The Truth About Product Videos

We hear a lot of people become sceptical about product videos. They ask us “Why do I need product videos when product photography does the job? Plus products would be super boring to film”.

Now, yes product photography does an amazing job at marketing your products and if it’s a very creative brief then it’s very appealing to the eye which, of course, is what you want!. But imagine those really imaginative and eye catching photos were animated? Your product is flying in the air or submerged underwater with crazy transitions and fancy effects. Now THAT would catch your eye even more and keep the attention of your audience and this leads on to the other part of the question we get asked. No, filming products can be as exciting as you want it to be.

We take a theme, which is usually inspired by the brand that is selling the products we are filming, and we work from there. Colours, transitions, visual effects, camera techniques and many other parts of the video come from focusing on this theme. Most of the time we would use a plain backdrop that’s either the colours of the brand or a green screen to add any effects in post production. However, don’t feel like all product videos should be limited to this one background. You can place your product in a scenario that best describes its purpose or take your audience through the production of your product from concept to arriving at the customer. It all depends on the message you want to convey about your product and your business overall.

Did we also mention it can be very cost effective depending on your brief? Yep. If you were looking for a product video that would be shot in a studio, you’d be saving money where you would usually have to rent out a venue (if that’s what you were looking for) and paying for an on location film crew that would need time to set up. Plus, if it’s in a public location you’d have many distractions and obstructions that sometimes can’t be helped i.e. weather and noise pollution. Working in a studio gives you complete control of your surroundings and brings a more relaxed approach to the filming day with a much more collaborative feel. This is where new ideas can form and sometimes add to what has already been planned. There have been a few times we’ve planned out our shots, executed them and looked back to find out it just wasn’t working so we swap it up and, because it’s in a studio this can be done rather quickly, then before you know it, there’s the money shot.

Take our Donut video for example (link below), we planned most of the shots you see in the video except one. The split screen shot with all the donuts flying in the air was completely improvised on set. We had an idea for all of them to be bursting out of the box but we didn’t have the resources to carry that out so we improvised and came up with what we think is the money shot which actually worked better than our original idea. There’s also an important message there which is whilst you can have all these amazing ideas it’s also important to be realistic. Budgets, resources and timescales all play a huge part in video production so whilst we try to do the best we can with what is given, sometimes an idea can be a little far fetched but that doesn’t mean it has to be scrapped completely. Just come at it from a different angle and keep trying until it’s just right.

If you’re a bit tight for time and can’t be there for filming days then another option is to send your products to the filming studio with an agreed storyboard that would’ve been discussed beforehand and just let the experts take care of it. Depending on their timescale, you’d have a shiny new product video sent to you in weeks.

So what’s the truth about product videos? They can be as creative as you like, cost effective and pretty fun to work on. We are fans of it but then again we do this for a living so we’re a bit biased!