Answers
Direct answers to common questions about corporate video, brand films, and event videography. No marketing speak, no fluff. Just the actual answers, written by the people doing the work.
Concepts
What's the difference between a brand film and a corporate video?
A brand film is documentary-style and tells the story of a company's identity, values, or origin in 2 to 5 minutes. A corporate video is functional, usually shorter, and explains a specific product, service, or process to a defined audience.
What's the difference between b-roll and a-roll in video production?
A-roll is the primary footage carrying the story, usually interviews or on-camera dialogue. B-roll is supplementary footage that illustrates what's being said and gives the editor cuts to work with. Most documentary-style video is roughly 25% a-roll, 75% b-roll.
What's the difference between cinematic and corporate video?
Cinematic refers to a visual approach (anamorphic lenses, shallow depth of field, careful color grading, considered camera movement) more than a category. Most corporate videos can be shot cinematically. The two terms are not opposites.
Pricing
How much does corporate video production cost in Chicago?
Corporate video production in Chicago typically costs between $5,000 and $50,000 per finished piece, depending on length, crew size, and how much pre-production strategy is involved. Most B2B companies land in the $15,000 to $30,000 range for a single hero video.
How do I budget for event videography?
A reasonable event videography budget for a one-day corporate event in the Midwest is $4,500 to $9,000. That covers a 2-person crew, multicam keynote capture, candid coverage, interviews, and a 2 to 3 minute highlight video delivered within 2 to 3 weeks.
Process
How many revisions are included in a corporate video project?
A typical Maestro Media project includes 2 rounds of revisions. Round 1 is structural (story, pacing, what's in or out). Round 2 is polish (color tweaks, music adjustments, captions). Additional rounds are billed at our editing rate.
How do I write a brief for a corporate video?
A useful brief answers four questions: what specific action do you want viewers to take, who exactly is the viewer, what's the one thing they need to remember, and where will the video live. Skip everything else for the first draft.
Production
How do I prepare my team for an on-camera interview?
Send each interview subject 3 prompt questions a week ahead so they can think (not memorize), have them wear solid mid-tone colors, and tell them to answer in complete sentences that include the question's premise so the audio works without the interviewer's voice.
Do I need a script before we shoot?
For documentary-style brand films, no. We use a question framework instead: a list of 8 to 12 prompts the interviewer works through, with the actual story emerging from how the subject answers. Scripted corporate videos with on-camera presenters do need a script.
Strategy
What's the best length for a corporate video?
For social and homepage hero use, 60 to 90 seconds is ideal. For brand films and case studies, 2 to 4 minutes. Anything over 5 minutes loses roughly 50% of viewers regardless of how good the content is.
Why do most marketing videos fail?
Most marketing videos fail because nobody asked the right questions before the camera turned on. The result is polished footage that could belong to any company in the category, instead of footage that captures what makes this specific company different.
What's the ROI of a brand film?
A well-produced brand film typically remains useful for 3 to 5 years across web, social, sales, and recruiting, putting the effective monthly cost in the $250 to $500 range for a $15K-$30K project. Compare that to paid advertising that stops delivering when the budget stops.
What makes a good customer testimonial video?
A good customer testimonial video gets the customer to describe a specific before-and-after with real numbers, not feelings. Concrete: "our pipeline grew 30% in the first quarter." Vague: "we love working with them." The first is usable, the second is not.
Timeline
How long does a brand film take to produce?
A brand film typically takes 6 to 10 weeks from kickoff to delivery: about 2 weeks of pre-production, 1 to 3 days of shooting, and 4 to 6 weeks of post-production.
What's the typical turnaround for an event recap video?
Standard event recap turnaround is 2 to 3 weeks for a 2 to 3 minute highlight video. Same-day social cuts can be delivered within hours. Full session recordings are typically delivered within a week. A longer recap film with multiple stakeholder reviews can run 4 weeks.