174 !!Chapter 9
MZ: What is a corporate video?
Dennis: There are many kinds of corporate videos... generally
speaking, a corporate video outlines or describes what it is about
a corporation that makes it unique... makes it special... makes
it different. It describes the corporation and gives the viewer a
feeling for what the corporation does... who are the people
who run the corporation, and what the talent pool is like that
makes the corporation run. These are definitions that are sort of
general, but that’s mostly the kind of work that I do. There are
other corporate videos that are more specific and targeted to dif-
ferent audiences, depending on what the corporation does.
Pfizer, for instance, will do videos for certain divisions that
explain or describe a certain product. Sometimes those corporate
videos go out to people who sell the products or go out to doc-
tors, for instance, and then there are other corporate videos that
are strategic and slightly more cerebral that kind of give more of
a sense of what a corporation is about. It doesn’t have to be spe-
cific information, but it can be more like a mood or a feeling or
an essence of what a corporation stands for.
MZ: How does working on a corporate video differ from working
on a commercial?
Dennis: A corporate video, just by the nature of being longer, has
more information. It’s like taking a commercial and stretching it
out, but, I treat it pretty much the same way as I would treat a
commercial. I think that the shooting and editing [of the film]
and [scoring] the music are all inherently important... the way
I treat corporate videos, because of my background in commer-
cials, would be to look at a subject, to delineate what that subject
is, and then to fine-line certain aspects of it... almost like treat-
ing it as individual commercials. So, I think you have the luxury
in a corporate video of telling more stories, of getting into per-
sonalities within the corporation, or developing characters in a
way, like you would in a movie.
MZ: How often are corporate videos made for in-house use?
Dennis: Probably about 50 percent of what I do remains in-house—
[the purpose is] to motivate employees—to give specific infor-
mation that the upper management wants them to understand
more thoroughly. About 50 percent [of my videos] goes to the
outside [for other purposes]. [Dennis produced several videos
of the Boys Club of Harlem playing basketball in China and in
Cuba.]
MZ: Do you consider the videos you produced for the Boys Club
corporate videos?
Dennis: They’re principally used for fund-raising. The Boys Club
pieces, both the Beijing, the China piece, and the Cuba piece, are