Corporate Cinematic is my (earnest) attempt to articulate the attributes of a high-quality external-facing corporate video. The actual term “corporate cinematic” and how one defines the bones of its look and feel came from a passionate and slightly frustrated email written by a Creative Director (CD) based, in part, on something I produced.
I like to think of corporate cinematic as its own genre—more precisely, a symbiotic genre that lays on top of existing corporate video branding like a bit of Vaseline on a camera lens that makes everything just look better. It makes the company, the people (often employees who are acting as reps for the company), and their product(s) as attractive as possible to customers, investors, business writers, and whomever else the target is for the video.
But, alas, it’s still a corporate video.
Similar to other genres like film noir or romantic comedy, it has a reasonably predictable look and feel, and story conventions. While there’ve been terrible atrocities created in all genres, just saying “corporate video” conjures stilted writing, awkward deliveries, and contrived demos.
Sure, that’s not wrong, but let’s whittle down the size of that brush we’re painting with. It’s like saying that something looks like a stock video. Yes yes yes there’s a lot of bad out there and we can poke fun. But, there are many creative, beautiful, and inspired executions out there as well. Like most things, there’s a continuum of quality. And, just like the best stock (defined as stock that doesn’t look like stock) is often the most expensive to make, similarly, corporate cinematic will have a higher price tag because it just is simply better.
That said, regardless of quality, corporate video is easy to pick on because of actually what defines it. On-camera talent are real people and not trained actors. The content is serious, and can be lengthy and full of industry speak. The locations/sets and graphics are professional and safe. Out-on-a-limb creative might be an updated lower-third design. A friend of mine once said: “Welcome to the beige light district.”
Naturally there are some not aboard the safe train and are running recklessly down the tracks. But would those even be defined as corporate videos? I’m not talking about whatever Liquid Death might consider corporate, and I’m not talking about the handful of internal creative videos that corporations do in an attempt to be funny or clever. I’m not even talking about a well-executed docu-style customer story. They are technically “corporate,” but they are simply not corporate cinematic use cases. I’m talking about how you introduce this year’s hot new residue transport plate funneling with joust jams system. I’m talking about talking heads with demos, keynote speeches, company roadmaps, a place where we learn that a firm and benevolent hand is guiding us into a productive and profitable future.
To understand the impetus for the genre-defining email, we need to go back to early pandemic times. It was an uncertain and stupid time to be a live-action producer (and for that matter a CD that specializes in events). A friend of mine recommended me to a production company I had never heard of and I was introduced into an entirely new (brave) new world.
There were a lot of firsts on this job for me: corporate video, Microsoft, a marketing asset that was intentionally 47-minutes long, etc.
Day 1: I’m working with an editor on the first interview and we get together a solid stringout for internal review. Among the standard script and b-roll comments there was talk about the fit of the talent’s jacket, chatter about the plant behind him, and a couple more things that led to the decision to really punch in on the talent in a couple scenes we couldn’t cut around or cover. “There,” I thought, quite pleased with myself, “you can’t see that plant at all now.”
Day 2: We’re working on other segments and I’m forwarded that email I keep teasing from the CD:
NO heads breaking the frame. We aren’t making a Jon Cassavetes movie. It’s ‘corporate cinematic.’
First off, that’s simply the best start of any email ever. And I now had a name for what we were making.
Side note: The editor and I had not actually broken frame. Yes, we were very very close, but we’re not animals. That editor and I made this sticker for the team as a gentle reminder.
OK, now that we have our origin story, let’s get into the nitty gritty of corporate cinematic.
Tenet 1: Beauty over cool.
Everything should look and sound beautiful. Nothing jarring, awkward, or uncomfortable should be seen or heard. In short, nothing should distract you from the message.
Elevate the presenters by making them a more polished version of themselves. HMU, clothing, and lighting need to be on point. Set design and art direction should be high end.
Tenet 2: Buttery soul.
The CD did also throw in this banger of a term, which may need its own sticker: “buttery soul.” This was about camera movement—no shooting on sticks! I think the movement was the butter? Maybe it needs the butter. Anyway, everything needs to have a dolly, slider, track, etc., or shoot it loose so the camera is always slightly moving, always loving the talent and the products.
Tenet 3: Button it up.
The video should not include any forced personality, including fist bumps, waves, or humor.
Favor the company/product and the story behind it – everything else is frivolous.
That’s it!! After all that some might note that the core tenets of corporate cinematic, while pretty-ing it up, barely touches on the thing that one could argue makes most corporate videos a drag: the content. But, corporate cinematic is a Vaseline-smeared lens and fluff-removal system, not a different genre. If a :30 advertisement or a stand up comedy special could do all the heavy lifting a corporate video does then that’s what we would be making.
Corporate videos are long-form information delivery systems designed for multiple uses with various call to actions. If you are not in the target category (e.g., an investor, a product user, a tech news writer, etc.) there’s little reason for you to watch it, and even less reason to love it. Even if you think it’s boring as hell, a lot of people won’t.
As a producer I’m secure in the fact that the target audience(s) will find the video informative (maybe inspiring!), the presenters clear and competent, the production value high, and note that the plant in the background is just perfect.
