Most businesses know they need better content. Better photography for the website. More video for social media. A proper set of images for the brochure that’s been on the to-do list for six months. A company video that actually reflects who they are rather than something that looks like it was filmed on a Nokia in 2009.
What holds most of them back isn’t the desire β it’s the logistics. Getting the right people in the right place, making sure the space looks the part, briefing everyone on what’s needed, and then somehow capturing enough material to last more than a fortnight. It feels like a big undertaking, and it often gets deprioritised in favour of whatever’s most urgent that week.
That’s where a properly planned content creation day changes everything. Done right, a single day of shooting can produce enough content to fuel your website, your social channels, your marketing materials, and your sales collateral for months. Here’s how we approach it at Our Agency and what makes the difference between a content day that delivers and one that doesn’t.
Start with the brief, not the camera
The most important work on a content creation day happens before anyone picks up a camera. A thorough brief agreed with the client well in advance, is what separates a productive shoot from a day of wandering around hoping something good happens.
We start by mapping out every destination for the content we’re capturing. Website hero images. Team headshots. Product photography. Behind-the-scenes footage for social. A talking-head interview for the company video. Lifestyle shots for the brochure. Each of these has different requirements in terms of framing, lighting, background, and talent, and working through them in advance means nothing gets missed on the day and no time is wasted figuring it out on location.
We also think carefully about the order of the day. Exterior shots early while the light is good. Hair and makeup (where relevant) before headshots. The most energy-intensive setups like interview pieces or multi-person scenarios, scheduled for when everyone is warmed up but not yet tired. It sounds like common sense, but a well-structured run sheet is the difference between capturing everything on the list and running out of time before you get to the stuff that matters most.
Shooting for multiple formats simultaneously
One of the biggest efficiencies of a well-planned content day is the ability to capture material for multiple formats from a single setup. A product shot set up for the website can, with a small adjustment in framing, produce a square crop for Instagram, a landscape version for LinkedIn, and a portrait version for a brochure page, all from the same five minutes of shooting.
The same applies to video. A two-minute interview filmed for the company website can be cut down to a 60-second version for YouTube, a 30-second version for social, and a 15-second clip for a paid ad β all from the same session. The key is thinking about these end formats before you start shooting, not after. Our videographer Stephen shoots with distribution in mind from the first frame, which means the edit suite has everything it needs without anyone having to go back for pickups.
We apply the same thinking to photography. Rather than shooting everything for one specific use, we capture a range of compositions, orientations, and crops that give the design and content teams flexibility when it comes to laying things out. A photograph taken with only the website header in mind will almost certainly cause problems the first time it needs to appear somewhere else.
Getting the most out of your team on the day
People are almost always the hardest variable to manage on a content creation day. Not because they’re difficult, most people are brilliant once they’re comfortable, but because being in front of a camera doesn’t come naturally to most of us, and the results show when someone isn’t at ease.
A few things make a real difference here. Briefing your team in advance, so no one is surprised by what’s being asked of them removes a lot of anxiety before the day even starts. Building in time for people to get comfortable before the camera rolls, rather than expecting everyone to perform immediately, produces much better results. And keeping the atmosphere relaxed and positive on the day itself makes an enormous difference to how people come across on screen and in photographs.
For interview-style video content, we find it almost always works better to have a conversation than to ask someone to recite prepared answers. Give people the themes they’ll be asked about, let them think about what they want to say, and then have a genuine conversation on camera. The results are warmer, more natural, and far more watchable than anything scripted.
Photography for websites, brochures, and social: the technical considerations
Different destinations have different technical requirements, and a content day needs to account for all of them. Website images typically need to be high resolution, optimised for both landscape and portrait crops, and shot with enough negative space to accommodate overlaid text. Brochure photography often needs to work at larger print sizes, which demands higher resolution and more careful attention to sharpness. Social media content needs to feel immediate and authentic, slightly less polished than brochure photography, but still intentional and on-brand.
Colour consistency matters across all of these. If your brand has a specific colour palette, the photography style should feel coherent with it; in terms of tone, warmth, and the overall feel of the images. This is something we think about at the brief stage and carry through into the edit, so the final image library feels like a cohesive set rather than a random collection of photographs taken on the same day.
Video content: from company films to social clips
Video is where a well-planned content day really earns its keep. The range of video content most businesses need a brand film, a product explainer, team interviews, social clips, testimonial footage, behind-the-scenes material can feel overwhelming if you try to tackle it piecemeal. Bringing it together into a single, well-structured shoot day makes the whole thing manageable and cost-effective.
At Our Agency, Stephen handles all of our in-house video production, and having a dedicated videographer who understands both the creative and the technical side means we can move efficiently through a shoot without compromising on quality. He’s also a licensed drone pilot, which opens up options for aerial footage that adds a different dimension to company films and location-based content, particularly useful for clients with impressive premises or outdoor operations.
The key to getting strong video from a content day is capturing more than you think you need. Cutaway footage, establishing shots, atmospheric material, the stuff that looks like filler when you’re shooting it is often what makes an edit feel polished and professional rather than like a series of talking heads. We always build time into the run sheet for this, and it always pays off in the edit.
What to do with everything once you’ve got it
A content creation day produces a lot of raw material, and having a clear plan for what happens next is just as important as the shoot itself. Who edits the video? Who selects and retouches the photography? How are assets stored, organised, and shared with the people who need them?
We deliver finished assets to clients in a structured library, organised by format and intended use, so that whoever is managing the website, the social channels, or the print production can find exactly what they need without wading through hundreds of unedited files. We also deliver assets in the specific formats and dimensions needed for each platform, so there’s no additional processing required before anything goes live.
Done properly, the output from a single content creation day can supply a business with fresh, professional, on-brand content for six months or more. That’s a reyt good return on one well-planned day.
