A lot of corporate video companies have a “corporate” approach that may come across as too scripted or even fake at times. S-Films focuses on ensuring your company’s image looks professional while also allowing the personality of the individuals in the video to shine. Whether you need training videos, infomercials, or other type of video in a professional environment we have the expertise and team to make it happen. While we help you craft a good script we also do encourage the freedom of fresh ideas and spontaneous thoughts. Corporate video production doesn’t need to be cold or boring or scripted all the time. We can help your company produce a creative and fun video that highlights each person’s individuality and aspects of their personality that people can remember and connect with. We can also help you find local talent…
From time to time, production companies will hire freelancers to fill the gaps on various video productions. Rarely are two video projects the same– and each project requires a different set of tools and personnel. So almost every production company will hire freelancers at one point or another. The Four “A’s” When we look to contract freelancers, we run everyone through our “4 A” filter– Attitude, Ability, Availability, Affordability, and in that order. Attitude- Many years ago, we did a large corporate conference in Dallas, and the AV company promised me the best audio engineer in town. He was good, but he brought a real bad attitude and had to be replaced. Attitude trumps ability every time. Ability- The freelancer has to be talented. Their level of expertise can directly effect the production value of the project. And depending…
The key to powerful, effective corporate video productions is the ability to produce with different styles. When I worked for a video production house in Dallas in the 90’s, a client of mine would always tell me faces, faces, faces. We were doing sales motivational videos for people selling insurance. I had tried to put some fancy transitions in, and the note back was to get rid of the “color bars” at that transition point and to put in more faces, faces, faces. So as we shot for our insurance client, we adjusted to shoot close ups of the people. These sales people were not interested in cool effects, and brilliant cinematography– they wanted to see themselves up on the big screen. As we’ve shot some scope-of-project pieces for a construction client, the opposite has held true– the notes come…
Construction companies in the Dallas Fort Worth area are utilizing the powerful tool of video more often these days. A video can demonstrate the abilities of a construction company when still pictures and plans fail. We have been called upon often to film large construction jobs, important tools and equipment, and ongoing operations. If a picture is worth a thousand words, remember, there’s 24 of those every second in a video. And what we’re finding is that construction takes a special skill set to properly photograph and cover with video. Some of our clients have started a large multi-year job and call us in halfway through, relying on video shot by the contractor or the guy in the sales office. They immediately notice a difference when they see our videos and often express to us, that they wish they had…
Dallas, Texas, has been a hot spot for corporate video production, increasingly over the last 30 years. With the North Texas area being centrally located in the United States, Dallas is a strategic location for company headquarters. Back in the 1980’s Exxon moved it’s worldwide headquarters to Irving (a suburb of Dallas) and many other corporations have followed suit. This has led to a high demand for corporate video production in Dallas and nearby Fort Worth. Especially with the growth of web and internet videos, companies are searching for reputable video and film production houses to help create short web videos for sales and marketing. Dallas offers generally lower rates than the two coasts. Being a relatively non-union state enables the corporate client’s dollars to go directly to the production value on the screen. And the crew in Dallas and…
Dallas Event Marketing Video Production Services from S-Films Part of our specialty is covering corporate seminars and conferences. We’ve been asked to do everything from a one camera in the back of the room setup, to a live webcast through Google Hangouts, complete with multi-cameras and a switcher. Conference video coverage usually breaks down into these categories: Simple one-camera record and run; multi-camera coverage; shooting for iMag (image magnification); and broadcast. We have shot and handed footage over to our clients to take back to their in-house department to edit, and we’ve provided turn-key, all the way to finished edit for some clients. The simplest approach is the one person, one camera shoot. The videographer sets up in the room and shoots the speaker. Audio is patched through the in-house sound, or a wireless lav mic from the videographer…
The camera development has been in a state of flux for the ten to fifteen years. For decades, it remained essentially the same. But now, not only new models of cameras are coming out, but radically different ways of capturing footage is being created. Depending on the type of film or video production, you might use totally different cameras. For instance, our films might call for a Red Epic, or a 35mm Arri 535, or even a Alexis. But for corporate video production, there are several different tools in the toolbox. So here are my top five cameras for use in corporate video productions. I don’t rank them in order because the different corporate or industrial video shoots require different technology. A hammer is great if you need to drive a nail, but if you’re turning a screw, doesn’t work…
The 34th Annual Telly Awards have awarded their highest honor for cinematography to Serendipitous Films and Top Pup Media for the production of a documentary on behalf of Revelations Water. The video, filmed in Nigeria, about a new life saving water filter, the Primeau, was shot by Ron Gonzalez and Daniel Millican. Using DSLR’s and traveling with the Microdolly and Microjib, enabled beautiful shots to help tell this important story. Producing was the Primeau inventor Ron Moser, his son David Moser, Dr. Ajibike Akinkoye and Lanre Abu. The video takes place on a polluted river in Lagos, Nigeria, as a father and son paddle their canoe. They are able to drink clean, safe water because of the new technology of the Primeau water filter. The video was also honored for a Bronze Telly for the Social Responsibility category, which was…
I had a potential client call me to ask about producing an infomercial for her company. In my mind, I was picturing a peppy pitchman, showing off a product to a live audience, in a 30 minute format, ready to broadcast. What she meant, was a short, 2 to 3 minute web video… an “informative commercial” or infomercial. With the advent of YouTube and Vimeo, anyone can broadcast their story quite easily. No need to buy airtime, just click and upload. In ever increasing amount, we are being called upon to create this new breed of “infomercial” — the short web video. The most common request is for a “documentary” style. Interviews supported by “B-Roll.” But as marketing directors try to differentiate themselves, we do some more creative video and film formats. The “narrative” is like a mini-movie or feature…
I’ve been surprised lately to find out that our new clients left their old video production company because of a lack of service, or more often, just bad service. After all, the corporate video production industry is a service industry. Our two greatest strengths are our ability to value add (bring to the table a lot of extras the clients weren’t expecting that add to the production value and efficiency of telling the story), and, as one client put it, we’re just nice guys. I believe life’s too short to engage in massive egos and work with people that are incredibly unhappy. So as we pull our team together, we look for those who approach difficult tasks with a positive attitude. Over a dinner meeting one time with a new client, our point of contact brainstormed an idea for the…
