How to make corporate videos more visually interesting

A corporate video can show much more than someone speaking in a meeting room. The places people work, the things they make and the communities around them can all help an audience understand the story.

On a Brisbane shoot with Ansarada and Colliers, an early start at Story Bridge gave us footage with a sense of place and scale. It was a useful reminder to look beyond the interview location when planning what to capture.

Show what makes your business interesting

Think about what a viewer would find interesting if they could spend a day inside your business. What would you show them? Who would they meet? What would they see that they wouldn’t expect?

Those answers can help you move beyond familiar shots of people typing or sitting around a meeting table. A product being tested, a team solving a problem or a customer using your service gives the audience something more specific to watch.

Use your key messages as a starting point. If you’re talking about attention to detail, show someone checking their work. If you’re explaining the scale of a project, show the site and the people working within it. This supporting footage, often called B-roll, helps viewers see the evidence behind what’s being said.

Take stock of what you have available

You don’t always need to hire a location to get an interesting result. Your workspace, equipment, products and surroundings may already offer plenty of possibilities.

Look beyond the room where you plan to film the interview. Is there a workshop with activity happening? A rooftop with a view? A nearby café where your team regularly meets? Even familiar spaces can offer a different side of your business.

Share phone photos with your production team early. Include places and objects you might normally overlook. A piece of technical equipment may feel ordinary to your team, but its movement, shape or scale could be fascinating to someone seeing it for the first time.

Your crew can help work out which options have the most visual potential and how they connect to the story.

Give people something real to do

People often look more comfortable on camera when they have a task to focus on. Reviewing a design, demonstrating a product or walking someone through a site gives them a reason to move and interact.

Choose an activity that reveals something about their work, and allow time to capture it properly. Following a person as they prepare, carry out a task and check the result gives the editor a small story to work with.

It also creates natural variety: the space they’re working in, their expression as they concentrate and the details of what they’re doing. Together, those shots help the audience understand both the person and the process.

Give the visuals a place in the schedule

If every available minute goes into interviews, the most interesting parts of your business may never make it onto screen.

Plan time for supporting footage from the outset. Let your production team know when particular activities happen, who needs to be available and which spaces you can access. A working demonstration or a busy site visit might need to shape the schedule around it.

The time of day can make a difference too. An early start might give you a lively arrival sequence, a quieter location or more appealing light. Discuss those opportunities before locking in the shoot times.

When briefing your next corporate video, include a short list of things worth showing alongside the things you want to say. That gives your production team something specific to build on, and helps the finished video feel like your business.