Luma Creative produces recruiting video in San Francisco: employer brand films, team and culture pieces, and role-specific films for hard-to-fill positions. We film real staff during real shifts, because candidates can tell when a recruiting film is cast.
What is a recruiting video?
A recruiting video helps a candidate decide whether they want to work somewhere. It is a hiring tool rather than a marketing one, and it is judged on the quality of the applications that follow rather than on views.
The distinction matters because the two goals conflict. A film that makes everyone want the job produces a bigger pile of worse-matched applicants. A film that is honest about the work filters, and filtering is the point.
The mistake that makes recruiting films fail
Most recruiting video is cast, lit and scripted until it looks like an advert for a company that does not exist. Candidates discount it instantly, because they have seen the genre and they know what it is hiding.
What works is specific and slightly unflattering. The actual desk. The actual commute. Someone saying the part of the job that is genuinely hard. A candidate who joins after seeing that stays, because nothing was oversold to them.
What we produce for talent teams
- Employer brand films. What it is like here, told by people who work here.
- Role and team films. For engineering, clinical or field roles where a generic company film says nothing useful to the candidate.
- Employee stories. One person, one path into the company. Closer to our interview work than to advertising.
- Recruitment films for education and training programmes. We have produced student recruitment films, where the same rule applies: specific detail about cost, time and outcome beats enthusiasm.
How we shoot it
Small crew, real environments, and interviews rather than scripts. We shoot long and cut short, because the usable line is rarely the one someone prepared. Where a workplace cannot absorb a crew, a single videographer captures interviews and b-roll and stays out of the way.
Related
Recruiting sits alongside our training, internal communications and brand video work.
What it costs
A single-location shoot generally starts around $5,000. Multi-day or multi-location work with a larger crew runs $15,000 to $100,000. Cost per film falls sharply when several are captured in the same visit, which is why this work is usually planned as a set rather than one piece. The full breakdown is on what video production costs.
Frequently asked questions
What is a recruiting video?
A recruiting video helps a candidate decide whether they want to work somewhere. It is a hiring tool rather than a marketing one, and it is judged on the quality of applications that follow rather than on view count.
Should we use real employees or actors?
Real employees, every time. Candidates recognise cast recruiting films immediately and discount them, which makes the film worse than having none. Real staff in real environments is the whole mechanism.
How long should a recruiting video be?
Between 60 seconds and three minutes for an employer brand film. Role-specific films can run longer, because the audience is smaller and far more motivated to watch to the end.
What makes a recruiting video actually work?
Being specific, including about the parts of the job that are hard. A film that oversells produces more applicants and worse matches, and the people who join on that basis leave sooner.
Can you film without disrupting the workplace?
Yes. Where a workplace cannot absorb a crew, a single videographer captures interviews and b-roll unobtrusively. We do the same on clinical and customer sites.
What does a recruiting video cost?
A single-location shoot generally starts around $5,000, and multi-day or multi-location work with a larger crew runs $15,000 to $100,000. Filming several role films in one visit brings the cost per film down considerably.