When you have dozens of products to showcase, each with different features, audiences and creative requirements, producing effective product video content is as much about planning and production management as it is about filmmaking.
We recently worked with Ultimate Products to create a large suite of video content for two of their consumer brands: Salter, known for its kitchen appliances and accessories, and Beldray, a range of cleaning appliances.
Across seven filming days, we created a library of content designed to work across e-commerce, social media, YouTube and sales presentations — giving customers and buying teams the opportunity to see the products in action.
Creating a complete library of product video content
The brief wasn’t simply to create a handful of promotional films.
Ultimate Products needed a substantial bank of content that could demonstrate the key features and benefits of a wide range of products, while also providing flexible assets that could be used across different platforms and stages of the customer journey.
In total, the production delivered:
- 10 promotional product videos
- 10 clean versions without text or graphics
- 4 instructional videos
- Approximately 30 social media edits
- 6 studio filming days
- 1 location filming day for lifestyle content
The products covered everything from kitchen appliances such as air fryers, smoothie makers, scales and slushie makers, through to cleaning products including hand steam cleaners.
The goal throughout was simple: show the product doing what it does best.
Rather than relying purely on static product shots or graphics, we wanted viewers to see the products in use and understand their key features quickly and intuitively.
Two brands, one carefully planned production
Working across two different brands meant that consistency and organisation were particularly important.
Salter and Beldray each have their own visual identities, audiences and product ranges, so every detail within the frame needed to feel appropriate to the brand.
At the same time, we were often filming multiple products within a single day. That meant detailed planning was essential.
Products, props, ingredients, sets, lighting and camera equipment all had to be coordinated around a tight shooting schedule. With multiple products moving through the studio, there was very little room for wasted time.
Our production team worked closely with the Ultimate Products teams to make sure we knew exactly what needed to be captured for each product, while also allowing enough flexibility to find interesting visual ways to demonstrate the features.
That preparation became particularly important when moving between products with completely different requirements.
Filming in the Ultimate Products studio
The majority of the production took place at Ultimate Products’ fantastic in-house studio in Chadderton.
The studio gave us the flexibility to build controlled environments around the products and move efficiently between different setups. We also carried out a number of pick-ups at the Coolbox studio when required.
For product demonstration videos, a controlled studio environment has some major advantages.
We can carefully control the lighting, camera movement and composition, ensuring the product remains the hero of every shot. It also allows us to create repeatable setups, which is particularly useful when producing content at scale.
But controlled doesn’t have to mean boring.
We used a variety of filmmaking techniques and specialist equipment to add movement, detail and visual interest to the films.
Getting close with probe lenses and slow motion
One of the most useful ways to make product videos engaging is to find visual ways of highlighting the details that make a product different.
For this production, we used a range of camera and lens techniques, including probe lenses and high-speed slow-motion cameras.
Probe lenses are particularly effective for product work because they allow us to get into places that would be difficult to reach with a conventional camera and create unusual perspectives.
That meant we could get extremely close to controls, surfaces and moving components, helping viewers understand how individual features work while giving the footage a more premium, cinematic feel.
Slow motion was another useful tool, particularly when we wanted to show products in action.
Whether it was demonstrating the movement of an appliance or capturing the detail of food preparation, shooting at high frame rates gave us opportunities to create shots that wouldn’t have had the same impact at normal speed.
Bringing the products into real life
While the studio provided the controlled environment we needed for the majority of the production, some of the products needed a more lifestyle-focused approach.
For this, we dedicated a full filming day to an off-site location; a beautiful big house just outside Manchester, with a lovely big garden.
The location gave us a range of environments to work with, including a large kitchen, office, lounges, multiple bedroom and bathrooms and a huge garden, allowing us to show the products in situations that felt much closer to how customers would actually use them.
We also worked with actors for these lifestyle sequences. This helped us move beyond simply demonstrating what a product does and instead show where it fits into everyday life.
For consumer products in particular, this distinction can be important. A customer doesn’t just want to know that an appliance works; they want to imagine themselves using it. The lifestyle footage gave the brands the opportunity to do exactly that.
Solving the challenges of reflective products
Not every product made our lives easy.
One of the more challenging products from a filmmaking perspective was the Muse matching kettle and toaster set, which featured a highly reflective chrome finish.
Reflective products can be notoriously difficult to film.
Instead of simply reflecting the environment around them, polished surfaces can reveal everything that is happening on set; including the camera, lighting equipment, stands, rigs and, occasionally, the crew themselves.
The challenge was therefore to create an attractive, controlled reflection while keeping all of the unwanted production equipment out of shot.
This required careful positioning of the camera and lighting, as well as plenty of attention to what was being reflected in the product’s surface.
It’s one of those challenges that isn’t necessarily obvious when watching the finished video, but is a big part of getting a polished product film into the edit.
Designing content for more than one platform
A key part of the project was making sure the footage could work hard for Ultimate Products once filming was finished.
The main promotional films were designed to showcase the products and their key features, but the production also generated clean versions without text and graphics, instructional content and a large number of shorter social edits.
This meant the same production could support multiple parts of the brands’ marketing activity.
The finished videos were used across:
- Social media
- YouTube
- E-commerce product pages
- Sales presentations
- Buying team presentations and demonstrations
For the sales teams in particular, the videos provide a useful way of demonstrating product functionality to retail buying teams.
That makes video much more than a marketing asset. It becomes a practical sales tool that can help communicate product features quickly and consistently.
Turning seven filming days into a library of content
One of the biggest challenges with a project of this scale is making sure every filming day is productive.
With multiple products being captured within individual shooting days, the production needed to be tightly scheduled.
There were products to prepare, sets to dress, features to demonstrate, brand guidelines to follow and different teams to coordinate with.
The production therefore involved a considerable amount of logistics behind the scenes.
Good product video production isn’t simply about turning up with cameras and pressing record.
It’s about understanding what needs to be captured before the shoot, identifying which shots can be combined into efficient setups, anticipating what the edit will require and making sure nothing important is missed.
That becomes even more important when you’re working across two brands simultaneously.
By carefully planning the production, we were able to capture a substantial amount of content over seven filming days and create a flexible library that Ultimate Products could continue using across multiple channels.
From product demonstration to product storytelling
The finished films balance two different approaches. On one side, they clearly demonstrate the products; showing features, functionality and how they work.
On the other, the lifestyle content gives the products context and helps create a stronger emotional connection with the audience. That combination is particularly effective for consumer products.
A good product video should answer the practical questions a customer has:
What does it do? How does it work? What makes it different?
But it should also answer the more instinctive question:
Can I see this being useful in my life?
By combining controlled studio product cinematography with lifestyle filming, we were able to create content that did both.
The final result
Across seven production days, we created a substantial suite of video assets for Salter and Beldray, giving Ultimate Products a bank of content that could be used throughout their marketing and sales activity.
From cinematic close-ups and slow-motion product demonstrations to lifestyle sequences and practical instructional videos, the production was designed around one central principle:
Make it easy for people to see what the product can do.
And by planning the production around multiple deliverables from the outset, we were able to turn a relatively small number of filming days into a much larger library of usable content.
That’s the real value of a well-planned product video production.
You don’t just create one video.
You create a content library that can work across your website, e-commerce platforms, YouTube, social media and sales activity – all from the same production.
Looking for product video production?
At Coolbox Video Studio, we produce product demonstration videos, e-commerce content, social media videos and commercial product films for brands and businesses across Manchester, the North West and the UK.
Whether you need a single hero product film or a larger content production covering dozens of products, we can help plan the shoot around the content you actually need; from initial creative development and production through to filming, editing and social cutdowns.
Want to see what we could create for your products? Get in touch with Coolbox Video Studio to discuss your next video production.