The future of video production for brands

Why is the format question now the first question?

When a video brief reaches me, the first thing I want to know is where the film will be watched. The answer decides the frame, the shot list, the length and the number of edits before anyone books a camera. A campaign that has to live on a website, a YouTube channel, Instagram and an event screen is really four deliveries, and each one has to be planned rather than improvised from the master at the end.

I trained as a computer science engineer, and I find it useful to think of a campaign as a system with several outputs rather than one film with leftovers. The work for One MG Lido Mall in Bengaluru shows what that means in practice: our 2D sales animations for its seasonal and retail campaigns were delivered as landscape promotional films and as portrait sales reels, along with formatted social media outputs and digital display assets.

The frames a campaign usually needs

• 16:9 landscape: websites, YouTube, presentations, LED screens at events and anything played on a television.
• 9:16 vertical: full-screen viewing on phones, and the frame we deliver for Reels and Shorts. YouTube's help page on Shorts talks about uploading vertical videos as Shorts.
• 4:5 and 1:1: feed posts, where a taller or square frame takes up more of the screen than a landscape one.

The deliverables for our video production work list platform cut-downs in 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1 alongside the master. Platforms change their placements and length limits often, so check each platform's current guidance when a campaign is planned. Even on a landscape-first platform the shift is visible: YouTube's upload guidance gives 16:9 as the standard aspect ratio on a computer, and notes that for vertical or square uploads its player adapts itself to the size of the video. The principle does not change with the specifications. Decide the frames at the brief, because what you can deliver later depends on what you framed on the day.

Choosing the primary frame

One frame has to lead, because a shot cannot be composed perfectly for two shapes at once. I choose the primary frame by asking where most of the audience will meet the film. A film for a corporate website and investor meetings leads in landscape. A launch built for social feeds leads in vertical. When the audience is genuinely split, we plan dedicated setups for each frame at the moments that matter most and let the rest of the coverage serve both.

What the brief should now say

• Every place the film will run, and which of them matters most.
• The primary frame, and the full list of cut-downs with their ratios and lengths.
• Whether each version will mostly be watched with the sound on or off.
• Caption and subtitle languages.
• The date each version is needed, since a teaser and a full film rarely go out on the same day.

What does vertical video change about shooting and editing?

Vertical is not a crop. It is a different composition, with its own rules about where people stand, how much background shows and where text can go. Treating it as an afterthought is a common reason brand reels look cramped or awkward, so the changes start on set.

At the shoot

• Shoot with crop room. A full-height 9:16 crop from a 3840 x 2160 frame is about 1215 x 2160 pixels, enough for a 1080 x 1920 vertical master. From a 1920 x 1080 frame the same crop is only about 608 x 1080 pixels and has to be scaled up.
• Mark both frames on the monitor, so the camera operator protects the vertical area while composing for landscape.
• Keep the key action near the centre when one shot must serve both frames. Wide gestures and people standing side by side rarely survive the crop.
• Film dedicated vertical setups for the shots that carry the story: the product reveal, the main speaker, the hero moment.
• Leave clean space where on-screen text will go, away from the edges of the frame where app buttons and captions usually sit.

In the edit

• Cut the vertical version as its own edit. The opening seconds, the order of shots and the length often change, not only the framing.
• Rebuild graphics for the tall frame. Titles, lower thirds and animated layouts designed for 16:9 need new layouts, which is why we treat motion graphics as part of the format plan rather than a final layer.
• Plan for viewers who watch with the sound off, using captions and on-screen text, while still mixing the sound properly for those who listen.
• Recheck the grade on every reframed shot, because a vignette or a brightened face placed for 16:9 can end up in the wrong place.

Common mistakes to avoid

• A landscape master cropped late, so the speaker's hands or the product drift out of frame.
• Titles that run off the edges or sit underneath the app's buttons.
• Wide establishing shots that turn into unreadable slivers in vertical.
• The same length for every frame, when the vertical version usually needs to be tighter.

Where does AI-assisted post-production genuinely help?

Emerging technologies are one of the areas I work in, and alongside running the studio I am a co-founder of NAROZ.ai, a private AI-led digital agency. That makes me enthusiastic about these tools and strict about where they belong. My test is the one I apply to any new tool: does it save time without lowering the result, and can a person check what it did?

Where it earns its place

• Transcription: turning hours of interviews into searchable text, so an editor finds the right line in minutes instead of scrubbing through footage.
• First-pass captions, which a person then corrects, especially names, brand terms and Kannada or Hindi words.
• Dialogue clean-up: reducing background noise, hum and room echo on interview audio.
• Masking and tracking: isolating a person or an object across a shot, work that once meant hours of frame-by-frame rotoscoping.
• Reframing assists that follow a subject when a landscape shot becomes a vertical one, with an editor correcting the framing.
• Upscaling and restoring archive footage, so older material can sit inside a modern edit.
• Generated footage for shots a camera cannot get, as long as it is grounded in real reference.

That last point comes from documented work, not theory. For the home page film on the Sumadhura Industrial and Logistics Parks website, we generated six native 4K chapters based on the official renders of the Hoskote park, then cut them into 180 frames that play as the visitor scrolls. The generation was anchored to the client's own material, and every figure on the site comes from the brochure, the client brief or published press coverage. That is the discipline I would expect from any team using generative video for a brand: the footage can be made, but the facts cannot.

Where it does not

AI does not decide what the film is about, which take carries the truest performance, or when a grade has gone too far. It cannot confirm that a claim on screen is accurate, and it does not settle rights. A synthetic voice or face that resembles a real person raises consent questions, and generated material has to be cleared for the way it will be used. Those decisions stay with people, and anything contractual belongs with a qualified legal professional. Our article on where AI fits in a creative workflow, stage by stage goes through each step in more detail.

Questions to ask a production partner about AI

• Which steps in your workflow use AI, and which never do?
• Who reviews AI output before it reaches us?
• Will any shot, voice or face in our film be generated, and will you tell us which ones?
• Is any real person's likeness or voice involved, and has their written consent been obtained?
• Who owns the generated material, and are there limits on where we can use it?

How are live and short-form changing what a brand films?

The practical change is frequency. A brand that wants to publish every week needs far more pieces than one or two films a year can supply. That changes what a shoot day is for: one day of filming has to feed weeks of posts as well as the main film, and the edit has to keep pace without the standard slipping.

Events now run at two speeds

Event coverage shows the shift most clearly. A highlight film still matters, but short glimpses are best published first, while people are still talking about the night. On the TOBY movie PR event for Lighter Land, the objectives included short, engaging glimpse videos for digital platforms, and the project demanded fast, effective post-production so the content was polished and ready for promotional use. Planning for two speeds means two edit plans: a short list of moments that can be cut and published quickly, and a fuller story that is finished properly afterwards.

Short-form needs a rhythm, not a burst

Short-form works when it becomes a series a team can sustain. A creator or brand that publishes daily needs an editing pipeline that keeps up week after week, which is a production problem as much as a creative one.

During my 30-day challenge I needed daily edits, and the team delivered on time, every time.

Aashika Gowda, YouTuber

What makes a rhythm like that possible is preparation: templates for titles and captions, a consistent look, an agreed review routine and shoot days that capture several pieces at once. Our work for Aashika Gowda shows the groundwork: its objectives included standardised thumbnail covers and post layouts, a consistent colour scheme and typography, and visual templates that support fast-turnaround updates. Without that kind of system, daily publishing turns into daily firefighting.

Live video is its own discipline

Live streams, launches and live question-and-answer sessions give a brand an immediacy that edited video cannot. They also remove the safety net of the edit. If you plan to go live, treat it as a broadcast rather than a shoot:

• Sound first: a clear microphone on every speaker matters more than a second camera.
• A tested internet connection with a backup, checked at the venue at the same time of day as the stream.
• A host who can carry silences and technical pauses.
• A run of show with timings, so the stream has a shape.
• A clean recording of every camera, so the best moments can become short clips afterwards.

That last point is where live and short-form meet. A well-recorded live session can supply a week of clips, as long as someone planned to capture it cleanly.

What a shoot day should now capture

• The main film's story shots and coverage.
• Dedicated vertical setups for the key moments.
• Short, self-contained interview answers that work as single clips.
• Behind-the-scenes and process moments that show how the work is made.
• Stills and short loops for the website and for thumbnails.

What will not change: story, light and sound

Every shift above changes how a film is packaged and delivered. None of them changes what makes a viewer stay. My working standard is that every campaign should inspire trust, hold attention and create lasting value, and in video that still comes down to three old things.

Story

A film needs a reason to exist and an order that makes sense. The one-year celebration film for Kantara: A Legend from Hombale Films is a clear example. It was built by curating key moments from the film's journey, audience reactions, cultural milestones and critical recognition, then shaping them through editing into a film designed to evoke nostalgia and celebrate what the film had achieved. What carried it was selection and structure, not a new format or tool.

The same holds for a twenty-second reel: one idea, a clear opening, a turn and an ending. Short does not excuse shapeless.

Light

Phones are unforgiving screens: small, bright and often watched in daylight, so flat or careless lighting shows quickly. Good light still makes skin look natural, products look real and spaces read clearly, and no grade fully rescues a face lit by two clashing colours. Our guide to the art of colour grading covers how far the grade can go and where it has to stop.

Sound

Plan captions for viewers who watch with the sound off, but do not treat them as a fix. When the sound does come on, a muddy interview or an echoing room is harder to sit through than a slightly soft shot. Captions do not repair bad audio, and music cannot hide it. Our article on sound design essentials for brand and event films explains what a clean mix needs.

How should a brand plan its video for the next few years?

I would rather a brand plan a year of video than buy one film at a time. The plan does not need to be elaborate, but it should be written down:

1. List every place video will appear over the next twelve months: website, social channels, events, sales meetings, and screens in stores or offices.
2. Choose one or two anchor films for the year, such as a brand film, a corporate film or an event highlight film.
3. Plan the supporting series around them: short pieces that publish regularly between the anchors.
4. Decide the frames and lengths at the brief, and write the cut-down list into the scope.
5. Design each shoot day to feed both the anchor film and the series.
6. Keep clean masters without titles, sound stems and project files, so new versions, languages and cut-downs do not need a reshoot.
7. Keep a labelled footage library, with the permissions and releases for everyone who appears on screen.
8. Review each quarter what people watched and finished, and adjust the next quarter's plan.

How to tell a real shift from a passing one

Not every new format or tool deserves a place in the plan. Before building a campaign around one, I ask four questions:

• Does it change where or how the audience watches, or only how the work is made? Vertical viewing changed how people hold the screen, so it changed the shoot. A new transition effect changes neither.
• Will it still matter after one campaign cycle? A format the platforms keep building around is worth planning for. A visual trend that peaks within weeks is worth borrowing at most.
• Can we deliver it to our usual standard? A shaky live stream or a careless generated shot costs more trust than it earns.
• Does it serve the story we are telling, or does the story have to bend around it?

If a shift passes all four, it goes into the plan. If it fails one, it can still be an experiment, but it should not carry the brand's main message.

Treat website video as engineering

Video on a website is now built for the device as much as for the story. On the Sumadhura site, the 180-frame scroll film is served at three frame sizes chosen by device, 960, 1600 and 2304 pixels wide, and the player only decodes the frames near the visitor's current scroll position. Visitors who prefer reduced motion see the still poster frame instead. A brand planning a site with film on it should plan for those versions from the start: the frames, the sizes and the still fallback.

What drives the effort

• The number of frames and lengths: every extra version is another edit to make and check.
• Live elements, which add crew, connectivity checks and rehearsal.
• Graphics rebuilt for each frame rather than scaled.
• Generated or AI-assisted shots, which can save filming in some cases but add review and clearance work.
• Archive and client footage, which has to be found, cleared for use and matched to new material.

If you are planning video for the year ahead, our video production team can help you work out the frames, the shoot days and the deliveries before anything is filmed. You can read more about my background and the rest of my work on my founder page.