Recruitment videos built around what candidates care about

Start with what a candidate wants to know

Your hiring video has an audience: the person deciding whether to work for you. Every interview, shot and piece of information should help that person understand the opportunity. What matters to your leadership team may be different from what matters to a technician considering the job.

Before planning a recruitment video, ask your current employees what attracted them to the business. What do they value now? What would they have wanted to know before joining? Their answers can show you which parts of the job deserve attention.

That is the starting point for our recruitment video production. We help employers tell a useful story about the work, the people and the experience of being on the team. For trades and field businesses, that means showing the actual job and the opportunities candidates can realistically expect.

Occulus Films is a veteran-owned, family-run video production company based in Phoenix, founded in 2014. We can handle a project from concept through post-production or provide production-only capture for your team.

What makes a hiring video useful?

Ask employees what attracted them

It is easy to build a company video around what the owner wants to say. A hiring video needs the perspective of someone looking for work. Ask employees why they joined, what they appreciate and what has made the company worth staying with.

Those conversations can challenge assumptions. You might want to talk about a company milestone, while a candidate wants to know who will teach them, how they can grow or what support they get when they need help. Find out before deciding what the film should emphasize.

Show what growth looks like

Nick's early work included an apprentice-electrician job during a high-school summer and after graduation. His tasks included job-site deliveries and pickups and assembling lighting fixtures. At that stage, learning valuable skills, earning more and having opportunities for coaching, mentoring and training were attractive to him.

That experience informs the questions we would ask about a trades job. It does not mean every candidate wants the same thing. Your employees can explain what matters in your business, and the video should reflect the opportunities you actually offer.

Back up culture claims with examples

If leadership wants a casual or family-like atmosphere, ask what it does to create that experience. How does the company show appreciation? What does it do to make employees feel valued? How does it recognize great performance?

Specific examples give a candidate something to evaluate. The employee perspective and the leadership perspective should help explain how the workplace operates in practice.

A recruitment series built around three perspectives

A useful starting approach is to hear from a long-serving employee, a newer employee and someone in leadership. This is a way to develop the story, not a fixed package with a required number of interviews.

A long-serving employee

Someone who has been with the company for a long time can explain why they stayed and how their experience developed. Ask about the work, the people and the opportunities they have actually had.

That story can help a newer applicant picture a possible future. An experienced candidate may also recognize the qualities that make a company a place worth staying.

A newer employee

An employee who joined roughly six months to a year ago can offer a more recent perspective on starting. What attracted them? What did they find when they arrived? What do they like about the company now?

Someone considering a move may relate to that experience. It gives the film another viewpoint alongside the person who already knows the business inside out.

Someone in leadership

Leadership can explain the culture it is trying to build and the actions it takes to support employees. We would ask for examples of appreciation, development opportunities and recognition for good work.

The goal is to help a candidate connect the intention with the experience described by employees. Leadership adds context while the people doing the job explain what it feels like.

Film the work that supports the story

The interviews guide the supporting footage. If a technician is part of the story, we would film that person doing relevant work and interacting with other people. The images should help a viewer understand the experience being described.

Plan the tasks and access before production. A procedure, work site or interaction may need particular people available at a particular time. A shot list built around the story helps us use that time well.

For related settings, explore our video production for construction and home services. If you need footage for an internal editor or agency, we can scope production-only crew support.

Recruitment and related work

Arizona Army National Guard: a public recruitment example

Our Arizona Army National Guard project documented a real training environment and was used for recruiting and social content. A reel from that work was also shared on the U.S. Army Instagram account.

See the Arizona Army National Guard project. It is a public example of field footage used in recruitment.

Summit Roofing and Restoration: production-only capture

We captured employee and recruitment-related content for Summit Roofing and Restoration in Atoka, Tennessee. Our role was production only. That experience is separate from the Army example available to watch here; we are not presenting a public finished Summit film or claiming we handled its editing.

Renew Full Arch Lab: brand and founder storytelling

For Renew Full Arch Lab, we handled concept through post-production on videos about the founders and the business. Content that helps someone understand a company and its people can also be useful during recruitment.

That is a potential use of the brand content, rather than a claim that the project was a dedicated recruitment campaign or produced a measured hiring result. Explore the Renew Full Arch Lab project.

Recruitment videos we can plan around your needs

Employee stories

Hear directly from people doing the work. Our employee testimonial video approach uses conversation, useful follow-ups and on-camera coaching to help people share their own experience.

Company culture and founder stories

A brand film can introduce the people and thinking behind the business. When hiring is an intended use, include the questions a candidate needs answered in the creative plan.

Day-in-the-life and job-specific videos

Follow the work a candidate would be joining. A role-specific video can show the tasks, team interactions and environment that a written job description may struggle to convey.

Apprentice and development stories

If your company offers training, mentoring or progression, let people explain what those opportunities have meant to them. Use actual experiences and approved information. Related training and onboarding videos can help new employees after they join.

Short versions for hiring channels

Plan the versions around where applicants will see them. A careers page can provide a fuller introduction. A short piece for a social campaign, referral message or job-fair conversation may focus on one part of the opportunity.

Indeed, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram may be part of your distribution plan. Agree on the destinations and required formats before production rather than treating every possible cut as included.

How we scope a recruitment project

First, define the audience. Are you trying to reach someone entering the trade, an experienced technician or another role? Then identify what those people need to understand and which employees can speak to it firsthand.

We plan interviews and supporting footage around that story. The project might need one video or a series with different perspectives and uses. Deliverables are always scoped individually; there is no automatic number of shorts or fixed shoot-day package.

Agree on where the videos will be used and who will keep the job information current. A candidate should be able to move from the video to the actual opportunity without searching for the next step.

What recruitment video production costs

As a ballpark, an individual recruitment video starts around $3,000. A recruitment video series starts around $10,000. Every project is scoped individually, and the final cost depends on the work required.

The number of stories, interviews, locations, production days and finished edits affects the budget. Additional versions and travel also need to be considered. Tell us whether you want complete creative development and post-production or capture for your existing team.

We agree on timing after defining the scope and availability of the people and locations involved. A series with several edits has different requirements from one individual video.

Get an estimate

Tell us who you need to hire, what those candidates care about and where you will use the videos. If you have already asked employees what attracted them to your business, bring those answers. They are a useful place to start.

Get an estimate.