Service · Brand films
Brand films, made without the production.
A brand film is a short story that makes people feel something specific about a company. We make them for marketing teams who could never justify a shoot.
A brand film tells people why they should care, usually by putting someone in it the audience recognizes.
— In Fair Light
What it is
What is a brand film?
A product explainer tells someone what a thing does. A brand film tells them why they should care.
Most companies skip it, because a brand film used to mean a crew, a location, a shoot day and a five-figure invoice before anyone had seen a frame. That math only worked for big companies. It doesn't anymore, and the crew was never what made a film good.
Scoped per project · Two revision rounds included · Typically one to three weeks
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Brand films and launch films, directed end to end
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Social cutdowns, sized per platform
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Original score and sound, not library music
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Work in English or in French
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Two revision rounds included
How it works
01
How do you make a film without shooting one?
We start on the story, not the tools. Each scene is art-directed as start and end frames, generated, and finished the way any broadcast job is finished: edit, grade, typography, pacing and sound. Some projects have real footage in them and some are shot conventionally. We tell you which one we think it should be before we start.
Most of the time goes into the unglamorous part: which take holds, where the cut lands, whether the grade is lying, whether the music is doing the emotional work the script failed to do.
02
What does one look like?
For a community pharmacy in Hull, Québec, it looked like this. The owner sent two photographs from his phone. What came back was a short film: a delivery driver named Michel, four seasons, the same door, the same uniform, the same line each time. February blizzard, July humidex, October leaves. Eight scenes, French narration, original score, and an end card built to match the pharmacy's own identity.
Québec pharmacies can't advertise prices or promotions, so the service was the only thing it could legally sell, and the story had to do all the work. The owner then asked the agency that runs his social channels to bring us in for a series of shorts.
03
Who is this for?
Marketing teams who need a film to carry a story, where the person signing off also cares whether it's good. It works best when you're selling something invisible, or something regulated, or something people would understand instantly if they could see it happen once.
It works badly if you want volume. We'd rather make one you're proud of.
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What do you get?
The film in 4K, cutdowns in the formats you run, and stills for web and print. Two revision rounds are included on everything. Most single-video projects run one to three weeks from the first call.
The film opens and closes on a customer who drove to the pharmacy every month for years because nobody had told her the free delivery existed. Her quiet irritation at finding out late is the entire call to action.
— the pharmacy film
Straight answers
Will it look like obvious AI?
That fear is fair. The synthetic look comes from letting the tool make the decisions. Here, every frame that survives is one a person chose, regraded and cut on purpose. If a shot looks fake, it doesn't ship. Some projects have no generated material in them at all, and we'll tell you which kind yours should be before we start.
Is In Fair Light just one person?
It's led by one person, with a longtime collaborator and specialists when a project needs one. You pay for direction and the edit, not overhead, and you talk to the person doing the work.
How much does it cost?
We scope it on the first call, and you have the full number before anything starts. Two revision rounds are included on everything. We'll also tell you when a smaller project would do the job.
How much of my time will this take?
Very little, and that's deliberate. The first conversation, your feedback once you've seen the visual direction, and two rounds of review. For the pharmacy film, the client's entire contribution was two photographs sent by email. In between we go quiet and build, and you review finished thinking rather than half-finished questions.
We already have an agency running our social. Does that work?
Yes. On the pharmacy series the agency briefs us, writes the scripts and adds its own voiceover and music, and we deliver the picture. If you already have a team, we fit into the part they don't do.
Do you work in French?
Yes. Alex is from Québec and works natively in both languages, including scripts, narration and correspondence. The pharmacy film is in French.
Straight answer
If a shot looks fake, it doesn't ship.
From: “Will it look like obvious AI?”
Elsewhere on the site
Not sure which lane you need?
Bring the project. We'll work out which one it needs on the first call.
Get in touch
Have a story a deck cannot carry?
Tell us what you're making, who it's for and roughly when it needs to exist. The first conversation is free. No pitch, no deck.
Before you commit
We scope it on the first call, and you have the full number before anything starts.
From: “How much does it cost?”