At our sister company OCKHAM, we believe that great people make great productions. Our team of directors, producers, cinematographers, writers, and editors are the absolute best in town, and we’ve done it all. This is why CMOs and Agency Creative Directors love working with us.
Our razor-sharp approach to production ensures that nothing is left to chance. We are meticulous in our planning, and our team works tirelessly to deliver results that exceed our clients’ expectations. We understand that commercial video production is not just about creating a visually stunning product – it’s about telling a story that resonates with your audience and drives results.
Our team is made up of individuals who challenge the status quo and push their boundaries. We believe that creativity, honesty, and talent are essential, but we also understand the importance of not taking ourselves too seriously. This means that we are approachable, flexible, and easy to work with. We pride ourselves on our ability to collaborate with our clients to create content that truly reflects their brand and messaging.
We understand that CMOs and Agency Creative Directors have a lot on their plate.
Tight deadlines, complex projects, and high expectations are all part of the job. This is why we work tirelessly to ensure that our productions are delivered on time, on budget, and to the highest possible standard. We are committed to making the production process as seamless as possible, so our clients can focus on what they do best – driving their business forward.
In addition to our team of talented professionals, there are several other reasons why CMOs and Agency Creative Directors love working with OCKHAM.
Firstly, we understand the importance of communication.
Clear and concise communication is essential to the success of any project, and we make it a priority to keep our clients informed every step of the way. From the initial consultation to the final product, we work closely with our clients to ensure that their vision is realized.
Secondly, we have a wealth of experience in the industry.
Our team has worked on a wide range of projects, from local commercials to national ad campaigns. We understand the nuances of video production and how to tell a story in a way that resonates with a target audience. This experience allows us to provide valuable insights and recommendations to our clients, ensuring that their message is communicated effectively.
Thirdly, we are committed to using the latest technology and equipment.
We understand that the world of video production is constantly evolving, and we make it a priority to stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques. This commitment to innovation ensures that our clients receive a product that is cutting edge and stands out in a crowded marketplace.
Finally, we understand that every project is unique.
We take the time to get to know our clients and their business, so we can create content that truly reflects their brand and messaging. We work collaboratively with our clients to ensure that their vision is realized and that the end product is something they can be proud of.
In conclusion, CMOs and Agency Creative Directors love working with OCKHAM because of our talented team, our razor-sharp approach to production, our commitment to communication and innovation, and our ability to create custom content that truly reflects our clients’ brand and messaging. If you’re looking for a San Diego-based commercial video production company that delivers results, look no further than OCKHAM.
Making a great commercial video takes more than just a good idea. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into the process, and it’s important to understand the logistics of commercial video production if you want your project to be successful. Here, we’ll break down what you need to know before you start shooting your next commercial.
The Pre-Production Phase
Before you can even begin filming, there are several tasks that must be completed during the pre-production phase, such as scriptwriting, casting and location scouting. You also need to figure out what type of equipment is needed for the shoot as well as create storyboards or hire a director (if necessary). Once everything is finalized, you can move on to the production phase.
The Production Phase
This is where all the magic happens! It’s time to gather your actors and crew and hit the set. Depending on the complexity of your project, you may need multiple days (or even weeks) of filming to get all the footage you need. It’s important to remember that this part of the process can take longer than expected due to unforeseen circumstances like bad weather or technical issues—so plan accordingly!
Post Production Phase
Once filming is finished, it’s time for post production: editing, sound mixing and color correction. This phase begins with assembling all the raw footage into one cohesive sequence; then it’s on to adding music, sound effects and voiceovers if necessary. Finally, any visual effects will be added before the video is taken through a final round of quality control checks.
Conclusion
Commercial video production requires careful planning and execution in order for it to be successful. From pre-production tasks such as scriptwriting and cast selection through post production activities like editing and sound mixing—it’s essential to pay attention to every step in order ensure that your project is done right. With enough preparation (and maybe a bit of luck), you’ll have an amazing commercial video on your hands!
The Nuts and Bolts of Commercial Video Production | Helium Films USA January 27th, 2023Thierry
We’re excited to announce that the video we produced for www.williampainter.com is getting some great accolades!
We recently won two ADDY AWARDS
-a San Diego Gold ADDY award,
-a Regional District 15 silver ADDY award,
As well as three Telly awards,
• Your face is your money maker. is the Silver Telly Winner in Online Commercials: Directing (Official Listing)
• Your face is your money maker. is the Silver Telly Winner in Online Commercials: Use of Humor (Official Listing)
• Your face is your money maker. is the Silver Telly Winner in Online Commercials: Videography / Cinematography (Official Listing)
Thank you to all the crew and client for being awesome and making this project one of our best so far!
Check out the video below!
Check out our blog for some more information about the video production industry. Or if you’re in the market for some really high-end TV commercial and broadcast video production, check out our sister company Ockham! With over 15 years of experience in the industry, they focus on creating cutting-edge commercials for epic brands and will take your projects from simple to unforgettable!
William Painter Hero 2 Addy + Telly awards August 4th, 2022Thierry
I don’t know about you, but it’s been a rough couple of months.
Between losing business and having to work from home while caring for two young children who are getting cabin fever from the lack of social interactions, I had to readjust quite drastically.
As the country slowly re-opens (while the number of cases is going up…) myself, as well as a most people in the industry, put a lot of thoughts in how to move forward producing content when even being in the same room as another human being seems like taking an unnecessary risk.
Video production is a team effort and has always been. One in which you can’t eliminate the close proximity and the interactions. (How do you apply make up 6ft away? How do you install a heavy light setup without different people touching the gear? How do you have your talents portray basic human interactions such as hugging one another, holding hands, talking?)
Some production can be done entirely remotely of course. Anything post-production heavy such as animation videos is obviously safe (see the ex. below that we produced for TopHatter during the lockdown).
So are most simple product shoots as long as they’re straight forward enough that they can be done within a single household bubble. (like these ads for a local shoe company that we produced quarantine-style – one of our DP shot the dancing one with his wife. I shot the red shoe one in my living room.)
But a lot of stories and brands require that we show different things, involving more people both in front and behind the camera.
Assuming that we don’t get a vaccine in the very near future, nor that we can test everyone on set the day we’re about to shoot (hello White house! I would love to have one of these 15min test machine handy…), we will have to be creative in how we approach every aspects of our productions to make it safe for everyone and limit (if not eliminate completely) the risk for any crew member or talent of catching the virus.
Tyler Perry, amongst a bunch of other prominent figure in the industry, came out with a solution to this problem. You can read about it here. In essence, the idea is to test everyone before the shoot, and then quarantine them for 14 days prior to the 1st day on set. From that, do a “mini-lockdown” as they produce the show on his lot in Atlanta (no one allowed to leave, see their family, friend, plus daily test or temperature check). No need to say that it’s a great plan, and probably the safest route you could imagine, but definitely not a viable options for any commercial shoots that last 1 to 3 days. (Wanna quarantine – and not work – for 14 days prior to coming on my 2 day commercial?.. It’s ok.. I didn’t think so…)
So that said, here are a non-exhaustive list of best practices that I’ve compiled from various research and discussions I came across in the industry. These specifically apply to small to medium size commercial shoots like the ones we produce at Helium Films. They’re not fool-proof like Tyler Perry’s, but I believe they provide a good foundation to create a safe space for our shoots.
We’ve structured these into a safety policy document (HFUSA COVID19 Social distancing policy.) that we will have any crew and client who’s working with us read, acknowledge, implemement and sign moving forward.
THE OBVIOUS:
-Forbid anyone on set who exhibit any of the symptoms of Covid-19 as defined by the CDC or has been in close contact in the past 14 days with anyone exhibiting these symptoms.
-Have every crew members wear masks AT ALL TIME and allocate specific times dedicated to them changing to new ones several times a day.
-Disinfect all the gear and props before, during, and after the shoot, specifically before and after any use by different people.
-Do the same with all the “shared” surfaces of the set (Bathroom, craft table, location etc…)
-Limit the amount of people on set (clients can be remote on zoom for instance / Don’t hire that 2nd PA if you don’t absolutely need him/her)
-Require regular hand washing and hand sanitizing. Set-up breaks in the schedule to allow for it and provide portable contact-free washing station if possible.
-Sanitize doorknobs, bathroom and other shared spaces on the hour.
THE LESS OBVIOUS
-Limit talents to their household bubble since they may not be able to wear PPE on set (cast a REAL family when you need a family, a REAL couple if you need talents to hug/kiss/get in each other’s face)
-Style remotely (validate wardrobe ahead of time – drop off to talent’s place – choose with client on zoom)
-Have talents do their own make-up as much as possible, and if not possible, have your make up artist wear gloves / use one specific set of products per talents / be partitioned from the rest of the crew / (Let me apologize in advance to all my amazing make up artist for the added work and/or limit to your work opportunities…)
-Physically separate work areas for each department (with V-Flats for instance)/
-Have individually wrapped catering and/or have crew member bring their own lunch / water bottle / coffee.
-Limit crew and talents to who’s absolutely necessary for the shoot. (no more interns, no friends stopping by to check out what a set looks like…)
-Shoot outdoor instead of indoor as much as possible. In larger spaces rather than in a smaller space. Spaces with more ventilations.
THE ABOVE AND BEYOND
-Take everyone’s temperature in the morning before getting on set.
-Have a dedicated safety person on set to make sure that rules are enforced, masks are worn, hands are washed, social distance is respected.
-Color-code each department and set rules for each of these color (Ex: Camera crew wear one color, Talents, MUA, stylist wear an other. You can’t cross over from one color to another – this was implemented recently by a director shooting in Iceland and can be a great option when working with large crews. (Check out the Times article here)
-When possible, use VFX and compositing to shoot talent separately.
-Shoot less. Shorter shoots are safer than longer shoots due to viral load (i.e. two 5 hour days is safer than one 10 hour day, especially in closed spaces)
Oufff. This is a lot. But really, given the complexity of a real life commercial shoot, it is still pretty high level when it comes to what needs to happen on a set. The reality is that depending on the type of shoot, script and creative direction, these “high level” guidelines would need to be detailed quite a bit.
If you want a more detailed breakdown of what we could/should do, here is a super duper comprehensive list put together by our friends at Ten Stories. They produce the same kind of content as we do, and did a great job at listing most of the minute details that will need to happen to make a commercial shoot “safe”. It may seem over the top, but if you want to truly make the set safe, this will be what needs to happen on a regular basis.
So. to finish I’d like to address what it means for productions overall moving forward.
-We’re going to have shorter shoot days, and more breaks within those shoot days. Which means that it will take longer to produce anything (no more 14h-days)
-We will need a whole lot more efforts and time put in pre-production to make sure the set is ready to welcome the crew and talent. (Putting together a shoot is already a gargantuan task with a ton of variable. It’s gonna get worse.)
We will also need the crew to buy in and implement the new practices. (changing people’s habit is hard…)
-Every crew member on set will be “essential” meaning they probably will have twice the amount of work they usually have.
-A lot of scripts and creative direction will need to be revised to fit these new production requirements.
-All of this will end up costing a lot more. Whether that cost is absorbed by the production company, the agency or the end client will depend on a lot of factors. But someone will bite the bullet. And within the context of a declining economy, it’s going to be a tough sell.
At Helium Films USA, we came up with our own policy. We’re having all of our crew and clients sign this ahead of any shoot, and are going to be implementing it on all of our productions moving forward, and hope that it’s enough to make all of our collaborators safe from the virus.
I wish I could say that we won’t need these measures because we can be fully certain that any crew or talent is virus free BEFORE the start of a production, or that we can just stay home indefinitely and weather the storm. Unfortunately, our government (and the US system as a whole) does not seem inclined to either provide the testing capability necessary to the former, or the economic relief to the latter. The U.S. is built on this idea that we have to work, no matter what. As an immigrant, I was never too bothered by this idea becauseit came with a promise that things would be easier to move forward here, that there would be a bit less roadblocks on the way to success (and it has proven true, in my modest experience and in comparison with Europe and France specifically, where I grew up). But will this be true in the future? Maybe not.
I’m not one to be overly pessimistic or optimistic about the future. I believe that we will, as a specie, overcome this pandemic. What it’ll mean for individuals, what it’ll mean for small business, what it’ll mean for our industry, I have no idea.
We’ll see what the future holds. In the meantime, hopefully these measure allow us to weather the storm as much as we can!
Check out our blog for some more information about the video production industry. Or if you’re in the market for some really high-end TV commercial and broadcast video production, check out our sister company Ockham! With over 15 years of experience in the industry, they focus on creating cutting-edge commercials for epic brands and will take your projects from simple to unforgettable!
Video Production & Covid-19 August 4th, 2022Thierry
Helium Films USA, 6316 Riverdale st San Diego, CA, 92120 // Contact@heliumfilms.us
Helium Films USA named 2019 UpCity Local Excellence Award Winner in San Diego
Helium Films USA honored by UpCity as one of the top 20 service providers in San Diego.
San Diego, CA — On September 09, 2019, Helium Films USA announced the company has been named one of the top 20 service providers in San Diego as part of UpCity’s Local Excellence Awards.
UpCity is an online Marketplace that helps businesses find B2B service providers they can trust. UpCity’s Local Excellence Award winners are selected based on the UpCity Recommendability Rating, a proprietary algorithm that measures a provider’s credibility, recommendability, and reputation based on digital signals.
View the list of the top service providers in San Diego here!
“The strength of our marketplace is built on the credibility of truly excellent providers like Helium Films USA,” said Dan Olson, CEO of UpCity. “We are pleased to honor Helium Films USA with a Local Excellence Award in San Diego.”
UpCity introduced National Excellence Awards earlier this year and has now launched a local version for the top service providers located in their top ten performing cities which includes; Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego.
About UpCity
UpCity helps businesses find service providers they can trust. Our Marketplace creates and empowers successful relationships between businesses and service providers from marketers to accountants to HR professionals. We provide transparency and insights to dramatically improve the B2B partner selection and purchase experience.
Over 225,000 businesses visit UpCity each month seeking services from over 35,000 providers in over 600 cities in North America. UpCity helps partners in the Marketplace grow their business and build their digital recommendability. Learn more at UpCity.com.
Check out our blog for some more information about the video production industry. Or if you’re in the market for some really high-end TV commercial and broadcast video production, check out our sister company Ockham! With over 15 years of experience in the industry, they focus on creating cutting-edge commercials for epic brands and will take your projects from simple to unforgettable!
2019 UpCity Local Excellence Award Winner!! August 4th, 2022Thierry
Corporate video does not have to “feel” corporate. In fact, it absolutely shouldn’t.
Whether you’re communicating to an internal or external audience, whether you’re promoting a product or service, whether you’re just covering an event, corporate videos should be just as engaging as any other types of videos.
At Helium Films, we make sure that everything we create is top notch, with broadcast quality that rivals your favorite Netflix shows. Our team of award-winning producers, directors, cinematographers and editors come from the TV and Commercial world to ensure that each project is produced with the highest attention to detail.
As a corporate video production company, we bring a decade of experience crafting compelling content for businesses to you. From scripting to delivery, we provide solutions tailored to our client’s specific needs, and appeal to your specific audience and delivery channels.
Beyond our video production skills, what sets us apart is a deep understanding of business needs and goals built from working closely with CEO and CMO over the last decade. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, we’re proud to say that we’ve crafted dozens of impactful corporate videos that exceeded expectations and resulted in high audience engagement through high-end visuals and compelling storytelling.
But we’re not only a bunch a creative individuals, when working with us, you’ll find patient listeners who take the time to understand your goals, brand and audience. We don’t just come up with a concept, we build it from scratch based on your specific environment, goals, audience and budget.
Below are a few examples of what we’ve produced for corporations.
If you’re ready for high-quality corporate videos, contacts us today for a free consultation!
——
About Helium Films USA:
Helium Films USA is a San Diego Video production company. We’re a full service video production that services businesses and brands both locally and internationally.
If you need help with your video production, feel free to reach out. We’d be happy to take a look at your market and come up with cost-effective quality ideas for you!
Check out our blog for some more information about the video production industry. Or if you’re in the market for some really high-end TV commercial and broadcast video production, check out our sister company Ockham! With over 15 years of experience in the industry, they focus on creating cutting-edge commercials for epic brands and will take your projects from simple to unforgettable!
San Diego Corporate Video Production August 4th, 2022Thierry
