Crafting Corporate Video Content

In the space of B2B content, your options are bountiful when it comes to the types of corporate video content, which allows you and your brand plenty of opportunities to prove your value to customers. There are several approaches and considerations when crafting corporate video content; let’s take a closer look.  

Types of Corporate Video Content 

We have written an insightful article when selecting the right video for you to tell your brand story here. Once you have chosen 1 to 3 options that you feel most strongly about, you will want to understand how best to parlay your brand ethos into a video. B2B corporate video content typically features a range of on-screen interviews with interpolated cut-a-way footage (otherwise known as b-roll) that depict what the current speaker is discussing.

The Look & Feel is Paramount 

There are many factors to consider when making your video content looking the best. The first, and most important, is the location. Are there spaces in your place of operation that would be suitable for filming? Take into consideration the look, feel and floor space you have. A room with white walls, grey carpet and limited space won’t do your brand any justice on camera. Does the room have a lot of echoes and poor acoustics? The same goes here; poor sound quality won’t do your brand any justice on camera. If you have room for investment, we’d recommend a professional studio space where you can use props to dress the surroundings featured on camera. It should be soundproof, allowing precise and crisp audio delivered to the camera. If, however, your investment in B2B corporate video content is limited, that’s okay. If all you have to work with are rooms at your organisation- get creative. You’ll be surprised how well a green plant can lift the space, and an innovative lighting approach can lift the interview scenes' ambience. 

Another option to consider are these fantastic canvas backdrops. They’re rich in texture, colour and style that can complement an otherwise ordinary room. See examples of how we’ve utilised plants and textured backdrops for our clients.

Lastly, for your on-screen interviews to look the best, your wardrobe styling for the speakers is pivotal. It does come down to how you’d like to position your brand; however, we find block colours and simple materials look best on camera. Crazy patterns or reflective materials can cause issues with the professional lights and camera used. Look to keep it clean, sharp and straightforward.

Ensuring Your Key Messaging Comes Across to Your Customers 

You can do one of two things here: provide an approved script for your on-screen speakers to read via a teleprompter OR provide questions you ask them off camera and screen the key messages in each question via a teleprompter. Teleprompters work wonders for on-screen speakers. The teleprompter sits in front (or to one side) of the camera; depending on where the speaker looks, they are guided to hit all of the key messages required for a successful outcome. You may think that if the speaker is reading from a teleprompter, the viewers may pick up on this, quite the opposite. Teleprompters are subtle on camera, and above all else, they speed up the filming process incredibly because everything required for each speaker to state is laid out in front of them. 

See below how a teleprompter looks and works; it may sit in front of the camera, but it doesn't appear on a camera due to how it reflects from the iPad or tablet device hosting the script.

The Best Practices When Filming 

It’s always recommended to hire a professional film crew to capture the content required for your B2B corporate video content. The first step is getting plenty of video coverage, especially in your interview scenes. We recommend using two video cameras, one in front of your speaker and one to the side. This allows a visual change up, and if the speaker fumbles a word or two, the editor can always cut around this by jumping to the other camera and avoid any jump cuts to cover up the fumble. 

We recommend having soft lighting on your subject's face and body with light illuminating the background when it comes to lighting. Your production partner can try a plethora of lighting schemes and colours to enhance the interview or cut-a-way scenes, but it’s always essential to have the interview scenes lit beautifully. It’s all about the light, the camera is still important, but lighting is a more cost-effective way to elevate the image shown to customers. It can make or break the overall look and feel of your video content. 

For sound, we recommend either lapel mics or a boom microphone handled by a professional sound recordist. It’s good to have both as a backup option, but one or the other is just fine. It’s essential to note that sound should come from either of these two sources; if your sound is only coming from the in-built camera microphone- beware. These in-built camera microphones are typically only used as guides in the editing phase, meaning they don’t sound right.

An example of a lapel mic. It can be fixed on top or behind the wardrobe of your speaker. The lapel mic's audio is then transmitted to an external recording device or straight into the video footage via the camera.

An example of a boom mic. It is handled by a professional sound recordist who positions it with their arms and hands or attaches it to a pole that sits above the speaker's head slightly out of the camera frame. A boom mic's sound quality is higher quality than that of a lapel mic; however, they do require a slightly larger investment in the production budget.

Cut-a-Ways (a.k.a B-Roll) Are Important

Earlier, we mentioned how B2B corporate videos feature a mix of on-screen interviews and cut-a-ways (also known as b-roll). Cut-a-ways are crucial for adding further context to what the speakers discuss. Can you showcase your product or service in action? Can you take your customer behind the scenes to showcase your values, processes or people? Get creative here; nobody wants to watch a video consisting of only on-screen speakers.  

While the content of what they’re saying may be of extreme value, show your customer a little more- they'll connect with your brand so much more. Another alternative here if you’re limited in what you can show with cut-a-ways is stock footage. There are a handful of high-quality stock video websites such as Shutter Stock, Adobe Stock and Artlist that you can pull from to build up your cut-a-way assets. For example, does your brand deal with an array of suppliers in the mining industry? Why not utilise stock footage of mining sites in action. 

The Post-Production Phase 

From shoot day, you’ll move to the post-production phase, where everything comes together. Post-production requirements vary from project to project, but the primary step for you here with B2B corporate video content is to compile what your speakers have spoken about into a consistent flow. Suppose your speakers read from an approved script. In that case, this stage of the editing process is relatively straightforward as your production partners only need to choose the best-performed segments of each script portion. Still, if on shoot day you asked questions to which your speakers spoke to key messages and spoke freely around these, you’re going to need a transcription of each interview. 

At JJW STUDIO, we send off the raw footage of each interview to a transcription service. There are many transcription services available to you, but our personal favourite is rev.com. Rev.com will transcribe each word from the interview footage we send them, and it’s not only cost-effective; their turnaround times are excellent. From here, you can highlight each portion from the transcript that you’ll want in the final video and put it together for the editor to use as a base for constructing the first edit.

Everybody approaches this process differently, but the key here is to speed up the editing process by cutting straight to the chase on the speakers' content for each interview. Editing can be time-consuming in video production, but that’s okay; you want to create a final product that captures your brand's essence with sufficient precision. Having constructed a script built from a transcription saves ample time and budget. 

Got a question or curious? Start a conversation with us here. 🤔📲

Now, go forth and make an impact!