Corporate videos are used by companies to train employees, gain the interest of investors or promote a product for funding. Much like commercial video production, corporate videos must follow some strict guide lines. Some of the things corporate video makers have to think carefully about include: copyright, privacy, fair use, defamation and releases.
Copyright:
Copyright is the legal right, given to a content creator to protect his or her content from being plagiarized. It is put in place because without a copyright system, anyone could steal the idea or the content and make money from it meaning the original creator would lose out on a lot of time and money. In corporate videos, it is important that if music, pictures or any other media sources are used they must either comply with the copyright law, be licenced or be a royalty free piece of work. Here is a corporate video using music that is royalty free, therefore meaning it is perfectly legal under the copyright act. http://www.jmotion.co.uk/kittle/
Privacy:
Privacy is very important to video production as it ensures the safety and well being of the people included in the video. It is also to protect identity as well as personal and private matters, also it protects peoples details such as addresses, banks etc. Any talent in television, film or any other type of media production is protected by the Privacy Act 1974. This also applies to corporate videos, for example peoples personal addresses would never be shown as well as bank details and phone numbers, often in corporate video it is very rare that someones privacy is breached as it is unprofessional and gives a bad impression on the company in question.
Defamation:
Defamation is the act of damaging a company or an individual's reputation. For example slanderous comments about a company or individual would fall under defamation which can then be taken to court under the Defamation act of 2013. In corporate video terms, one companies corporate video cannot directly slander the cause of another company in order to gain anything. Here is one example of a corporate video that complies with the Defamation act of 2013.
Fair Use:
Fair use means to use or "copy" another piece of work but for a limited (transformative) purpose. So for example, showing an example of another companies work with the correct credit would fall under fair use where as using that work as my own would then fall under copyright and could be subject to legal action. One example of fair use would be Youtube, where millions of seconds of content is uploaded every hour. There is a lot of examples of fair use but as there is a current change in terms of service, fair use is a very grey area on Youtube.
Ethical:
To be Ethical a company must be in accordance with the rules for right conduct, especially the standards of professionalism. Although legality isn't a major influence here, professionalism is. In order for a company to seem honorable and professional it is very important to follow ethical standards.
Releases:
Releases are legally required forms used to give permission by a land owner, talent, and anyone else involved in the project in question. For example in media terms, if someone is to appear in a video then they must sign a talent release form to essentially give the production company permission to film (or include them in the video). The example below is a corporate video for TNT. Everyone included in the video will have had to sign a talent release. Location releases would also have had to be signed even though most of the video was shot on their property.
Technologies:
Corporate videos will always have a budget, although a high budget doesn't always been a better product. Depending on what kind of corporate video, for example an infographic will be created on Adobe After Effects and will not require any cameras. A lot of corporate videos are on a lower budget, meaning that they will not use high end equipment. Infact a lot of low budget corporate videos will be produced using the Canon 600D, which costs £300. This is because it is a low budget alternative and it produces a very good finished product (for the price). Here is an example of some footage shot with a 600D (Edited with AE).
Some corporate videos have voice over audio or someone speaking in front of the camera, in this case it is best to use an external audio recorder with an external microphone to get the most professional sounding audio for a low budget. The most commonly used portable audio recorder is the Zoom H4n SP because it delivers a great quality audio track and is at an affordable price of £160.It is important that the video is not shaky because it will look amateur and unprofessional, one way to get around this is to use a tripod, but that in itself has a few problems. The first problem being that it makes the video look very static and boring, the second issue is that moving the tripod around can make the video unstable. A good way to get around this is to use a shoulder mount, it gives the video more fluidity as well as makes it seem much more professional. It's also much more versatile because you can move faster with it and the video will look much more stable. This depends on how much you are willing to pay, because the higher priced shoulder mounts offer a much more stable image, because they use a gimbal, this means that no matter what, the image will be smooth. For a more budget version, there are shoulder mounts that are available for £50 which will still do a much better job at image stabilization than just holding the camera or having it on a tripod.
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