Video and Photo Crews for Professional Services Firms

Your people are the product

A professional services firm sells expertise and judgement, and clients often buy from a particular person. So the content that tends to matter is the content which helps someone get a sense of that person before the first meeting: how they think, how they speak and whether they seem like someone to trust with a difficult problem.

The trouble is that partners are busy, often reluctant on camera and quick to judge anything that looks amateurish. A shoot may get only one slot in a very full diary. Our vetting looks at client-side manner as well as showreels: we only work with shooters who have experience of corporate and B2B settings, who know how to dress, how to speak to senior people and when to be invisible.

Getting good material from a reluctant partner

Scripts rarely suit senior advisers. Most sound better answering a question than reading one out, and a good interviewer can stop a talk turning into a lecture. A teleprompter is available for material that must be word perfect, but consider it the exception. These steps often help:

• Send the questions a few days ahead, but ask the partner not to memorise answers.
• Ask for stories and specific opinions rather than a description of the firm's services.
• Have someone the partner trusts in the room, and nobody else who does not need to be.
• Book the slot before their busiest time of day, not between two client calls.
• Film several short topics in one session, so that one diary slot produces months of content.
• Take a portrait at the end, since you already have them and they are already dressed.

One firm, many offices

A firm with a dozen offices can easily finish up with a dozen visual styles. One office has a good video, another has a poor one, and headshots differ on every page of the website. Fame Crew uses a local crew member in each city, working from the same brief, so the output can stay consistent while you avoid travel for each shoot.

This is especially useful for headshots, because partners, new joiners and lateral hires are spread across the firm and across the year. Set one standard for the background, light and framing, then give it to the photographer in each location. A new hire in another city can be photographed later to match the set.

Confidentiality, clients and approvals

Client matters can surface in a shoot without anyone intending it: a name on a meeting room booking screen, papers on a desk or a whiteboard in the background. Clear those spaces beforehand, and choose a filming location away from live work where you can. Crew members can sign your NDA before they arrive.

Your risk or marketing team may want to check content for professional rules on advertising and client references. Do this before the shoot where you can, particularly for anything naming a client or describing a result. Get the client's written approval before filming a testimonial, because a firm's relationship with that client matters more than the video.

Events, recruitment and everything else

Firms also run client seminars, breakfast briefings and annual dinners, and these make good content when recorded properly. A crew can record the talks, gather short interviews and photograph the room. Recruitment is another common need, particularly for graduate programmes, where candidates want to see real people and real offices.

If you are in a firm where a partner has to approve every invoice, the admin matters too. You get one point of contact and one invoice, however many offices are involved, and a fixed quote before you commit. Flexible invoicing such as Net-30 is available for approved corporate partners.