Dream Image Club
Videographer
How long should a company profile video be, and what should it include?
Short answer
There is no single correct length for a company profile video; it depends on where it will be shown and to whom. Most of the company and factory films I make run about 2–5 minutes, with separate 30–60 second cut-downs for social media. What it must contain is not everything the company does, but the one thing you want viewers to remember — plus the evidence that makes them believe it.
Choose the length from where the video will play
The first thing I always ask is who will watch it, because each audience gives you a different amount of time.
- Meeting rooms, tenders and client pitches — the audience is paying attention; 3–5 minutes works if the story flows and the evidence is real.
- Your website — people choose to press play; get to the point quickly. Two to three minutes is usually right.
- Trade-fair booths — people walk past and cannot hear; it must make sense from pictures and on-screen text, as a short loop.
- Social media or ads — cut 30–60 second versions from the main film, vertical or square.
- Recruitment — focus on people and the working atmosphere rather than machines and figures.
What to include: one idea, and proof that makes it believable
The most common problem with company profiles is not the filming but deciding what to say first. Every department wants its part in the video, and the result is a long film nobody remembers.
I start by finding the one thing viewers should remember — export-grade quality, reliable delivery, solving a problem competitors cannot — then choose scenes that prove it. The rest is cut, or moved into separate short clips.
A structure that suits most jobs: open with an image or question that concerns the viewer, show what the company does for them, prove it with real footage of the line, the people and the results, and close with what you want them to do next.
What to leave out
- A long opening about the year the company was founded — history can be there, but it is not what keeps people watching.
- Every product model in a row — that belongs in the brochure or on the website.
- An executive reading a long script to camera — if they are not comfortable, narration over real footage is quicker to shoot and costs less.
- Stock footage that is not your company — viewers notice, and it makes your genuine footage look less credible.
A real example: a film that began with the client unsure what they needed
For a waste-sorting and oil-conversion plant, the client began with no idea what kind of video they needed. We talked until we had the core idea: viewers had to understand the process and see the system actually working. The film runs about four and a half minutes, and the client used it in a pitch that won a project worth over a hundred million.
Other work in this area ranges from a B2B film for an SCG group company under two minutes, to a plastics factory film of about two minutes, to a roughly four-minute film for a global medical-device manufacturer. The lengths differ because the uses differ.
Foreign clients — should it be in English?
If your main audience is overseas, there are two routes. One is a Thai film with English or Chinese subtitles, which adds little cost. The other is a separate English version with English narration and on-screen text written for people who have never heard of your company.
Decide this while outlining the story, not after the edit, because some scenes — Thai signage, wordplay in what people say — may need to be filmed or told differently for foreign viewers. I have made films with English subtitles that were screened abroad, and films with Chinese subtitles for Chinese audiences.
How many shooting days, and what to prepare
A typical job is shot in one day; with several executives to interview it takes 2–3 days. I plan the shoot so the production line is not disrupted for long, with a crew of 1–3 depending on scope. I handle the story outline, filming, editing, grading and sound myself. You review through an unlisted YouTube link with 3–5 rounds of changes, and the master files arrive via Google Drive.
Things that speed it up: one coordinator on site, photos of the location in advance, your logo and the exact spelling of names for on-screen text, and site-access permission from the factory. No script yet is fine — I always draft the outline for you to see before we shoot.
