What is a hero film and why does your business need one?
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
How long does someone need to understand what makes your business worth their attention?
Five minutes? Two minutes? What if you only had seconds? That’s the challenge a good hero film should answer.
At DCA, when we talk about hero films, we mean short, carefully produced films that capture the essence of a business and give people a reason to take notice. Think of it as a visual elevator pitch, only instead of explaining why your business is great, you show it.
You might have heard terms such as brand film or corporate video used to describe business video content. For us, a hero film is slightly different. It has a simple job: show people what your business does and make it stand out.
That might mean capturing your team at work, the scale of what you do, or the experience customers have when they walk through the door.
The point is that we should be able to see it. A hero film doesn’t need someone reading a carefully prepared script and explaining the business. In fact, it doesn’t necessarily need anybody speaking at all.
The pictures should be capable of telling the story.
Show, don’t tell
When we start developing a hero film, one of the questions we consider is: how could somebody understand this business after watching for just a few seconds?
That means stripping away all unnecessary detail and working out what is actually interesting before developing a creative idea around it. A recent project for our client Newham & The Port of Truro is a great example of this.
Newham is a large riverside business district in Truro that’s home to more than 100 businesses. Trying to introduce each one individually wouldn’t make much sense. The bigger story is just how much can be found in one place.
So that became the idea behind the film. We used real video and drone footage alongside specially created AI transitions to move quickly between different businesses and locations around the estate. The viewer effectively flies in and out of different places, giving them a sense of just how much can be found within Newham.
The finished hero film runs for around 45 seconds. More than 100 businesses. One place. Less than a minute to tell the story.
What makes a good hero film?
There’s no set template that we apply to every business. A bakery shouldn’t look like an accountancy firm, and a major industrial business is going to give us completely different creative opportunities to say an airport or harbour.
What matters is having a clear idea before filming begins. Good cinematography is important, but beautiful shots alone don’t make a good hero film. The edit needs to flow, the music should suit the personality of the business and the finished film needs to feel like the company or place it represents.
That’s why we generally believe hero films should be short. Around 30 seconds to one minute is usually enough. You’re not making a documentary about the company or trying to squeeze the entire About Us page into a voiceover.
You’re giving someone a reason to stop and look, and hopefully a cause to remember.
What actually goes into making one?
A hero film usually starts with an idea, followed by storyboarding and, where needed, scripting. From there, we plan who and what we need to film, the locations and schedules involved and how we can capture everything with minimal disruption.
The amount of filming depends entirely on the project. Coordinating many businesses for the Newham film meant shooting across two full days, while another hero film might only require a single shoot, or even multiple dates to capture effectively.
And no, you don’t necessarily need an enormous film crew descending on your workplace. We often prefer to capture genuine activity as it happens, moving quietly through a workplace and filming people doing what they would normally be doing anyway. The less we need to manufacture shots, the more authentic the result can feel.
Once filming is complete, the edit brings all that preparation together and gives the final film its pace and character.
One film doesn’t mean one use
This is where a hero film becomes particularly valuable as a marketing asset. The obvious home is your website, where it can quickly give visitors a feel for your business. But the same film can also be adapted for social media and reshaped into the different formats needed for paid advertising placements.
A landscape master might sit on your website or YouTube channel, while vertical or square versions can be created for other platforms such as Meta, TikTok or Google ads.
Hero films can also work particularly well at exhibitions and events. That’s another reason we like films that communicate visually without relying on somebody speaking. If your film is playing on a screen at an exhibition, conference or event with the sound switched off, it should still make sense.
The same applies to social media. People won’t necessarily stop scrolling and switch their sound on to hear your proposition. The film needs to earn their attention first.
A marketing asset with a long life
Social content moves quickly. A hero film can act differently. By capturing the core of your business rather than a temporary offer or passing trend, a well-made hero film can remain relevant for years.
It can continue working across your website and campaigns long after the original shoot, while being reformatted or edited for different applications as your marketing develops.
For many businesses, that makes investing in one strong hero film a sensible starting point before commissioning a large volume of separate video content.
Do you need a hero film?
If you’ve already got professional photography, a good website and active social channels, you might reasonably wonder what video adds. The answer is speed.
Your prospective customers are busy. They aren’t guaranteed to read every page of your website before deciding whether they’re interested in your business or product.
A hero film gives you an opportunity to make that introduction almost immediately. Not by explaining everything you do, but by showing enough to make them want to know more.
If your business doesn’t currently have a strong, recent hero film, we’d love to talk about what yours could look like.
Get in touch with DCA and let’s create something worth stopping for.
