Local Video and Photo Crews for PR Agencies

When the story will not wait

PR timelines are often set by something you do not control: an announcement, an embargo or a moment in the news. A marketing team may be able to wait a month for a video, but a press office often cannot. We usually ask for 48 hours' notice, and if your date is sooner than that it is still worth asking, as we will see who is available nearby.

You will usually get a fixed quote within about 2 hours, Mon-Fri, which gives you something to take to the client quickly. Send the date, location, spokesperson and intended use. The less your client has to decide up front, the faster the approval tends to go.

Briefs that suit a press office

PR work tends to be shorter and more tightly controlled than a marketing shoot. Typical jobs include:

• Spokesperson interviews, recorded in the client's office or close to where a story is happening.
• Product launches and press conferences, with coverage of the room as well as the stage.
• Short comment clips for LinkedIn and owned channels.
• B-roll packs of offices, products or a location, for journalists and broadcasters to use.
• Executive portraits and press photography to add to a media kit.
• Stunt, out-of-home or campaign documentation, especially where the moment cannot be repeated.

Making footage useful to a journalist

A polished brand film is rarely what a newsroom wants. Journalists often look for clean, unbranded material they can edit themselves. If your goal is earned coverage, ask for that in your brief: a clean interview with no graphics or music, separate general views of the location and clear audio. A written sheet with names, job titles, spelling and the date is often just as important as the footage.

Plan the delivery from the journalist's point of view. Say which files they need, and supply them through a link that does not require them to log in or install anything. Decide who will send the link, and whether any embargo needs to be stated alongside it.

Embargoes and client confidentiality

Embargoed material has to stay private until the moment it does not. Crew members and editors can sign an NDA before stepping on site or handling footage. Send it with the brief, along with the embargo date, so everyone knows what is restricted and until when.

Think about who will see what in the room as well. A press conference might include people who are not cleared to know the story, and a spokesperson rehearsal could easily be overheard. If the location is sensitive, tell us where the crew should arrive and who will meet them. Keep the shoot details to the people who need them.

Preparing a spokesperson

A crew cannot rescue an interview from a poorly prepared spokesperson, so your media training still matters. But you can use the session better by agreeing the key lines in advance and leaving time for another take after a stumble. Have someone from your team listen for accuracy, as they will spot a wrong number before a videographer would.

You can tell us if you want to direct the session or prefer the crew to take the lead. Ideally someone attends to approve the frame and manage VIPs, but if you cannot be there, the brief sets out exactly what is needed and what to avoid. Good audio matters here more than almost anything else. Our videographers come equipped with lavalier microphones for interviewees and shotgun microphones for ambient sound.

Rights your client can rely on

Once your invoice is settled, the company holds full commercial usage rights to both the final assets and the raw footage, with no licensing fees or expiry dates to manage. If the material will be passed to media outlets, or if your agency is the party being invoiced, make clear in your brief who is the end client, so the handover goes to the right place.

Campaigns across several markets

Agencies with a global client may need the same launch filmed in several places, on the same day. Our local crew model suits this, with one brief, one point of contact and one invoice for the whole campaign. It removes the need to find, vet and coordinate a separate supplier in each market while the announcement clock is running.