Latest Interviews
David Baumber – ‘How Not To Make A Corporate Video’.
Posted: Monday 20th Aug 2007
Ever need to have a corporate video? It can be a tough choice to make, but at least you’re guaranteed high comedy if it goes wrong. And that’s what Wailing Banshee’s David Baumber showed us at our last Wired Wessex event in July. His talk, which featured some really dodgy productions by rival outfits, also addressed the importance of doing it right. And since we couldn’t bear for you to miss anything, we had a quick interview with David afterwards.
So, David – feel free to introduce yourself. “I’ve been running the company for approximately ten years and I started out as a freelance camera operator, a computer games designer and an animator. I then brought all those things together into one production company to do something a little different. We used to be called Pro Focus Films, but we’re now Wailing Banshee.”
The name change was a wise choice. “No one was interested in a company called Pro Focus Films so we decided to change the name and give it something a bit more catchy. It proved to be quite successful ever since! We do a lot of corporate work for blue chip companies and even the Ministry of Defence’s Atomic Weapons Establishment. There are a whole range of companies we work for now.”
But why that name in the first place? “We decided we needed something very ‘off the wall’, catchy and something people would remember. It’s funny, because it’s taken from a passage in MacBeth, but whenever we mention the name to people, they say ‘oh, I think I’ve heard of you!’ And it seems to be one of those names that people do think of before, not realising that it’s in the context of MacBeth or from its origins as an Irish phantom that wails before one of your loved ones passes. So it’s just one of those names that people remember. We’re often referred to as ‘Screaming Banshee’, but the ‘banshee’ bit is how we’re found on the Internet.”
We could make some very rude jokes about Sinead O’Connor here. But we won’t. Anyway, back on topic – and please run through what your talk covered. “I thought it should be something a little bit different… Maybe not how to make a GOOD corporate video, but highlighting how not to create a bad video, which would be more amusing. As luck would have it, I do have a few examples of rather atrocious videos. They’re quite funny, but obviously made by other companies and not us – thank goodness…”
Indeed – and they really were rubbish… (And sadly not available online for legal reasons.) “ It was an easier way to show what not to do, either when creating a corporate video yourself or commissioning one. There are many pitfalls, and so I thought that was a good line to go with, We’re often asked to fix videos that companies have made a lot of money for – it’s an industry like many others in that you can fall into the trap of having a cowboy outfit.
And there’s a lot of that about. “Statistics show that there’s about 70,000 Media students coming out of Universities every year and there are 17,000 media jobs available in the UK at any one time. So there are a lot of people starting up their own companies with very little experience but with a very good web profile you can look like something you’re not. You have to be very careful about who you choose, and hopefully you’ll make the right choices when spending a lot of money creating a corporate video. It’s not just about choosing someone with a camcorder and a simple edit suite who’ll throw something together and then say: ‘there’s your corporate video!’ It does take a little bit of experience…”
But surely you have some tips for the swarms of media start-ups we’ve just mentioned. (Apart from being good…) “Having a portfolio online or on DVD or even [video] tape is paramount really. If you can’t show what you’re capable of, then no one is going to choose you. All of our latest films, with permission from the clients, do go online, and we are only as good as our last job. And corporate video is one of those industries where you have to have evidence to prove you can make a darn good video,
“We might be asked to make a video on selling chocolate bars, or installing videos, or health and safety videos… We could be promoting or selling anything, and so to have that armoury of different films under your wing is really crucial.”
And keeping that armoury is important too. “Don’t throw any film away! It’s surprising afterwards that over the years so many companies come back to you and ask ‘do you still have any examples of this, that and the other?’ When you look back and think, ‘well, actually, yes! I do!’, and you can show a company an example of a film that’s very relevant to what they’re after, nine times out of ten, it’s in the bag. It really is, as other production companies often can’t show that capability.”
Some of your sample films show you often don’t have much in the way of budget or resources. It seems the art of making corporate video is getting the most out of what you’ve got… “Yes – some companies don’t want to spend a lot of money and even the bigger ones don’t want to spend much. But companies are coming around to the thought that they do need to spend as much on audio-visual as they do on their web presence or brochure and advertising material.
“They’re also realising that there’s a lot you can do with moving image and for a little investment, it can still look very good and professional. Especially when it comes to graphics: we can do an awful lot with still imagery. So we don’t even need to stick up a camcorder any more, as we can use photographic material and animate it and give it that real ‘WOW!’ factor.
This comes in especially handy when there’s actually nothing to film… “So quite often we are asked to do that, especially for Ministry of Defence projects where we’re not perhaps able to show certain aspects of air industry, but they will allow the correct photographic material to be used. We can still do something that’s nice with it, and for a limited budget as well. You don’t need helicopter shots filmed on 35mm camera and everything else to get a really good production.”
Value for money, rather than budget, therefore seems to be the name of the game. “You still can do it on a shoestring – and we’re still referred to as guerrilla filmmakers – because you have to be. We don’t like turning any jobs away. And of course you have to, sometimes. But you can still do something good for very little money.”
David also thinks his industry is going through a renaissance right now – care of the World Wide Web. “Video production has become respectable again. It lost its status in the late 90s as the Internet became very popular, and everyone started having their own web sites built. Now, most people have their Internet up and running, with a good web site tied in with their logo and marketing material. So video is becoming more popular again as broadband speeds are now at a stage where we can see the delivery of video and audio with better quality.”
And you can probably guess where this is happening… “With the advent of YouTube, we are now being asked by very large companies – big insurance companies, big financial companies, big operations – to come up with videos to put on there so they can then have a presence on the Internet. Whereas before we would be asked to create a £200,000 television advert, we’re now being asked to create a 10 or 15 thousand-pound advert for the Internet. So there’s a lot more business out there for us – maybe smaller budgets, but they’re just as much fun and that goes for viral marketing as well. So I think that even the smaller companies can now think about advertising and promotion using video… You don’t have to spend a fortune to get your presence out there any more.”
Just remember to do it PROPERLY…