MUMBAI: The recent video of Alia Bhatt uploaded by comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB) ‘Genius of the Year’ once again brought out the power of digital to the forefront.
Today, brands are increasing their marketing spends on the medium as they create interesting videos to connect with the audiences. And thanks to this, a number of independent production houses have mushroomed which specialise in telling a story.
One such production house is the The Square Peg Films (TSPF), started by Pooja Mishra and Praveen Sharma in late 2013. Like a picture says a thousand words, the videos say a lot more, with this thought on their minds the two began freelancing as a form of preparation and a diploma course and made a few other films as well. They did all this for around 3-4 years before taking the plunge.
Mishra and Sharma were working with digital agencies before they came together to explore their skills as they became part of various projects to give them the much needed push and confidence. Beyond the personal ambitions and interest of venturing into videos, they also noticed a gap in the market, which was created owing to lack of smart and a little more involved production houses that make process of video production easier and not otherwise.
So what separates them from the others? “We are not just a production house that helps brands or agencies execute their ideas in terms of videos, but also a video production agency that has the capability to pick up briefs, understand the marketing objectives behind them, conceptualise ideas and then bring them to life. This is the reason why our clientele has a good mix of both brands and agencies,” both say unanimously while stating that a few of their work like the TVC for Rediff.com or a corporate video with Thomas Cook, has been with brands directly.
Another thing that sets them apart is their range of work, so they claim. “Mostly, there are two categories of production houses, ones that do TVCs, and the others that are into corporate films and animation. We do it all,” says Sharma. In the past 11 months of their operation they have done a TVC, plenty of animation videos and international assignments as well.
At present, there are 12 people working with the production house on a full-time basis, while there are a few others that work with it on project basis primarily on pre and post production stages.
“Though we serve as end-to-end video solution providers, in our opinion, our strength is in pre-production, which includes conceptualisation and scripting. Further, our background and instincts give us an edge over others when it comes to shoot based content,” says Mishra.
The clientele includes Puma, MTS India, Oakley India, Aegis Global, Thomas Cook, Lipton Ice Tea, Sab, Kokuyo Camlin, Rediff.com, and many more. The production house reaches out to brands and their past work talks for itself. “A couple of good projects to show got us more work in return,” highlights Mishra.
When asked if international production houses form any threat to Indian houses, Sharma says, “There are different kind of videos, a few of them are high on technicality others on sentiment. International production houses might be becoming a preferred option when it comes to videos high on visual effects and other technical details, but when it comes to getting the sentiments right, there is no replacement for the Indian counterparts.”
