4 ms·

Seeing the video in the article I was reminded of a corporate video they did a few years ago. I know the director second-hand, and he was basically given free r

by mixmax 12y ago

Seeing the video in the article I was reminded of a corporate video they did a few years ago. I know the director second-hand, and he was basically given free reign to go wherever he wanted and spend as much money as he deemed necessary to make a video that got the size and trust of the brand across. This is the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE I think he succeeded - it's one of the best brand videos I've ever seen.

kctess5 12y ago
That's a really good video! Any idea what the final budget was? Would be interesting to know how much companies dish out for that sort of thing
- will_hughes 12y ago
  I've heard that for things like this you start at $1m per finished minute, and then go from there. This is about 12 minutes long, has a fairly well known British Actor narrating, a well known film director, involved lots of world travel and various types of specialist equipment operators, lighting and sound folks. I wouldn't think you'd get away from this for anything under $20m, and wouldn't be shocked to hear it was $30m.
  - robzyb 12y ago
    Tbh to my ears that sounds like a bit of an overestimate. Serenity, a 119 minute feature film, had a production budget of $39M. Of course, there are probably higher costs for a "documentary" like this Maersk one, primarily because of fixed-costs and international travel, but I couldn't imagine that it would be more expensive per-minute by a factor of 7.
    - will_hughes 12y ago
      Yeah, possibly. I have no expert knowledge of this particular shoot. Serenity's not a great example though, normally a movie like that would've been closer to $100M at the time. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)#Filming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)#Filming
  - carlisle_ 12y ago
    I've worked on feature film (90 or more minutes) productions that with a full crew cost <$400,000 to create. $20m for an advertisement is a gross overestimate. I would be shocked if it cost more than $100k to make this video.
    - thrownaway2424 12y ago
      I'm sure it cost them at least $50 to license that cheesy score.
    - macmac 12y ago
      Many helicopter/offshore shots in exotic locations in that feature film?
- mastorrent 12y ago
  USD $2 million[1] [1] http://www.porttechnology.org/news/we_are_maersk_worlds_largest_shipping_line_releases_2_million_corporate_vid http://www.porttechnology.org/news/we_are_maersk_worlds_larg...
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
"Pick a point on the globe--any point--and Maersk won't be far away." This immediately makes me want to calculate the Maersk pole of inaccessibility just to prove them wrong. Maybe xkcd can get on it. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility)
- nl 12y ago
  Maersk does some land shipping too. But I don't think Maersk (or anyone) does much work shipping across land on Antarctica. They do supply some of the research stations[1], but these tend to be on the coast. Given that, I'd imagine somewhere in the middle on Antarctica would be about the furthest. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Peary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Peary
  - chmullig 12y ago
    But if there's a single shipping container at Amundsen-Scott...
jacquesm 12y ago
Key line in that video "It's difficult for us, it's easy for our customers and that's what it is all about." That's the core of any really successful business, package a challenge in such a way that the rest of the world takes it for granted, internalize the complexities and reap the rewards that go with taking the responsibility for doing so. Excellent corporate video, one of the best I've seen.

by mixmax 12y ago

kctess5 12y ago

That's a really good video! Any idea what the final budget was? Would be interesting to know how much companies dish out for that sort of thing

will_hughes 12y ago
I've heard that for things like this you start at $1m per finished minute, and then go from there. This is about 12 minutes long, has a fairly well known British Actor narrating, a well known film director, involved lots of world travel and various types of specialist equipment operators, lighting and sound folks. I wouldn't think you'd get away from this for anything under $20m, and wouldn't be shocked to hear it was $30m.
- robzyb 12y ago
  Tbh to my ears that sounds like a bit of an overestimate. Serenity, a 119 minute feature film, had a production budget of $39M. Of course, there are probably higher costs for a "documentary" like this Maersk one, primarily because of fixed-costs and international travel, but I couldn't imagine that it would be more expensive per-minute by a factor of 7.
  - will_hughes 12y ago
    Yeah, possibly. I have no expert knowledge of this particular shoot. Serenity's not a great example though, normally a movie like that would've been closer to $100M at the time. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)#Filming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)#Filming
- carlisle_ 12y ago
  I've worked on feature film (90 or more minutes) productions that with a full crew cost <$400,000 to create. $20m for an advertisement is a gross overestimate. I would be shocked if it cost more than $100k to make this video.
  - thrownaway2424 12y ago
    I'm sure it cost them at least $50 to license that cheesy score.
  - macmac 12y ago
    Many helicopter/offshore shots in exotic locations in that feature film?
mastorrent 12y ago
USD $2 million[1] [1] http://www.porttechnology.org/news/we_are_maersk_worlds_largest_shipping_line_releases_2_million_corporate_vid http://www.porttechnology.org/news/we_are_maersk_worlds_larg...

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

"Pick a point on the globe--any point--and Maersk won't be far away." This immediately makes me want to calculate the Maersk pole of inaccessibility just to prove them wrong. Maybe xkcd can get on it. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility)

nl 12y ago
Maersk does some land shipping too. But I don't think Maersk (or anyone) does much work shipping across land on Antarctica. They do supply some of the research stations[1], but these tend to be on the coast. Given that, I'd imagine somewhere in the middle on Antarctica would be about the furthest. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Peary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Peary
- chmullig 12y ago
  But if there's a single shipping container at Amundsen-Scott...

jacquesm 12y ago

Key line in that video "It's difficult for us, it's easy for our customers and that's what it is all about." That's the core of any really successful business, package a challenge in such a way that the rest of the world takes it for granted, internalize the complexities and reap the rewards that go with taking the responsibility for doing so. Excellent corporate video, one of the best I've seen.