Company History Video: How to Film Your Business’s Story

Anniversaries arrive with a deadline and a blank page. Someone is asked to “do a video about our history”, and the first instinct is to put the dates on screen: founded in this year, moved premises in that one, opened a new office, won an award. The result is accurate, and almost nobody watches it to the end.

What people do watch is a person remembering. The founder describing the first order, the engineer who has been there for thirty years explaining what the workshop used to look like, the customer who has stayed with the firm through three generations of owners. This guide is for business owners, marketing and internal communications teams in London who want a company history video that feels like a story rather than a slideshow. For the wider format, see the guide to documentary-style corporate video.

What a Company History Video Is For

Before anything is filmed, it helps to be clear about the job the film has to do. The same history can be told in very different ways depending on who it is for:

• Anniversaries. A milestone year, shown at a celebration, a staff event or a client dinner, and then used online.
• A heritage or “about us” page. Giving visitors a reason to trust a business that has been around for a long time.
• Succession and handovers. Recording the founders’ story while they are still there to tell it, often when a family business passes to the next generation or is sold.
• Onboarding and culture. Helping new staff understand where the company came from and why it works the way it does.
• Mergers and rebrands. Explaining what is carried forward when the name or the shape of the company changes.
• Pitches and presentations. A short version that shows longevity and experience to prospective clients.

Each purpose changes the emphasis. A film for staff can be warmer and more internal; a film for clients needs to explain, quickly, why that history matters to them now.

Why the Documentary Approach Works Best

A company history told by a voice-over reading dates is a corporate brochure that moves. A history told by the people who were there is a documentary, and audiences treat it very differently: they lean in, because they are hearing a person rather than a message.

Memories, Not Milestones

Dates matter, but they are the skeleton, not the story. The film comes alive in the details only people can give: the cold warehouse in the first winter, the phone call that saved the business, the product that nearly failed. A good filmmaker builds the structure from those moments and lets the dates sit quietly underneath.

People Telling It in Their Own Words

Nobody should be reading lines. In a documentary-style history, contributors answer questions in conversation and the film is built from what they actually say. Their phrasing, their pauses and their laughter are exactly what makes the story believable.

The Past and the Present Together

The most satisfying histories cut between then and now: an old photograph of the first shop and the same street today; the founder’s hands on an early product and an apprentice making the current one. The connection between past and present is what makes the history relevant to someone watching in the present.

Who to Put on Camera

The best contributors are not always the most senior. They are the people who remember, and who can tell a story. A useful mix often includes:

• Founders or their families. The origin story, told first-hand if possible. If the founders are no longer alive, their children, early partners or first employees can tell it.
• Long-serving staff. People who have seen the company change and can describe what it was like before.
• Current staff. Especially younger ones, who show where the history is going and why it still matters.
• Customers and suppliers. Long relationships are strong evidence, and outsiders often describe a company more vividly than insiders.
• Someone who remembers a hard time. A history with no difficulty in it is hard to believe. A recession survived or a fire rebuilt from is often the heart of the film.

Speak to possible contributors informally before the shoot. A ten-minute conversation tells a filmmaker far more than a list of job titles.

Interviewing People About the Past

Memory interviews are a particular skill. People often start with the official version, and the real story comes later. A few principles help:

• Start with the person, not the company. How they arrived, what their first day was like. Personal questions unlock specific memories.
• Ask for scenes. “Take me back to the day you…” produces a story; “What was the company like in the 1990s?” produces a summary.
• Use prompts. Showing a contributor an old photograph, a product or a document on camera often brings back details they had forgotten, and their reaction becomes part of the film.
• Allow time. Older contributors in particular should never feel rushed. The best material often arrives after the first hour.
• Check, gently. Memories differ. Where accounts disagree, the filmmaker can cross-check with documents or let the difference become part of the story.

The guide to documentary interview techniques covers the craft in more depth, and these documentary interview question examples include opening questions and follow-ups you can adapt.

Finding and Using Archive Material

Archive is what lets the audience see the past rather than only hear about it. Most companies have more material than they realise, scattered across offices, lofts and former employees’ homes.

Where to Look

• photographs of premises, staff, events and products, including informal snaps;
• old brochures, catalogues, price lists, letterheads and logos;
• adverts from newspapers, trade magazines, television or radio;
• staff newsletters, annual reports and anniversary booklets;
• home videos, corporate films and recordings of earlier events;
• objects: early products, tools, signs, uniforms and awards;
• local and trade press coverage, which may be held by libraries and local archives.

Ask staff and retired colleagues early. A short appeal for old photographs often turns up the best images of all.

Preparing It for the Film

Photographs and documents should be scanned at good resolution so the editor can move across them and pick out details. Old video formats may need transferring before they can be used. Keep a simple list of every item, where it came from and who owns it; it saves a lot of time later.

Rights and Permissions

Owning a photograph is not the same as owning the copyright in it. Material your company created is usually straightforward, but pictures taken by outside photographers, newspaper cuttings, broadcast footage, commercial archive clips and music may belong to someone else and need permission or a licence. The UK government’s guide to how copyright works is a sensible starting point, and its guidance on orphan works covers material whose owner cannot be found. Check the important items before the edit depends on them.

Shaping the Story

A chronological sequence is the obvious structure, and sometimes the right one. But a history can also be told around a theme or a single thread, which is often more engaging. Common shapes include:

• Chronological. Beginning, growth, difficulties, today. Clear and easy to follow, but it needs strong moments to avoid becoming a list.
• Then and now. The film moves between past and present, building a picture of what has changed and what has stayed the same.
• One thread. A product, a building, a family or a value followed through the decades, carrying the wider history with it.
• A few defining moments. Three or four turning points, each told in depth, instead of a complete account.

Whatever the shape, the film should end in the present, with a sense of where the company is heading. The guide to documentary storytelling techniques explains how real material is built into a structure.

Filming the Company Today

Present-day scenes are not filler. They show the audience what the history has led to and give the edit something to cut to when a contributor talks about change. Typical scenes include the workplace in action, the products being made or the service being delivered, long-serving staff at work alongside newer colleagues, and the places that feature in the story, filmed as they look now.

This kind of shoot is usually best done with a small crew: a director who also films, sometimes with a sound assistant. A small footprint keeps the workplace running normally and puts contributors at ease, which matters when people are being asked to talk about their own lives.

Editing and Versions

The edit is where the history is actually written: hours of interviews, piles of photographs and present-day scenes become a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It is also where the hardest decisions are made, because no film can include everyone and everything.

Plan the versions at the start, because they affect how the material is filmed. A common set of deliverables is:

• A main film for the anniversary event, the website or a heritage page;
• Short cut-downs for social media and presentations, often in vertical or square formats;
• Individual stories, such as a founder’s account or a long-serving employee’s memories, as stand-alone pieces;
• Subtitled versions, for viewers watching with the sound off and for accessibility;
• Full interview recordings, kept as part of the company’s own archive.

That last point is easy to overlook. The full recordings of founders and long-serving staff are a record in their own right, and worth keeping safely long after the film has been shown.

Mistakes to Avoid

• A timeline with pictures. Dates on screen over music is not a story. Find the people and their moments.
• Only the senior voices. The view from the boardroom is one view. The workshop, the shop floor and the customers make the history human.
• Leaving it too late. If the founders or the first employees are getting older, record their memories now, even if the film comes later.
• Polishing away the difficulties. A history with no setbacks sounds like marketing. The hard years are often what make the success believable.
• Forgetting the rights. Discovering in the edit that a key photograph or song cannot be used is avoidable.

What to Put in the Brief

A useful brief does not need to be long:

• Purpose. The anniversary, the heritage page, onboarding or a handover, and where the film will be shown first.
• Audience. Staff, clients, the public or all three.
• The story so far. A few lines on how the company started and the moments people always mention.
• Contributors. Who might appear, and whether any of them are older or hard to reach.
• Archive. What material you know exists, and what you suspect might be found.
• Versions and timing. The main film, the shorter cuts, and any fixed date such as an event.
• Sign-off. Who approves the edit.

The documentary brief form on this site is built around these questions.

What Shapes the Cost

There is no standard price for a company history video. The main factors are the number of filming days and locations, how many people are interviewed, the amount of archive to be scanned, transferred and researched, whether outside material or music needs licensing, the length of the main film and the number of shorter versions, subtitles and graphics, and the number of review rounds. For more on how documentary budgets are built, see how much a documentary costs in London. A clear brief is the fastest way to an accurate quote.

Questions People Often Ask

What is a company history video?

It is a film that tells the story of a business: how it started, the people who built it, the turning points and what it has become. The strongest ones are made like documentaries, built from interviews with founders, long-serving staff and customers, combined with archive photographs, old footage and scenes of the company today.

How long should a company history video be?

It depends on where it will be shown. A main film for an anniversary event or a heritage page often runs for several minutes, while short cut-downs work better on social media and in presentations. Agree the main length and the shorter versions at the start, because they shape what is filmed.

What if we have very little archive material?

Many companies have more than they think: photographs in drawers, old brochures, adverts, letters, staff magazines and the buildings themselves. Where there is little, the memories of the people who were there carry the film, supported by objects, places and present-day scenes. A gap in the archive is rarely a reason not to make the film.

Who should I hire to make a company history video in London?

Look for a documentary filmmaker who directs the interviews and edits the film, not only someone who operates a camera. The craft is in finding the story, interviewing people who are not used to being filmed and weaving memories and archive together. Ask to see complete documentaries built from ordinary people’s recollections.

Can we use old photos and footage in the film?

Material the company created and owns is usually straightforward, but photographs taken by outside photographers, news footage, music and anything from a commercial archive may belong to someone else and need permission or a licence. List the material early and check who owns it before the edit depends on it.

A Documentary Filmmaker for Your Company’s Story

Steve Sklair is a BAFTA-winning documentary filmmaker in London, with four decades of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and other UK broadcasters, including work as a BBC series producer. His film The Man Who Loves Gary Lineker, made for the BBC’s Video Diaries in 1993, won the BAFTA for Best Single Documentary, and Child Slave Rescue received the UNICEF Rights of the Child award. Much of his work is built from people telling their own stories, from A Worker of the 20th Century, the life story of a Galician shipyard worker, to Dave Lee’s Jazz Tales, in which the jazz pianist recounts the music’s history. Alongside his broadcast work he has made video projects for large and medium-sized companies. He directs, films and edits each film himself, recording sound himself or with a sound assistant when the shoot calls for one.

If your company has a story worth telling, see how Steve approaches a corporate documentary in London, then tell him about the project through the documentary brief form. It asks what the film is for, who might appear, where it will be shown and when you need it, which is everything needed for a first conversation.

Last updated: 10 November 2026