← Back to Overview

#VideoProduction

Video Production and Corporate Film for Brands

Films that start from a concept, not from a quoted price. Corporate films, product films, recruiting films and campaign spots. Nationwide across Germany.

Case Study

Electric SUV Charging Campaign

Plug In. Power Up. Take Over. A cinematic campaign for a German premium car manufacturer that transformed an electric SUV's technical specifications into an emotional, visually compelling story.

2.4M

Video Views

+38%

Engagement

+27%

Test Drives

01

Initial Situation

The manufacturer needed a campaign that transformed the electric SUV's technical specifications into emotional, understandable messages.

02

Our Solution

A cinematic campaign video with strategic direction and production excellence. Premium positioning combined with practical superiority.

03

Result

2.4 million views, 38% more engagement, and 27% more test drive requests. The campaign positioned the vehicle as the premium choice.

The video production market competes on price and volume. But the quality of a corporate film is not decided by the camera; it is decided by the concept behind it, the preparation, and the craft. A shoot day is a window that cannot be repeated: whatever was not thought through on set cannot be repaired in post. That is why a production begins long before the first take.

Why moving image carries and what length belongs to it

On any given day, moving image reaches more people in Germany than any other medium. The ARD/ZDF-Medienstudie 2025, the joint media study by Germany’s public broadcasters, puts its daily reach at 89.1 percent with 196 minutes of use per day. The study is based on a random sample drawn to ADM standard with 2,512 German-speaking respondents aged 14 and over, surveyed between 28 January and 18 April 2025.

That still does not answer how long a film may be, and the answer differs by channel. In the feed a film competes with the thumb: a short cut holds more attention there than a long one, because nobody went looking for it. Explain something, on the other hand, and you can run longer, because the viewer arrives with a question the film answers. A corporate film on the website has a different job than a cutdown in Reels, and therefore a different running time. Length follows the objective, not the gut.

Source: ARD/ZDF-Medienstudie 2025

What we produce

The formats differ not in technology but in the job they do. Which one fits is decided by the objective, not by what happens to be in production.

Corporate film (Imagefilm)

The company as a whole: stance, competence, people. Two to four minutes, used on the website, in sales and at trade fairs. It answers the question of who you are dealing with before anyone asks it.

Product film

One product, one promise. The restriction is the point: explain three benefits at once and you explain none.

Recruiting film

Culture cannot be claimed, only shown. Recruiting films work through real employees in real workplaces. Authenticity beats polish here, because candidates recognise staging and distrust it.

Social cutdowns

Vertical derivatives of the main shoot, with the hook in the first few seconds. They are not a by-product of post; they are a decision made on the shoot day.

Campaign spot

The shortest and simultaneously most demanding form: high staging density, every second built. Whatever is missing here shows, because nothing covers for it.

Why the concept decides the result

The recommended share for preparation is 30 to 40 percent of project time and 15 to 25 percent of the total budget. That sounds like a lot as long as you mistake pre-production for administration. It is the opposite: the only phase in which mistakes are still cheap.

A shoot day is an irreversible window

Location, protagonists, light and crew are booked for a number of hours, and then it is over. Whatever was not thought through on set cannot be repaired in post; it costs a second shoot day. Conceptual mistakes therefore scale with the day rate, not with the time spent on the concept. An extra hour at the desk is the cheapest hour in the entire project.

A storyboard is an alignment tool

A storyboard is not an end in itself and not a piece of art. Its purpose is to stop client and crew from carrying two different films in their heads. Visualised scenes surface the disagreement while it is still a conversation and not a reshoot.

One shoot, every format

Aspect ratios are easy to list. The consequence is the interesting part: shooting in 4K and 16:9 creates the resolution headroom to crop to 9:16 in post without loss. The condition for that is centre framing with room on the left, the right and the top. Only then does the subject survive the change of format, including space for subtitles and overlays.

This is a decision on the shoot day, not in post. Frame 16:9 to the edges and there is no path to 9:16 later. What remains is letterboxing or a reshoot. It pays off especially with interviews and statements: self-contained answers can be cut cleanly into individual clips.

The mapping itself is unremarkable and is still routinely settled too late: 16:9 for YouTube, website, TV and trade fairs, 9:16 for Reels, TikTok, Stories and Shorts, 1:1 or 4:5 for the feed.

How it works

Briefing, concept and script, storyboard, location scouting, shoot planning, shoot, edit, colour, sound and graphics, sign-off. The order is not a ritual: each step closes a question that would otherwise be open on set. And on set, every open question is expensive.

Four to eight weeks from briefing to master is realistic: roughly two weeks of pre-production, one to three shoot days, and two to four weeks of post. Complex projects with several locations, animation or multi-stage approvals run up to twelve weeks.

The most common mistakes

The mistakes repeat themselves, and nearly all of them happen before the shoot. No defined objective: a video because the competition has one. An audience that was never sharpened, so the film ends up addressing your own management rather than your customer. No storytelling, just a list of services. Too long instead of deliberately cut.

The most frequently cited technical mistake is sound. It gets underestimated because you cannot see it, yet bad sound drives viewers away faster than a bad picture. At the end of the chain sit the two most expensive omissions: no distribution plan, so the film is finished and nobody sees it; and channel formats considered only after the shoot, once they could no longer be changed.

Frequently asked questions about video production

What does a corporate film cost?

It comes down to a handful of drivers: the number of shoot days, the number and accessibility of locations, the number of protagonists, the amount of animation and graphics, and the agreed buy-out (that is, the scope of usage rights). A film with one shoot day, one location and two speakers is in a different order of magnitude than a production across three sites with actors and elaborate graphics. We clarify these points in an initial conversation and you receive a quote that reflects your specific case.

How long does a video production take?

Four to eight weeks from briefing to master is realistic: around two weeks of pre-production, one to three shoot days, two to four weeks of post. Complex projects with several locations, animation or multi-stage approvals run up to twelve weeks. The schedule depends less on the production than on the approval rounds. Every additional round moves the end date.

How long should the film be?

By objective, not by gut. There is no blanket answer, because the right length depends on the job the film has to do. In the feed the film competes with the thumb: a short cut holds more attention there than a long one, because nobody went looking for it. An explainer or instructional video can run considerably longer, because viewers arrive with a question and stay until it is answered. Two to four minutes is common for a corporate film on the website; social cutdowns are considerably shorter. There are no reliable comparative figures on video length: the numbers circulating on the topic come overwhelmingly from vendors who sell video or video hosting themselves.

How many shoot days does a film need?

That follows from the concept, not the other way round. What matters is the number of locations and the moves between them, the number of protagonists and their availability, and the number of setups per scene; time spent relighting is routinely underestimated. For a corporate film, one to three shoot days is the norm. More sites mean more days, not longer days. Beyond a certain point quality falls with the fatigue of crew and protagonists.

How are usage rights and buy-out handled?

The buy-out defines what the film may be used for: by medium, by duration and by territory. It has to be settled before the shoot, not after, because it covers not only the film itself but also the music, the actors and the voice talent, whose rights are each acquired separately. Postpone the question and you negotiate it later from a weaker position, because by then the film exists and the alternative would be a reshoot.

Can I get vertical clips out of a single shoot?

Yes, if it is planned before the shoot. The conditions are shooting in 4K, centre framing with room on the left, the right and the top, and safe margins kept clear for subtitles and overlays. Then the 16:9 material can be cropped to 9:16 without loss. Frame 16:9 to the edges and it cannot be fixed afterwards: what remains is letterboxing or a second shoot day. Interviews and statements are especially productive here, because self-contained answers cut cleanly into individual clips.

Which format does which channel need?

16:9 for YouTube, the website, TV and trade fairs. 9:16 for Reels, TikTok, Stories and Shorts. 1:1 or 4:5 for the feed. The mapping itself is trivial; the mistake is settling it only after the shoot, when the material no longer allows for it.

How much effort does this take on our side?

Manageable, but not zero. You need time for the briefing, for approvals, and for providing access to the location and the protagonists. The last of these delays projects most often, because internal calendars collide. Two to three rounds of revisions are usual, on the rough cut, the fine cut and the master. The more precise the briefing, the fewer of them are needed.

Real employees or actors?

For recruiting films, real employees. The film is meant to convey culture, and culture comes from real people in real workplaces. Authenticity beats polish here, because candidates recognise staging and distrust it. The price for it is preparation: someone who is not used to being on camera needs direction that takes the situation off their shoulders, and time to settle in. For campaign spots with high staging density, actors are the right choice, but then visibly as staging, not as a faked everyday scene.

What does a corporate film measurably achieve?

Answered honestly: what holds up is the reach of moving image in Germany. The ARD/ZDF-Medienstudie 2025 puts it at the highest daily reach of all media: 89.1 percent with 196 minutes of use per day, surveyed on a random sample drawn to ADM standard with 2,512 German-speaking respondents aged 14 and over. What does not hold up are the conversion percentages circulating on this topic: they come overwhelmingly from vendors who sell video themselves and are published without disclosed methodology and without a sample size. What a single film achieves in your case is decided by objective, placement and distribution, and can only be measured against your own numbers: enquiries, applications, time on page. We would rather tell you what cannot be evidenced than quote a figure nobody can recompute.Source: ARD/ZDF-Medienstudie 2025