What do you do when the product is a machine bigger than most garages and the big idea is that part of it turns?

You film it like a car commercial

A Japanese machine tool maker, more than fifty companies under one name, was launching a new press brake. Here is the trick, the machine rotates while it bends the part, instead of somebody wrestling the part around

Up to thirty two bending steps, automated, no human flipping sheet metal

Try explaining that to a shop owner in one sentence

It's like a tailor who turns the mannequin instead of walking around it…. same suit, half the steps

Factory floor, slow and heavy

I produced and directed the film, the shoot on the factory floor, the 3D graphics, the edit

Heavy machines look dead on camera if you shoot them like furniture, so we moved. Slow dolly past the cell, close on the tool changer swapping punches, sheet metal sliding through, the head firing

Then the motion graphics take over where the camera can't go, inside the bend, the angles, the rotation, title cards for each feature

And a big 8760 on screen, every hour in a year, because that's how long they want that machine running

Who is this film for?

Not engineers, they'll read the spec sheet anyway

Engineers want numbers, and the numbers are all in there, but numbers don't sign purchase orders

It's for the owner who signs the check, the one deciding if a machine that costs like a house is worth it, right? he needs to see it work, fast, and feel like the company behind it isn't going anywhere

So the film opens on the headquarters and the bronze globe out front before it ever shows a bolt

The money part

A machine like this is sold in show rooms around the world, one demo at a time

A good film does the first ten minutes of every demo before the sales guy even says hello

That's what a marketing video is for

The producer behind the camera

When I'm producing and framing the shot myself, a reflection on a steel panel or a guard rail in the way gets fixed through the viewfinder, not in a meeting the next day

Same as on my fashion and product shoots, see the Products Advertising gallery and the Industry Videos gallery

Heavy metal, light on its feet

Length: 8 min 54 s · Producer & director: David Victory, VRSET video production, Los Angeles & Orange County

Key moments

  • 0:00 Animated "Responsive" title
  • 1:06 Headquarters and globe sculpture
  • 1:51 Factory floor in motion
  • 2:35 Laser and punch combination title
  • 4:49 Sheet metal handling close-up
  • 6:18 Machine in production
  • 7:02 8760 hours of production graphic
  • 7:47 Tool changer close-up

See the matching photography in the Industry Videos gallery.

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Planning a video or a fashion shoot? Contact David Victory or call (310) 988-6575 in Los Angeles, (949) 873-4551 in Orange County. Free consultation and quote for first-time clients.