Questions and answers about video content production for brands

Start with the goal, not the camera.

Before deciding what the film will look like, I want to understand why we're producing it in the first place. What's the business and marketing goal? Who's the audience? What do we want the viewer to understand, feel or do? Where will the film meet them, and what's its role within the broader marketing effort? To me, these aren't preliminary questions to production - they are the production. Only once there are good answers do we start thinking about concept, format, filming or technology.

Because a good film starts with a good decision about what needs to be said, and to whom.

A good brief creates a framework for decision-making throughout the entire project. It helps clarify what matters, what matters less, what the core message is, and what the film is supposed to achieve. Without a clear brief, it's very easy to end up with a film that looks great but doesn't actually solve the marketing problem.

A good brief should answer at least the following questions: What's the business or marketing goal? Who's the target audience? What's the problem or opportunity? What do we want the viewer to understand? What do we want them to feel? What do we want them to do? What's the single most important message? Where is the film expected to meet the audience? How does the film fit into the broader marketing effort?

You don't have to come to me with a perfect brief. Part of my job is to lead that conversation together with the client and distill it into a brief and a creative breakthrough.

Marketing thinking means the creative and production decisions are derived from the goal, not the other way around.

I don't start with the question "what film would be cool to make?" but with questions like: who needs to be convinced? What's stopping them from being convinced today? What's the single most important thing they need to understand? And what could make them stop, listen and remember? Once that foundation is clear, we can start being creative.

One of the most important parts of the process is narrowing down.

Companies usually have a lot they want to say. A good film doesn't necessarily say all of it. Together with the client, I look for the single idea or core message that needs to stay with the viewer after the film ends. From there, we can build the creative.

Absolutely. In fact, I prefer to start from the problem, not the solution.

Once we understand the goal, the audience, the message and the marketing situation, we can develop several creative directions and choose the one that fits best.

No. You can come with a script, an idea, a presentation, or even just a marketing need.

The process can start with a brief and move on to a creative breakthrough, concept, creative and script. To me, a script is the result of the thinking, not a precondition for starting the work.

A brand film presents a company, brand, activity or worldview, and is usually meant to build familiarity and trust. A commercial is usually focused on a marketing message and a call to action. A product video focuses on the product, the value it provides, and the problem it solves.

But I prefer to start from the goal, and only afterwards decide what to call the format.

In B2B, the goal is often to turn a complex product, service or idea into something easy to understand, remember and pass along.

That could be: a product video, an explainer, a case study, a customer story, a brand film, a launch video, a sales video, thought leadership content, or a professional content series. Often it's not right to expect one film to do everything. It's better to build a content system where different assets play different roles in the customer journey.

Tech companies are especially well suited to product videos, launches, explainers, customer stories, professional content, recruitment videos, and content that illustrates technology that's hard to show through regular filming.

The challenge isn't "how do you film technology." The challenge is how you turn a complex idea into a story a person can understand quickly.

A good launch film should let the audience quickly understand: what's new? Who does it matter to? What problem does it solve? And why is it worth caring about right now?

I look first for the story that holds the launch together, and only afterwards for the visual language.

A brand film is usually a central brand asset. Social content is planned in advance for an environment where you're competing for attention very quickly.

That's why on social, the hook, the pacing, the format and the fit to the platform matter especially.

For ongoing marketing activity, a content series is often the better solution compared to a single film.

A single shoot day can produce a main film alongside cutdowns, short versions, reels, testimonials and additional material. The secret is planning the system of assets before the shoot day.

There's no single answer.

Real filming is especially suited to cases where people, a product, a place, credibility or human interaction are part of the story. AI is suited to cases where you want to create something hard or impossible to film, illustrate an abstract idea, or build a different visual world. Very often, the best solution is a combination of both.

AI is changing significant parts of the production process, but it doesn't eliminate the need for a goal, a brief, strategy, an idea, taste and direction.

To me, the question isn't "can this be made with AI?" but rather "is AI the best way to achieve the goal?"

When it improves the result, or makes possible something that wasn't practical any other way.

For example: creating complex shots, simulations, previsualization, extending locations, creating elements, post-production fixes, and combining real filming with digitally created worlds. AI is a tool in the toolbox, not a strategy in itself.

Filming excels when you need to show people, places, products or reality. Animation excels at explaining information, processes, interfaces, data and ideas that are hard to illustrate with a camera.

Sometimes combining the two is the best solution.

The process usually looks like this: goal → brief → marketing and strategic conversation → creative breakthrough → concept → creative → script → pre-production → production → editing and post → revisions → final master.

When it comes to ongoing marketing content, to me the process doesn't end there: production → distribution → measurement → learning → repeat.

After the brief, the creative breakthrough begins.

I look for the single most important thing the film needs to convey, and the most precise and interesting way to convey it. Only from there do we get to the concept, the creative, and the production language.

Depending on the project: script, storyboard, shot list, casting, locations, art direction, styling, crew, equipment, schedule, music, graphics, and planning the assets and formats.

The more precise the planning, the more efficient the shoot day.

Production can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks.

The timeline is affected, among other things, by the creative, the scope of production, the number of shoot days, casting, locations, post-production, animation, AI, the number of versions, and how quickly approvals come in. If there's a launch or campaign date, we start from it and build the schedule backwards.

Sometimes, yes.

But a short timeline requires a focused brief, availability for making decisions, and a fast approval process. Time to think is part of the production, not time wasted before it.

The number of rounds is set in advance in the proposal.

I prefer not to get into a situation where we're "fixing the film" at the end, and instead approve the milestones along the way: brief, concept, script, structural edit and final polish. That way, the end result is far more precise.

There's no fixed price for a brand film, because a film isn't an off-the-shelf product.

The price is affected by the creative, number of shoot days, crew, locations, cast, art direction, equipment, animation, AI, post-production, music, rights, and number of deliverables. That said, I do believe it's worth giving clients a sense of scale - see the production tiers below.

For brands that need ongoing content activity, there's also The Samurai content system, with monthly activity packages - see below.

These are The Samurai's activity packages, separate from producing a brand film or campaign - not the same product category.

Among other things: the number of shoot days, crew size, locations, casting, art direction and styling, camera and lighting equipment, animation and VFX, AI, the scope of post-production, music and rights, the number of versions, and the scope of commercial usage.

It's worth noting: a film's price isn't determined by its length alone. A 20-second film can be more complex and more expensive than a three-minute one.

Yes. Budget is part of the brief.

If we know the framework in advance, we can look for the idea and the production approach that deliver the best result within that framework. I prefer to talk about budget early on, rather than develop a concept that doesn't match reality.

Because two proposals both called "brand film production" can, in practice, describe completely different products.

The gap can be in the creative, direction, crew, equipment, filming, lighting, art direction, music, post-production, rights, and the level of involvement of whoever is leading the project. That's why it's worth checking not just how much a proposal costs, but exactly what you get for it.

I recommend checking: do you like their work? Does the company understand your marketing challenge? Who will actually manage you day to day? Who's responsible for the creative? Is there an organized workflow? Is there thinking before production, or do they jump straight to talking about filming? Is the company able to take responsibility from the brief all the way to the final master?

To me, a good video production company needs to understand not just how to create a good image, but why it's creating it.

Among other things: who leads the brief and the creative? What exactly is included? How many rounds of revisions? What's the timeline? Who handles rights? What happens if the brief changes? Which versions do you get? And who's responsible from the brief all the way to the final master?

Experience in the field can help, but it's not the only condition.

Sometimes experience across different categories is exactly what brings a fresh perspective. What matters is the ability to understand the product, the market, the audience and the challenge.

The right length is exactly as long as it takes to deliver the message - not a second more.

You don't need to shorten a film just because of the line "people have no patience." You need to earn the viewer's attention, not waste it.

It depends on where the film needs to work.

9:16 is usually suited to Reels, TikTok, Stories and Shorts. 16:9 is usually suited to websites, YouTube, presentations, screens and conferences. When content is intended for multiple platforms, it's important to plan for the different versions already at the filming-planning stage.

Yes, and it's often far more efficient.

But it needs to be decided in advance. Proper planning of the shoot day makes it possible to build a whole system of assets, not just one film.

Production ends at the final master. Marketing starts there.

Already at the brief stage, it's important to understand where the film will be distributed, who's supposed to see it, and what we want to happen afterwards.

You measure against the goal defined in the brief.

If the goal is awareness, you can measure reach, views and view-completion. If the goal is engagement, you can check interactions, shares and saves. If the goal is leads or sales, you need to look at clicks, conversions, inquiries and cost per result. So to me, the measurement question starts before production, not after it.

The right audience.

Especially in B2B, a few thousand views from relevant decision-makers can be far more meaningful than hundreds of thousands of views that never reach the right audience.

You learn.

The goal of ongoing content activity isn't just to measure success or failure, but to understand what worked: which hook? Which topic? Which message? Which format? Which platform? And then use that information in the next round. Production → distribution → measurement → learning → repeat.

The service can begin long before the shoot day.

Depending on the project, it includes: a brief and marketing conversation, strategic thinking, creative breakthrough, concept, creative, script, directing, pre-production, filming, editing, graphics, animation, AI, sound and music, versions, and the final master. The goal is to keep one continuous line between the marketing problem and what ultimately ends up on screen.

I don't separate the marketing conversation from the creative and the production.

That same process starts with understanding the goal and continues all the way down to the small decisions inside the film. I want to understand why we're making the film before I decide what it will look like. That makes it possible to connect strategy, idea and execution, instead of getting three separate pieces from three different vendors.

For companies, organizations and brands looking for more than just a filming or editing service.

Especially when there's a need to understand a product, a message or a marketing problem, and translate it into precise video content.

Yes. You can work on a single film, a campaign, a launch, a shoot day, or a broader effort.

When the need is ongoing, it's possible to build a content system rather than just a series of disconnected projects.

We start with a conversation.

I want to understand the company, the product, the goal, the audience, the message, the budget framework, and where the film is meant to work. From there, we build the brief. And from the brief, we get to the creative breakthrough, the creative, and the production. From brief to master, the goal isn't just to create a video that looks good - it's to create a video that works for the brand.