Corporate videographer

Corporate videography is the production of video and film for use by corporate businesses. These videos could include event films such as networking evenings, celebrations or client focused events. For these kinds of video productions, we typically produce event highlight films or presentation filming. Other video productions for corporate productions include interview videos. Many businesses use interview videos for recruitment, promotional reasons or staff training. We often also produce brand films for corporate businesses to highlight their brand identity and philosophy. These shoots vary in size from smaller videographer only filming to larger video productions with a full crew.

As a corporate videographer based in London I use a wide range of kit to film video productions. Detailed below are the pieces of typical kit we use.

Cameras
When its comes to cameras, we never travel with less than two. For many shoots we actually have three of four but two is standard. We use the Canon C300MKIII which is a super35 camera with fantastic dynamic range to allow us to see detail in darks and lights. This camera also features fantastic colours and super slow motion, even in 4k resolution.

Our second camera is the Canon R5. This is a camera universally loved by videographers. This is mainly because of its compact size and light weight body but incredibly powerful features. This camera is full frame for super shallow depth of field. It’s also fantastic in low light and also offers super slow motion in 4k resolution. One of the most popular features about this camera is its 8k raw filming mode. If we’re doing commercial grade corporate videos, this is often the mode we film in.

Lenses
In front of every great camera is an even greater lens or at least there should be. If you give a good videographer the choice of a lens or a camera for a shoot, they will always choose the lens. From classic cinema lenses to anomorphic lenses, the lens is what gives a film its look. With that in mind, we take our lenses very seriously and have a fantastic range.

We love to film with lots of depth of field in our images. Many of our lenses have fast F1.2 and F1.4 aputures. We love filming this way to bring our video productions closer to the loko of a Hollywood movie. One of the other features we love to see in our lenses is autofocus. This enables us to film wide open with lots of depth and be pin sharp in focus.

Our lenses vary from Canon prime lenses to Canon Cn-e cinema lenses and even some vintage Russian manual focus Helios lenses for a quirky look.

Gimbal
The gimbal is one of the most valuable pieces of kit a videographer can own. This is because it brings the element of movement to our films. Imagine creating a film on a tripod only. This would look incredibly static and simply lack dynamism compared to having a gimbal at hand. We love movement in our videography and our Dji-RS2 gimbal opens this door up for us.

I remember the days pre-gimbal and videos being produced just lacked the feel of taking the audience on a journey. The only way to achieve real movement back then was a dedicated steadycam operator which was time consuming and incredibly expensive. Roll on 10 years and the gimbal is one of the first pieces of kit a videographer will pack in their bags.

Autocue
The digital autocue is another piece of camera kit that has revolutionised the videography market. For corporate video in particular, this is an essential piece of kit. A good bright iPad with teleprompter software and the autocue itself is all you need. This device allows your talent to look directly down the lens whilst reading the reflection on a piece of glass in front of the lens. This is one of my used pieces of videography kit!

Lighting
Lightning your videos well is the difference between making an ok video and making something that really looks professional. A really experienced videographer will always have good soft light. We have a huge range of Aputure lights along with soft boxes.

Equally as important is the diffusion gel we carry as standard. Not too many videographers will carry good diffusion gel and it’s mainly something found on film sets. However if you want truly soft radiant lighting then diffusion gel is the best way to go. A videographer who can light well is an experienced videographer. This is because it takes years to hone this craft. I’ve spent the past 15 years obsessed with good lighting and the word light was actually the first ever word I learnt to say.

Sound kit
Sound kit feels like such an under-appreciated element when it comes to creating a video. However, it is of the upmost importance and if you can’t clearly hear what somebody is saying, then you really haven’t got much of a film. As standard, I carry the rode NTG3 directional microphone in my videography kit. This is one of the best directional microphones available. Clients often say to me how great the sound is and it’s down to this incredible microphone.

Of course I also carry lapel mic kits for events and presentations or larger group filming. I have 3 x Senheisser Mke-2 lapel kits. These are industry standard lapel mics with rechargeable batteries. We’ve used these for video podcasts, training videos and on stage presentation filming and they just work incredibly well.

Additional camera kit
As a videographer I have naturally built up a huge amount of kit over the years. Additional kit includes backdrops green screen, camera monitors, monopods, motorised sliders and electronic turntables for product filming. These pieces of kit aren’t standard but available to bring on for shoots when needed.

I mainly operate in London as a videographer but also travel the length and breadth of the UK. Of course London is home to a wide range of businesses but several times a month we get asked to travel beyond our capital. We have filmed several projects in Cornwall, Newcastle, York, Liverpool and Manchester and we love a road trip.

When travelling for our videography projects, we proud to do so in an electric vehicle to reduce our impact on planet whist we do what we love most. Our EV is long distance with over 300 miles of range so we can carry out our videographer duties wherever they may be.

I take a well thought out approach to all the video projects I take on. The amount of pre-production will depend on the kind of corporate video project you commission. For example filming a corporate presentation will only require a small amount of planning. However for larger videography productions such as brand films or promotional videos, I would spend much longer developing the project. This ensures as best as possible that we create a great film that has the desired effect.