How do brand films get produced?

How does this all work? Why does it cost 100k? What in the world is a gaffer, and is that really necessary? Can’t you just use AI?

All valid questions! By the end of this article, you’ll have a deeper understanding of what actually happens during a film or commercial production, and what to expect. Let’s start with step 1.

I need a video for my company. What’s next?

The first step in any production, whether that be a 30 second commercial, or a 2 hour movie, is development. Development can be a bit different between commercials and hollywood feature films, so we’re going to just talk about commercials in this article for the sake of relevance.

Development consists of 3 main components:

Ideation - This is when the ideas for the commercial are developed. The writer/director on the project learns more about you, your company, and comes up with ideas for what story would be best to tell.

Scriptwriting - This is when that idea is turned into an actual script. I have a phrase that goes, “writing is 70% of the movie”. The quality of the storytelling is the foundational and most important part of any project, and that storytelling is determined mainly by the writing of the script.

Budgeting - On all of these productions, we have a producer that breaks down every single element of the project and what’s required, so that not a single dollar is unaccounted for.

The end goal of development is to have a “locked script” (a script that everyone is happy with, and doesn’t need to change anymore) and the budget plan to move onto the next phase. Usually, we agree on a price with the client for the video, and we match the story and scope of the video to that price. Other times, development can be its own incremental step that we do for X amount of money, then move onto the production whenever the client is ready.

Development is a necessary step, because this locked script allows the preparation and shooting to happen efficiently, both in terms of cost and time. Trying to “wing it” without a script is where a lot of time, resources, and your precious money can get wasted. More on this later.

Great, we have a script locked in and we gave you the money. Now what?

The next step is “pre-production”, which is a fancy term for preparing for the shoot. This is where a lot of important decisions get made.

Making a great commercial requires a lot of control. Control over the lighting, the location, the acting performances, everything. To take location as an example, if we want to shoot a simple scene in a cafe, we can’t just pull up to any Starbucks and start filming. A bunch of random people are there that might get in the way, there’s lots of noises that prevent us from recording clean dialogue, the place looks a bit messy, it’s too crowded to set up a light, the cafe might kick us out for not getting permission, etc. etc. etc.

Prep is all about getting us the control we need so every single detail that shows up on camera, from the actor’s performance to the prop coffee cup on the table, is a conscious decision to ultimately serve the story we’re trying to tell.

Building this level of control requires hiring the department heads of the project. Much like how a company has a sales and an HR department, there’s several departments on a production in charge of different things. All of these department heads, and the people who work under them, ultimately work in tandem so every element of the production has a high level of control. Here’s a list of the main departments:

Production - Led by the lead producer on the project, this department is in charge of all the logistics, business, and big-picture aspects related to the project. They make sure everyone has what they need to focus on their job well.

Direction - Led by the director, this department is in charge of the creative choices. They work closely with actors and the other department heads to make sure choices are made in line with their creative vision.

Photography - Led by the Director of Photography, this department is in charge of everything related to the visuals, such as lighting and camera.

Production Design - Led by the Production Designer, this department is in charge of the artistic and creative decisions related to the physical look of sets and locations, including props, decorations, and other physical design elements.

Sound - Led by the Sound Mixer, this department is in charge of all of the sound recorded on set

Light - Led by the Gaffer, this department is in charge of the lighting on set. Shaping light correctly is one of the main ways to achieve that “cinematic look”

Costume and Hair/Makeup - In charge of the costumes and hair/makeup of the actors

Usually each department will have anywhere between 2-5 people. On smaller scale productions, sometimes it’s just themselves.

The other main component of a production’s personnel are the actors. Actors are selected very carefully out of a wide pool to make sure they’re a perfect fit for the role they’re about to play.

Finally, coordinating other logistics round out pre-production. Scouting and locking-in locations, sourcing camera/lighting equipment, coordinating schedules, securing permits/insurance, just to name a few of the to-do’s.

This should give you a sense of where most of the budget is going. There’s about 10-20 people working on the project for multiple 11 hour days. Expensive camera and lighting equipment need to be rented out, alongside set decorations, props, and costumes. Locations have to be bought out and secured. Even little things such as lunches and van rentals for all the equipment need to be accounted for.

Does it have to be this expensive? Of course not. You can absolutely do a commercial with a lot less. There’s also a lot of room to go higher. Think of it all as a sliding scale between how much control and scale you want to give the project. As mentioned earlier, all of this is to serve the ultimate story you’re trying to tell, which is 70% of the movie.

Now that everything is prepped, is it time to shoot?

Yep! This is the exciting part. For a 1 minute commercial, weeks of development and prep have all led to the filming, or “principal photography”. The entire cast, crew, equipment, art/props, and everything else all show up committed for the shoot days.

Usually, the 11 hour day runs shot-by-shot, location-by-location. Meaning, everybody focuses on getting 1 shot of the commercial at a time. Once that shot is complete, the entire crew moves everything to set up for the next shot, and the next. And once all the shots at that location are complete, the entire crew moves everything to the next location. Rinse and repeat, until the entire commercial has been captured.

Remember how I said earlier that it’s a mistake to just “wing it”? This is why. There’s so many people and equipment activated for the production that not a minute can be wasted. That’s why so much development and planning is necessary for a production to operate effectively.

Shoot is over! Are we all done?

Not quite…turns out, all the footage and sound that was recorded doesn’t just magically assemble itself into a finished commercial. The last step is post-production, which happens like this:

Editing - This is when an editor takes all of that footage and sound, and assembles it into a working version of the commercial, or a “rough cut”. It’s rough, because the sound and video straight out of the camera is usually “raw” and still needs some processing to be perfect. Once everyone is happy with how the rough cut looks, the editor locks up the edit, and now we have a “locked cut” which is then sent to the following people:

Sound Designer - This person builds out and balances all of the sound elements in the commercial, from the dialogue, sound effects, and music. Sometimes there’s certain sounds that weren’t captured by the sound mixer during shooting that would be nice to include. This is where the sound designer can add those sounds.

Colorist - The colorist takes all of the raw-looking footage in the locked edit and colors it to look amazing. If part of a shot looks a little too dark, the colorist can brighten up that area. If an actor’s red shirt wants to look more red, the colorist will increase the saturation of the shirt.

Composer - Think Hans Zimmer or John Williams. These people create the music and score that goes underneath a film to help aid the feeling the film is trying to transmit.

VFX - If a shot needs futuristic-looking robots that don’t exist yet, VFX artists are the ones who make that happen

All of these post production elements are finally assembled together into a finished commercial. And that’s it!

Ok, but what about AI? Won’t that make this whole process a lot easier?

AI is certainly a viable option. The technology keeps getting better, and it may get to a point where AI video generation software can give creators that same level of control as if they’re on set with 20 people. When the tech does get that good, there’s a decent chance that AI will be how many films get made, but we’re not there yet.

AI generated video right now seems impressive because it’s great at creating those quick dopamine-hit, short form videos: A cat turning into a cute coffee cup, a potato pooping out a French fry, a huge cyberpunk cityscape, etc. Those are fun, but they all lack the storytelling that makes us feel the same way after watching a great movie like Parasite or Interstellar.

The key is the storytelling. Storytelling in film is mostly dictated by the writing, which is why I say that writing is 70% of the film. Great storytelling is something that’s difficult even for most humans to do. That’s why there’s still bad movies released today. And great storytelling is what AI has struggled to do, and probably will struggle to do forever.

So the argument is this: Right now, AI video generation tech isn’t good enough to produce a visually and tonally consistent movie, let alone a 2 minute short film. But it might eventually get there. At that point, AI will probably become the way that films are executed in the future. But the core of the film, the actual storytelling, the writing, the part that dictates 70% of the film, will innately be a human task.