the end when they have forgotten to be nervous, and that is usually the take that gets used.
It is edited. They can stop, start again, and say it a different way. Telling them that at the start changes the whole session.
Offices are difficult rooms
Worth checking before the day, because all of these are fixable in advance and none of them are fixable afterwards.
The single most common problem. It is inaudible to people in the room and very audible on a recording. If it can be switched off for an hour, switch it off.
Reflections, people walking past, and no sound isolation. A smaller closed room almost always looks better than the big glass one.
They flicker and they are an unflattering colour. If they can go off and we work with window light plus a panel, the interview looks twice as good.
Phones, keyboards, conversations. Not impossible, just needs a corner and some warning to the people nearby.
Not on the shoot. In the three weeks afterwards, when the file goes round six people and comes back with contradictory notes.
Two things prevent it, both agreed before the shoot. One named person collects the feedback: everyone else sends notes to them, they consolidate, and one list comes back to me. Notes arriving separately over ten days is how a two-week edit becomes a two-month one.
And one round of changes is included. A round is one consolidated list. That is not a restriction, it is what stops the project drifting, and in practice almost nothing needs a second.
What you get
A main film, usually two to three minutes, 16:9, graded and delivered as MP4 ready to upload. A vertical cut for social from the same footage. Captions burned in or as SRT.
Speaker pull-quotes, extra versions and a stills selection are all available on the same shoot, and they are cheaper asked for at the quote stage than three weeks later.
Approval kills more corporate video than any shoot day.
One named person collects the notes. One consolidated list comes back. That is the whole system, and it is why edits land on time.
What it costs
From $2,500. That covers a shoot day, a finished main film and a vertical cut.
For context: corporate video in New Zealand generally runs $3,000 to $30,000 for a finished project. This sits near the bottom of that because there is one person doing it rather than a producer, a shooter, an editor and an account manager.
What moves the number: how many people are being interviewed, how many locations, how many deliverables come off the day, and how fast you need it.
Kit
A Sony FX3 as the main camera. Full frame and clean at high ISO, so a dim meeting room does not need a lighting truck. 4K up to 120fps.
An Aputure 300d with an umbrella for interviews, RØDE wireless lavaliers and a Sennheiser shotgun for sound, and fluid-head tripods for anything locked off. Editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
Public liability insurance and separate equipment cover. Most corporate sites want a certificate on file before you are allowed on the floor, and it goes out the same day you ask.
Questions
Two to three minutes for a company profile or a website piece. Sixty to ninety seconds for a testimonial. Past about three minutes people stop watching, whatever the business is.
Yes. Send fonts, logos and any reference cuts and the edit gets built to sit inside them. If there are not guidelines yet, it stays clean and the footage carries it.
Comfortably four to six in one location, fewer if we are moving between sites. Each one needs setup, so the number of locations matters more than the number of people.
I hold the copyright. You have a licence to use the delivered videos from delivery, which becomes permanent once the invoice is paid. Full detail here.
One to two weeks for a full edit, with a delivery date confirmed in writing before the shoot. Faster is possible and quoted as its own line.
Send me the brief
What you are making, who it is for and roughly when. That is enough to quote from, and it comes back itemised the same day.
Also available for event videography, social content and edit-only work.