Product Videos
Video is a very persuasive tool, so using it around the conversion stage of the buyer journey can be very compelling. We are a product video production studio making films from a huge range of industries – from grinding wheels, to buggies and bras. As always, we will use our 2d, 3d and live action skills to create something individual and compelling.
All London animation studios have their own approach to product video production, and they’ll tell you that once upon a time you could make one single film and that could do for your product launch, TVC, corporate video – and then bung it on Facebook too and forget about it. But the rapidly fragmenting world of social and broadcast video has made things a lot more complicated.
What is a Product Video?
We’re talking about a short film that describes your product or service, normally with a commercial intention. As we’re all bombarded by sales and marketing messages, if your brand wants to stand out then it’s vital to make a product video that doesn’t get lost in the noise.
Choosing the right medium for your product video is an important first step. We’re a graphics driven animation studio, but regularly use live action where needed. So with this film for medela, for example, we used graphics very sparingly to focus on the very human side:
On the flip side, we’re often asked to make films that showcase a piece of technology or hardware. Tech can be beautiful sometimes! That’s the feeling we wanted to harness with this film for Intel where they announced their move into Ultrabooks.
It’s all CGI of course, which allowed us to have the whimsical construction piece along with the magic at the end. Product video production can sparkle too!
How Much Does a Product Video Cost?
Every product video project is different – or at least should be – so there’s no such thing as a standard price. As with most creative & film production, you’ll find a big range of prices and standards of videos.
Obviously the purpose of a product video is to showcase an individual product or range whilst highlighting all the key benefits. You can go into slightly more detail if necessary on individual benefits, or keep it short and sweet to entice your audience to find out more.
We think our work is priced competitively, but we do have high standards and employ some really great talent. Our team have over a decade of working together, so we have experience of coming up with solutions for a range of budgets.
There are a few things that do influence the price of your product video that you might want to think about:
1. Do you have a story crafted in your head, or do you need us to develop the script and messaging with you?
2. Is there an existing look and feel we should be following? Will we need to create all elements from scratch or will we receive assets we can use?
3. Location Filming. Does the project require location filming, if so, where and how many days filming are needed?
4. Rights and usage. Talent and music agencies will need to know what platforms and regions you will be posting the videos. You’ll need to agree the usage rights before.
5. You might love your product so much you want to make a 15min film, but we’re going to persuade you to keep it short.
6. If you want a commercial track you then it’s going to hurt the wallet considerably more than if you go for a library track. Audio is super important, so don’t skimp on the sound design, either.
7. Keeping the production time down can really help to keep costs down. So if you need to get everything signed off by your boss’s sister’s cat every time you amend a graphic, it’s going to really slow things down.
How Long Does It Take to Make a Product Video?
Of course it depends on how ambitious we’re being with the production, but for a 1-2 minute live action edit with some motion graphic elements we’d expect that to take around 4 weeks. A full CGI product video might much longer. Here’s the normal drill:
1. Fill in the brief, talk to us. Yeah we all want to get stuck in right away, but this initial part really helps us establish your goals, mandatory CI stuff, and anything else grown up and important we need to focus on.
2. Write the script and visual direction. This is the genesis of the whole film, where we get the story going. Normally we can crack it in a week, sometimes it’s two.
3. Style frames & motion test if we’re doing animation. We’ll give you a half-dozen or so frames at ‘final’ quality (sorta depends on the style, but normally always final) and a short motion test. Then you lavish us with praise and we get on with it.
4. Location / Studio shoot if we need to
5. This is the part where we pull the main bones of the edit together so the content and flow is right.
6. Motion Graphics. After the picture edit is complete we’ll add any graphic design, image treatments and animation to the video.
7. Music, sound design, mix. Get your beats on and wrap it all up. This part really does bring everything together.
8. Publish your product video and wait for the awards to start rolling in.