Week 1
Brief and discovery
What the film has to change, who it is for, and where it will be watched. We interview you the way we will interview on camera, because the best lines usually turn up here.
Videography · Brand films · Sydney
Brand film production in Sydney
A brand film is the one video that has to say who you are before anyone is ready to buy. Done properly it carries the homepage, the pitch and the careers page for years, and one shoot day feeds every one of them.
Grab the snowball. Give it a spin, and watch it grow as you scroll. Just like your story.
1shoot day behind the whole set
12cuts and versions from one film
Script firstsigned off before we shoot
Sydneycrew, studio and edit suite
The short answer
What is a brand film, and what does it do?
A brand film is a single piece of video, usually 60 to 180 seconds, that says what a business is for rather than what it is selling this month. In Sydney it is normally shot over one or two days and delivered as a hero cut plus shorter versions for social, sales and recruitment.
You will also hear it called a brand video, a brand story film or a company profile video. They describe the same piece of work. It is the film on the homepage, at the front of a pitch and behind a careers page, which is a different job from a product video or an ad, and it is why a brand film is judged on how long it stays true rather than on how it performed in its first fortnight.
We plan it from your audience data rather than from a mood board, using the same analytics and research behind our search work. Because our Snowball SEO platform automates the search heavy lifting other agencies bill by the hour, more of your budget goes into the shoot. It sits inside our wider Sydney video production service.
The difference
Is a brand film the right video for you?
Sometimes it is not, and that is worth knowing before you spend the budget. A brand film is the heaviest thing a business asks a camera to do, because it has to explain the whole company on its own.
When it is the right call
- You are hard to explain in a sentence, and people understand you once they meet you
- You sell something considered, where trust is decided before the first conversation
- You are hiring, and the people you want can choose where they work
- Your story has not changed in years and is not about to
When it is not
- You need a specific thing explained, which is a product or explainer video and costs far less
- You need volume for the feed this quarter, which is a social shoot, not a film
- Your proof is a customer saying it worked, which is a customer story
- The positioning is still moving, in which case the film will be wrong by the time it lands
If a brand documentary is closer to what you have in mind, that is a longer, unscripted form of the same instinct and we make those too.
The cost
What drives the price of a brand film?
Days and people, mostly. A film is priced by how long the crew is on the clock and how many of them there are, not by how many minutes end up on screen. These are the three shapes most briefs land in.
One day, one film
One shoot day
A single location, a small crew, your own people on camera. One hero film plus the cutdowns and social versions. The common brief and the fastest to a fixed price.
Two days, film plus set
Two shoot days
Several locations, or a second day for the customer stories and product coverage that fill out the year. One film, and enough footage that the next six cuts already exist.
Ongoing library
Retainer
A recurring shoot each quarter so the film, the team in it and the work it shows stay current, rather than the whole library ageing at once and needing rebuilding.
We quote a fixed price for the whole production after a free consult, so the number you approve is the number you pay. For indicative Australian ranges across every kind of video, see our guide to what video production costs.
What moves the number, in order
Almost every difference between two brand film quotes comes down to this list. Nothing on it is a surprise, which is the point: you can decide where you want to spend before anyone shows you a figure.
- Shoot days, which is the single biggest lever by a distance
- Crew size, since a director, camera, sound, lighting and producer are separate people
- Locations, because every move costs an hour of setup rather than an hour of filming
- Talent, if the film needs actors or a voice rather than your own team
- Edit depth, meaning motion graphics, animation, an original score or a heavy grade
- Licensing, which is music, talent and location cleared for every use you want
Where the savings actually are
The cheapest brand film is not the one with the smallest crew. It is the one that does not need a second shoot, and that is decided in the week before anyone picks up a camera.
Two things account for most reshoots we are asked to rescue. The first is a script signed off by one person and read for the first time by the board after the edit. The second is a shoot planned for one output, so when the sales team wants a two minute version and social wants vertical, the coverage to make either does not exist.
Both are free to avoid. Agree the story in writing with everyone who can veto it, and decide every destination before the shot list is finished rather than after the wrap.
The scope
What you receive from a brand film
Six things, agreed in writing before the shoot. A brand film is one video and a set of assets, and the assets are where most of the value quietly sits.
The hero film
One brand film, normally 60 to 180 seconds, cut for your homepage, your pitch and the room. This is the piece everything else is derived from.
Cutdowns and versions
The same film at 60, 30 and 15 seconds, plus a vertical cut. Different jobs need different lengths, and re-editing later costs more than planning for it now.
Social cuts
Square and vertical edits with burned-in captions, sized for the feeds you actually post to, because most of the audience watches with the sound off.
The story and script
The narrative, the interview questions and the shot list, written and agreed before the shoot. You approve it in writing, so nothing is filmed on hope.
Stills from the shoot
Frames pulled and graded from the same footage, so the website, the deck and the ads all look like they came from one place, because they did.
Captions, titles and sound
Subtitle files, motion titles, a licensed music bed and a mix that holds up on a phone speaker as well as it does in a boardroom.
The return
Where does one brand film end up?
This is the part that makes a film worth more than the day it was shot on. The same footage keeps producing for a year, and each of those cuts would otherwise be its own shoot.
Plan the destinations, not the running time
The most common reason a film disappoints is that it was briefed as one video rather than as a set of jobs. The homepage wants 90 seconds. A pitch wants two minutes with the numbers left in. Social wants 15 seconds, vertical, captioned. Careers wants the people and none of the product.
Planned at the shot list, one shoot yields all four. Planned as a single edit, it yields one, and the rest get cropped badly or shot again a year later at full price.
So we build the shot list from your channels backwards, which is the same logic as our brand storytelling work: decide what the film has to do before deciding what it looks like.
The process
How a brand film gets made
Six steps, six to eight weeks to delivery, and one point in the middle where you sign off the story before a single booking is made.
Week 2
Story, script and sign-off
You get the narrative, the questions and the shot list in writing. Nothing is booked until you have approved it. This is the step that decides whether the film works.
Week 3
Pre-production
Locations, scheduling, casting where it is needed, kit, permits and a run sheet for the day, so the shoot spends its time filming rather than deciding.
Week 4
The shoot
One or two days with our Sydney crew. We shoot the hero film and, in the same setups, the coverage the cutdowns and social versions will need.
Weeks 5 to 7
Post and delivery
Edit, colour, sound, titles and captions. You see a first cut, give one consolidated round of notes, and we deliver every version sorted by where it is going.
After
Launch and measure
We help you place each cut where it belongs, then watch what the film actually does to the pages it sits on. What performs decides what we shoot on the next day.
The brief
What to ask before you commission a brand film
A brand film is the easiest video to get vaguely right and the hardest to get specifically right. These four questions sort one from the other. Ask them of us, and of anyone else you are considering.
Can we read the script before anything is booked?
A brand film is decided at the script, not at the camera. If the answer is that the story will emerge on the day, you are paying for a shoot and hoping for a film.
What do we get besides the main edit?
Ask for the list in writing: lengths, aspect ratios, captions, stills, subtitle files and the raw footage. Re-cutting later from someone else's project file is where budgets go.
Who is directing on the day, and who is in the room?
A named crew list tells you more than a company name. The person who wins the work should be the person who runs the interview, because that is where the film is actually made.
What are we licensed to do with it, and for how long?
Get music, talent and location cleared for every use you can foresee, in writing, before the shoot. Licensing is where a keen quote quietly becomes an expensive one a year later.
We are happy to answer all four before you commit, and to walk you through a complete film and its deliverables rather than a showreel. For the wider picture on formats, crew and timings, see our guide to video production in Sydney.
Start here
Ready to make the film?
Tell us what the film has to change and who needs to believe it. The free consult is a working session, not a sales call, and you leave with three things whether or not you book us.
- The story we would tell, and the reason we would tell it that way
- The deliverables list, so you know exactly what lands and when
- A fixed price for the whole production, with the travel and licensing visible
Good questions
Brand film FAQs
What is a brand film?
A brand film is a single piece of video, usually between 60 and 180 seconds, that says what a business is for rather than what it is selling this month. It is the film on the homepage, at the front of a pitch and behind a careers page. It is normally shot over one or two days and delivered as a hero cut plus shorter versions for social, sales and recruitment.
How much does a brand film cost in Sydney?
We do not publish a single figure, because the honest range is genuinely wide and a number without a brief is a guess. What moves it is the number of shoot days, the size of the crew, how many locations you need, whether there is hired talent or a script read to camera, the depth of the edit and the licensing you want. We scope it after a free consult and quote a fixed price for the whole production. For indicative Australian ranges across every kind of video, see our guide to what video production costs.
How long should a brand film be?
Most work best between 60 and 180 seconds. Under 60 seconds there is rarely room for a real story, and past three minutes the audience has usually decided either way. We normally deliver one longer cut for the website and the pitch, then 60, 30 and 15 second versions for the places where attention is shorter.
How is a brand film different from a corporate video?
A corporate video does a specific job: explain a process, announce a change, train a team, recruit for a role. A brand film answers the broader question of who you are and why you exist, which is why it stays true for years while a corporate video is usually replaced when the thing it describes changes. Many businesses need both, and they are often shot on the same days. Brand video production and brand film production are the same work under two names, so the difference to look for is the brief rather than the label.
How long does a brand film take to produce?
Six to eight weeks is typical from brief to delivery: about a week on the brief, a week on story and script, a week of pre-production, one or two shoot days, and two to three weeks in post. It can be compressed when a date is fixed, and the part that suffers first is always the script, so we would rather move the shoot than rush that.
Do we need a script, and who writes it?
We write it, from a short brief and a conversation with you. You approve the narrative, the interview questions and the shot list in writing before anything is booked. If the film is built on real people speaking rather than a read-to-camera line, the script is a structure and a question set rather than words to memorise.
What do we actually receive at the end?
The hero film, cutdowns at 60, 30 and 15 seconds, a vertical version, captioned social cuts, subtitle files, stills pulled and graded from the same footage, and the raw footage if you want it. Everything is delivered sorted by where it is going rather than by filename.
Who owns the film, and what can we use it for?
You do, across your own channels with no expiry, confirmed in writing before the shoot. Music, talent and locations sometimes carry their own conditions, and where they do we tell you up front rather than after you have built a campaign on the frame.
Do you shoot outside Sydney?
Yes. Our crew, studio and edit suite are in Sydney and most shoots happen across greater Sydney and New South Wales, but we travel for interstate and regional shoots regularly. Travel is quoted as a line you can see rather than folded into the day rate.