Video production seems simple. You have an idea, you film, you edit and done. In practice, things often go differently. Most mistakes happen before the camera even turns on.
Mistake 1: starting without a clear function
"We need a video." It's the most common sentence in our inbox. Without a sharp goal, the video automatically becomes vague. It tries to inform, convince and inspire at the same time—and ultimately succeeds at none of them.
Video only works when its role is clear. Is it a sales video? Employer branding? An explainer for new clients? The sharper the choice, the stronger the result.
Mistake 2: thinking in one final video
Companies hang everything on one end product. That way a lot of potential is lost. The shoot isn't used to gather extra material, and reuse is only considered afterward.
Today the value isn't in one video, but in what you get out of one production. With Lidl, we shot both Dutch and French content in 2 days—for multiple channels at once. That's how you make a shoot pay off.
Mistake 3: insufficient preparation
Good video feels spontaneous, but rarely is. When preparation is missing, the shoot day becomes chaotic. Stories aren't sharp, people don't know what's expected and decisions are made at the last minute.
That leads to content that's technically fine, but has little direction. We always work with a PPM—a Pre-Production Meeting—at least 10 days before the shoot. Everything is locked down before we unpack the camera.
Mistake 4: wanting to be too polished
Many companies want to look professional and go overboard. Everything tightly scripted, perfectly lit, emotionally flattened. The result feels distant.
Today the opposite works better. Authentic, human images with high quality but without excessive control build more trust. Cinema quality without cinema behavior.
Mistake 5: no plan for deployment
A video without a clear distribution plan disappears quickly. It gets shared once and then forgotten. That's not about the video—it's about missing context.
When you don't think beforehand about where and how the video will work, the payoff stays limited. Production and strategy should run in parallel—not after each other.
Have you planned a video production? We'd love to help you avoid the pitfalls before it's too late.
