Brand films people watch to the end.

A brand film is a short company film that shows what your business stands for and why customers can trust it. It doesn’t sell a single product. It builds trust through real people and a clear core message, meaning the one sentence viewers should remember afterwards. Corporate film is the umbrella term for any film a company makes about itself, and the brand film is its best-known form. In German-speaking markets the format is called an Imagefilm; in English, corporate film or corporate video is also common. For the website, 60 to 120 seconds is typical, while pitch and trade fair versions can run longer.

The cost of a brand film depends mainly on two things: the number of shoot days and the amount of post-production. Locations, crew size, voiceover, animation, music licences and the number of versions for social media and ads come on top. Usage rights belong in the quote too, especially if the film is to run as a paid ad, so it is best to compare quotes by shoot days, crew, rounds of revisions and rights rather than by the total alone. At Maze & Friends, you get a fixed-price quote with no hidden items after the free initial call. Our guide to brand film costs shows which factors move the price and by how much.

With a 3-minute brand film, running time matters less than you might think; shoot days and editing effort weigh more. Three minutes means more editing and a story that has to hold up for that long. This length makes sense where people already bring interest, such as in a sales meeting or at a trade fair. For the website and social media, we cut shorter versions from the same shoot. The running time follows the story. What your project costs is set out in the fixed-price quote after the initial call. Our guide explains how the costs of a video production add up.

Our brand film production runs in five steps: strategy call, concept and script, shoot, edit with feedback, and delivery. It starts with the goal and the core message, not the camera. You sign off the script, shooting schedule and interview questions before we shoot, and on the day the shoot is directed by the same person who presented the concept to you. After the first cut come defined rounds of revisions, so it is clear when the film is finished. At the end, you get every format along with a recommendation on which version runs where. The usage rights are then yours.

The ideal length for a brand film is 60 to 120 seconds on the website and 15 to 30 seconds for social media and ads. Longer versions of up to about three minutes pay off where viewers already bring interest, such as in a pitch or at a trade fair. Length is no mark of quality. Every second that tells nothing costs viewers, and a tight film with a clear message almost always beats the long one that tries to fit everything in. We decide in the concept which versions you need, so the shoot delivers enough material for every length.

How long a brand film takes depends mostly on how quickly the concept and cuts are signed off. We set the schedule, including the date of the first cut, in writing before shooting starts. The shoot day itself is usually the shortest part; most of the time goes into concept and editing. If there is a fixed date, such as a trade fair or a launch, we plan backwards from it. You save the most time with one contact person who is authorised to sign off, and with locations that are cleared in advance.

It is best to have a brand film made by a provider that takes responsibility for concept and production from one source. That can be a production company or an agency, or an experienced freelancer for clearly briefed shoots. How they work matters more than the label. Look for references in your industry and a quote that discloses shoot days, crew, rounds of revisions and usage rights. A written concept before the shoot should be a given. Maze & Friends produces brand films in Vienna and shoots across Austria and the DACH region. You will find examples in our projects, such as Autohaus Willander or the iSi Group.

A brand film and a brand video essentially mean the same thing: a film that builds trust in your company as a whole. Some providers use brand video for the leaner web version. A promotional video, by contrast, sells something specific, such as a product or an offer, and is designed to prompt quick action. As a rule of thumb, the brand film answers “Why us?” and the promotional video answers “Why this, now?”. We plan promotional videos for the feed vertically and make them work without sound, because ads there mostly play muted. A well-planned shoot day can yield both formats. Our guide covers the difference between a brand video and a promotional video in more detail.

A good brand film has one core message instead of a list of benefits: a sentence viewers remember about you after the film. Add real people telling the story in their own words and an opening that gives a reason to keep watching within the first few seconds. Technically, sound and light often matter more than the camera. Poor sound drives viewers away. Many company films are cleanly shot and still achieve nothing, because they list instead of tell. For the iSi Group, we told five generations of company history in the film “iSi World”, with interviews and flashbacks. A good film is also planned so that short versions come out of the same shoot.

Use a brand film wherever people decide whether to trust you: on the homepage, in sales meetings, at trade fairs and in recruiting. The main version belongs on the website and in presentations. Short versions run on LinkedIn and in ads, and a separate cut for applicants goes on the careers page. Newsletters and quote emails carry a film further, too. What matters is that these places are fixed before the shoot. A film shot with variants in mind delivers material for months; one without that plan delivers a single file.

A brand film pays off for any company whose work needs trust or explanation, whatever its size. A small family business often gains more than a corporation, because its people are what really sets it apart and they are rarely seen anywhere else. Autohaus Willander, a family business in Vienna since 1964, is a good example. Industrial products that need explaining and service providers with long decision paths are typical cases, too. A brand film is less suitable when your positioning is still shaky or you need short-term sales; then a positioning workshop or promotional videos with clean tracking are the better first step.

Your own people are the best choice for a brand film, because real employees and managing directors come across as more credible than hired actors. The interviewing makes the difference. We tell people in advance what we will ask and work without memorised lines. At Autohaus Willander, managing director Robert Varga appears on camera himself; at Exclusive Home, it is the managing director with his partner. We use actors or voiceover artists where a scene has to be staged, such as in a commercial. We only use what the people shown have approved.

The usage rights to the finished brand film are yours, for all delivered formats and channels. Exactly what is included, such as media and duration, is set out in the quote, as is whether the film will be promoted as a paid ad. We hand over the raw footage on request, so you can have new versions cut later, for a trade fair or a job ad, for example. Music and voiceover often come with their own licences, which we clear from the start for your planned use. Everyone who appears in the film gives written consent. Then you can use the film without having to ask again.

You may only use music in your brand film whose licence allows exactly that use. A well-known song from the radio is usually out of the question or very expensive for company films, because the rights to the composition and the recording have to be cleared separately. The safe route is licensed music from professional libraries whose licence also covers advertising. Planned use matters: music licensed for the website may not automatically run in paid ads. We clear the licence before the edit and record it in the quote, so platforms don’t block or mute your film later when it runs as an ad.

We set the number of revision rounds for a brand film in the quote before shooting starts, so it is clear when the film is finished. Most changes arise when the core message is only debated in the edit. That is why you sign off the script and interview questions before the camera rolls. After the first cut, you collect feedback from everyone involved in one consolidated round instead of passing it on piece by piece, and we discuss requests that depart from the approved script openly before they cause costs. Small corrections to on-screen text or music are part of every round.

A good brand film agency asks about your goal and audience first and only then talks about cameras. Look at references that resemble your task. And ask who directs the shoot. A reputable quote discloses shoot days, crew, rounds of revisions and usage rights, so you can compare it. Also check whether short versions and the places the film will run are already planned in the concept. At Maze & Friends, the shoot is directed by the person who presented the concept to you. You will find more criteria in our guide to choosing a brand film agency.

A well-planned brand film shoot also produces reels and photos for social media. We plan the variants in the concept, because a film that wasn’t shot with variants in mind is hard to take apart sensibly later. You get the main film plus short versions in 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, with a photo set and drone footage from the same day if you wish. At Autohaus Willander, half a shoot day at five original locations produced the main film, two reels and a customer testimonial. Photos and film then match in light and visual language, and you save yourself a second appointment.

Maze & Friends is a video production company from Vienna, based at Vienna Airport, shooting across Austria and the DACH region. Our projects range from a brand film for a car dealership in Vienna’s Mauer district to a cinema commercial for Exclusive Home that ran in more than 20 cinemas in Austria, and brand films for the Swiss start-up 79degrees. We shoot on location at your premises, and we plan shoots outside Vienna so that your business keeps running, while concept and coordination work perfectly well remotely. For clients in and around Vienna, extra appointments such as a photo set are especially easy to fit in.

AI can create animations and quick variants for a promotional video, but it doesn’t replace a brand film with real people. Trust comes from faces and places that actually exist. We use AI where it saves time, for storyboards, research, subtitles and edit variants, for example. At Autohaus Willander, the storyboard was created with AI support, and filming took place at five original locations. We always label photorealistic AI images. For campaigns with many variants, a mix of shot footage and AI elements can make sense; for the core of your brand, real footage remains the better choice.

Measure a brand film against the goal it was made for, not by views alone. If it is meant to bring enquiries, count the enquiries from the pages where it runs. In recruiting, applications per vacancy count; in sales, the response to quotes that include the film. Watch time and drop-off points also show you whether the story holds up. To make this measurable, the website needs clean tracking. Our work with the iSi Group delivered +150% reach and twice as many B2B enquiries. And ask every new enquiry how they heard about you.