Luma Creative produces internal communications video in San Francisco: company all-hands and town halls, executive messages, change announcements and the short cuts your comms team sends afterwards. Much of it is unrepeatable. The meeting happens on one date, and whatever the cameras did or did not get is what the whole company sees. We plan it backwards from two fixed points, the audio in the room and the short edit that goes out afterwards. Tell us the date and we will tell you what is achievable on it.
What counts as internal communications video
Internal communications video is made for the people who already work at a company, not for its customers. It covers company all-hands and town hall meetings, executive and leadership messages, change announcements, and culture and recognition films. Training sits next to it as a related but separate brief, covered on our training video production page.
The audience is captive. That is harder than it sounds. Employees are the least forgiving audience a company has: they arrive with their own information about how the business is doing, and they measure what is said on screen against what they saw in their own team last quarter.
Why the internal audience is harder than the external one
Employees judge an internal film on whether it is straight with them, which is a harder test than a customer applies. Four things follow.
- They already know the answer. Staff know the state of the business, so a film that oversells damages the credibility of the person delivering it.
- One take, one date. An all-hands happens once and cannot be reshot, which changes how we rig the room, how many cameras run and what we back up.
- Audio outranks picture. Nobody forgives a town hall they cannot hear, so we specify audio first and build the camera plan around it.
- The short cut is the deliverable. We write its shot list before the event, so the edit comes from a plan and not from whatever the cameras happened to catch.
Types of internal communications video and what comms teams commission
Comms teams commission four recurring films: all-hands and company town halls, executive and leadership messages, change and announcement films, and culture and recognition films. A livestream is added when staff are spread across sites. They rarely arrive as isolated briefs, because a comms calendar produces several a year, so we scope internal work as a set of pieces.
- All-hands and company town halls. Multi-camera capture of the whole session, plus a short internal cut for the people who could not attend.
- Executive and leadership messages. One person to camera with supporting footage, in the voice of the leader speaking and not the comms function.
- Change and announcement films. A restructure, a relocation or new leadership, filmed in a small setup where tone matters more than production value.
- Culture and recognition films. Real people in their own working environment, filmed so the colleagues who know them recognise them.
- Livestreamed sessions. Streamed and recorded from the same session, for the staff who are not in the building that day.
| Film | What the message has to do | How it is captured | What comms gets back |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-hands and company town halls | Say the state of the business to people who already know it | Multi-camera capture, with one camera running throughout | A clean recording of every session, plus a short internal cut |
| Executive and leadership messages | Sound like the person whose name is on it | One person to camera with supporting footage, as we shoot executive interviews | A short film, ideation to delivery in a day or two |
| Change and announcement films | Land a restructure, relocation or new leadership without spin | Small crew, plain setup, tone over production value | One film, with its distribution decided before the shoot |
| Culture and recognition films | Be recognisable to the colleagues of the people in it | Real people in their real working environment | One film, from people filmed where they actually work |
| Livestreamed sessions | Reach staff who are not in the building | Streamed and recorded from the same session | Covered separately |
When staff are spread across sites we stream the session as well as record it, and that side of it is on our page about livestreaming a company all-hands.
Recording and production: what a company all-hands needs on the day
A company all-hands needs a capture plan built on the assumption that the day will not be repeated. We specify audio first, build the camera plan around it, and keep one camera running from the first word to the last.
All-hands or company town hall: what changes on the day
What changes on the day is how much of the session belongs to the audience. Companies use the two words for the same meeting, so the label tells you almost nothing on its own.
An all-hands is a scheduled business update. Leadership presents, the deck drives the running order, and questions come at the end. A town hall is the one where employees hold the floor. The room then has to be covered so a camera can see the person asking, and the running order is looser, so a camera that stops between segments misses the exchange everyone remembers.
Our planning rule: if you call it a company town hall, plan the capture around the audience. If you call it an all-hands, plan it around the deck.
How many cameras a company all-hands needs
Usually two or three: a wide safety shot that never stops, a close shot on the speaker, and one for audience or slides. The wide camera exists because an all-hands cannot be reshot, and a single-camera failure would otherwise lose the event.
We treat two as the floor for any room with a stage. With one camera, a single operator makes every edit decision live, in the room, and one card failure ends the day. The third position earns its place when the meeting takes questions. A fourth adds polish and adds nothing to safety.
Crew size is a content decision as much as a cost one. An all-hands is one of the few shoots where a visible crew changes what people will say out loud, so we keep it small on the days that matter most.
The five decisions you cannot fix afterwards
Five decisions land before a company all-hands starts, and none can be repaired in the edit. They rarely appear in a brief, so they default to whoever happens to be standing nearest the equipment.
- Where the audio comes from. A feed from the room’s own sound system, not a microphone on a camera at the back of the hall.
- How many cameras run, and which one runs from start to finish. A single-camera failure loses an event that has no second date and cannot be reshot.
- How the slide deck reaches the edit. Taking the feed at load-in, or filming a projection screen and living with a washed-out slide.
- Whether anything is recorded twice. One event and one date, so a card or a recorder failing takes the whole session with it.
- What the short internal cut has to contain. A shot list written before the event, or an edit assembled afterwards from whatever happened to be captured.
| Decision | When it is decided | What it costs you if it is wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Where the audio comes from | Before the room is rigged | The one fault employees will not forgive. |
| How many cameras run, and which one runs throughout | Before the room fills | A single-camera failure loses the event. |
| How the slide deck reaches the edit | At load-in | Nothing recovers a washed-out projection screen afterwards. |
| Whether anything is recorded twice | Before the room fills | A card or a recorder failing takes the whole session with it. |
| What the short internal cut has to contain | Before the event starts | Without a shot list written first, the cut comes together from whatever happened to be captured. |
Sharing an internal video with people who were not in the room
Plan for an audience that was never in the room, because the file that reaches them is a different file from the one that was recorded. Three specifications belong in the brief before anyone films.
- How long the short cut runs. Published internal-comms guidance clusters between two and five minutes, and the length is worth agreeing before the shoot.
- Captions and a transcript. People open internal video on a phone between meetings and start it muted, so the cut has to work with the sound off.
- Where it will be posted. An intranet player, a chat channel and an email embed each want a different length and a different first five seconds.
On length, the published guidance is close to unanimous. SnapComms puts the ideal video length between two and four minutes and says anything longer risks viewer disengagement, and Staffbase’s best-practice list caps internal video at two to five minutes. The part we control is that we agree the length of the short cut before the shoot and build the shot list to it.
The full recording of a company all-hands is the archive. It settles arguments about what was said, and almost nobody watches it end to end. A transcript is what makes that archive searchable, so a question about something said six months ago can be answered without scrubbing an hour of footage.
We ask two questions before the shoot. Where will this be posted, and who has to approve it. Sign-off usually fixes the date before the camera plan does, because a message touching headcount, results or structure needs approval from outside the comms team.
When video is the wrong tool for an internal message
Video is the wrong tool for most internal messages. If the message is a policy change with dates and steps in it, write it down. A film is the worst container for anything an employee will need to search, forward or look up twice.
The advice you will find most easily online is that a phone, a tripod and a clip-on microphone are all you need. For a manager recording a short update for their own team, that is true, and you should not be paying us for it. It stops being true once the whole company is the audience. A film going to every employee at once carries the credibility of whoever is on screen, and bad audio in a hard room reads as though nobody thought the announcement worth doing properly. That is the inference you least want on the day you restructure a department.
Filming on a corporate site: NDAs, security and insurance
Filming inside a company means working to that company’s rules, and the paperwork is settled before the crew is on site. NDAs and insurance certificates are routine for us, we have worked under an MSA, and the full detail is on our page about working with enterprise procurement.
Internal filming usually happens in a building with a security desk, and the building shapes the day more than the creative brief does. We work to whatever the site says about where a lens may go and what may appear in frame.
We sign NDAs as a matter of course. Internal comms is the work least likely to reach anyone’s portfolio, ours included.
Approval is the slow part. If legal, investor relations or an executive office signs off on the cut, that clock starts before the shoot is booked.
What internal communications video production costs
Luma Creative produces most single-day corporate video in the San Francisco Bay Area for $5,000 to $30,000, and internal communications shoots sit inside that band. A shoot that spans several days or more than one building, and carries a larger crew with it, sits between $15,000 and $100,000. An executive message shot as a single talking-head setup sits at the bottom of the single-day band and generally starts around $5,000, with ideation to delivery in a day or two, because the location is fixed and the editing is light.
Internal work prices differently from a one-off film, because the expensive part is getting a rigged room, an approved deck and the right people to line up on one date. A comms calendar planned in advance shares those days across the whole set. Four briefs handed over one at a time each pay for their own. Retainers start at $10,000 a month.
What moves the number is the count of separate days and the number of buildings. Approvals move the date, not the price. The full breakdown is on our page about what video production costs.
Internal communications video examples we have made
The closest published example we have of capturing a live session and cutting something short for the people who were not there is our town hall recap films for California Forever. Luma Creative was brought in to produce town hall recap videos, summarising key takeaways and making them accessible to the public. The role then expanded into full-service corporate video production across the East Solano Plan campaign. Those were public community town halls, so the audience is not the same as yours.
Turo’s hosts are not on the payroll, so read the second example as arithmetic and not as comms evidence. Six instructional films for new hosts on their platform, shot across four days. The schedule forced the quantity-and-quality trade to be struck on paper beforehand.
Related
Internal communications video sits inside our HR video production work, alongside employee onboarding video and corporate event video production. Everything else we make is listed on our video production services page.
Frequently asked questions
What is internal communications video?
Internal communications video is made for employees, not for customers. It covers company all-hands and town hall meetings, executive and leadership messages, change announcements and culture films. Training is a related but separate brief. The audience already works at the company, so credibility matters more than persuasion.
How many cameras does a company all-hands need?
Usually two or three: a wide safety shot that never stops, a close shot on the speaker, and one for audience or slides. The wide camera exists because an all-hands cannot be reshot, and a single-camera failure would otherwise lose the event.
What is the difference between an all-hands and a company town hall?
Companies use the two words for the same meeting, so the label alone tells you little. What differs is who holds the floor. An all-hands is a scheduled update driven by the deck, and a town hall gives employees the floor, which means the whole room has to be covered instead of only the stage.
What matters most in a town hall recording?
Audio. Employees will forgive an imperfect picture and will not forgive a town hall they cannot hear, so we specify audio first and build the camera plan around it.
How long should an internal communications video be?
Published internal-comms guidance clusters between two and five minutes. SnapComms puts the ideal length between two and four minutes and says anything longer risks viewer disengagement, and Staffbase caps internal video at two to five minutes. We agree the length of a short cut before the shoot and build the shot list to it.
Do you edit a shorter version afterwards?
Almost always, and we plan for it during the shoot. The shot list is built with that edit in mind, and its length is agreed before anyone films.
Can you livestream a company all-hands as well as record it?
Yes. We stream the session and record a clean master at the same time, so remote staff watch live and the comms team still has usable footage.
Will you sign an NDA for internal footage?
Yes, and routinely. Internal communications is often the work that never reaches a portfolio, which is the normal case here. Insurance, MSAs and the rest of what enterprise procurement asks for are covered separately.
What does internal communications video production cost?
Luma Creative produces most single-day corporate video in the San Francisco Bay Area for $5,000 to $30,000, and internal work sits inside that band. A shoot spanning several days or more than one building, and carrying a larger crew, sits between $15,000 and $100,000. A single executive message generally starts around $5,000. Retainers start at $10,000 a month.