Everyone, everywhere now uses video to communicate.  Instagram, Tik-Tok, that Go-Pro footage you shot with a helmet-cam – for most videos the stakes (in terms of quality, production value, etc.) are pretty low but if you need video to have a big impact, to say something complex and/or substantial and, certainly, if it’s reflecting your brand, the stakes are much higher. 


We’ve found that, while video usage has exploded, the ability to understand and apply its special language (called Film Language because IT’S SO OLD!) has not kept pace.  This series is both a labor of love (we think about these issues every day) and, hopefully, an introduction to some of the basic elements of film language, production and managing the creative process.   


Our hope is that the series may spark a deeper dive into some of these aspects of filmmaking and/or give viewers a sense of the vocabulary of, and context for the craft so you can identify these issues in the videos you watch and both make better videos and identify quality when you see it. 


There are a handful of similar series that aim to give viewers a “how-to” for producing videos.  That’s not what we’re doing here.  This is an exploration of the basic elements of film/video production so that viewers can become conversant in the language and make more informed choices when they get the chance to make or oversee the production of a video.   


Every business (and virtually every activity) has been transformed by the digital revolution in technology; communication revolutionized by the technological transformation of the production and distribution of video.  Because we consume so much of it now, video seems familiar until you try to actually produce it.  It helps to know the language. 


  May 26, 2023  

Managing Creatives

Corporate video is at a fascinating inflection point.  The digital transformation of business has propelled video as the most powerful, agile, expressive medium for communication within –…

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  August 23, 2023  

Corporate Film School Episode #12: Camera Movement

When the camera moves and takes us with it - even in a corporate video - it's thrilling.  And, each type of camera movement carries…

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  June 27, 2023  

Top 10 Tips to Make Better Corporate Videos

Concepts Every Producer and Client Should Understand  We call it Corporate Film School because, after a couple of decades of producing videos for top companies, and coming from…

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  June 7, 2023  

Corporate Film School #11: Zoom Capture

zoom captures

So, it only took a global pandemic but you've mastered Zoom for meetings.  But, Zoom has also transformed corporate video; if you can capture Zoom…

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  June 5, 2023  

Corporate Film School #10: Talking Heads

In this new episode of Corporate Film School I appear as a talking head, referencing the Talking Heads to talk about the problems with talking…

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  June 5, 2023  

Corporate Film School #9: Graphics

I gave up on trying to find the right metaphor for the role that graphics play in corporate videos; are they the furniture in the…

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  June 30, 2021  

Corporate Film School #8: Editing

https://player.vimeo.com/video/563771121 If just capturing scenes in the camera was all it took to make a great video, we’d all have a shot at being Fellini…

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  May 13, 2021  

Corporate Film School #7: Authenticity

If producers spent nearly as much time actually trying to cultivate it as they do faking it, we might see a lot more of it…

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  December 1, 2020  

Corporate Film School #6: Voice Over: Who Does Your Company Sound Like?

https://vimeo.com/486119015 As corporate communications diversifies, what should the “Voice of God” sound like?   And do we really believe that someone (anyone) can tell us the…

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  November 13, 2020  

Corporate Film School #5: B-Roll: the Mysterious Dark Matter of the Video Universe

In this fifth episode of Corporate Film School we look at an essential element of film language, particularly in documentary, that, despite its snappy name,…

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  July 2, 2020  

Corporate Film School #4: Eyelines: You Lookin’ At Me?

Yes, I’m upset about how cavalierly many productions now treat this vital signifier - where is the person on camera looking - but, I’m not…

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  June 10, 2020  

Corporate Film School #3: Setting or How to Escape the Realm of the Un-dead

It turns out that where we can shoot video is the aspect of production perhaps most disrupted by the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic…

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  May 13, 2020  

Corporate Film School #2: The Seductive Trap of Production Values

IMHO we spend too much time and resources on making images look good and not enough on what we’re trying to communicate. In other words,…

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  April 28, 2020  

Corporate Film School #1: Film Language

When the pandemic suddenly stopped business as usual, we took a new look at our almost twenty years of making films and videos under the…

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