All the best for video production, corporate video, video marketing, videographer, film production and media production across Derby & Derbyshire!
Ah, Derby. Sitting pretty on the River Derwent, this small city is nestled in the heart of the East Midlands. If you know anything about it, you’ll know that it packs a punch for its size, with a rich history, industry, and community identity. But did you also know that Derby is actually an award-winning, expert-producing creative hub? Are you surprised? We’re certainly not. Simply Thrilled has been collaborating and operating across Nottingham and Derby for years now, combining the creative powers of these two stunning cities to produce first-class creative video. Simply Thrilled might be Nottingham’s friendliest neighbourhood video agency, but we also consider ourselves to be chummy with Derby, too.
Before we jump into this article, let’s talk about Derby and why we love it so. Founded way back in AD 600, they definitely didn’t have the facilities for video production back then, but we would love to go back in time and help them make a video about the invading Vikings! Since then Derby has put itself on the map in the silk industry with Lombe’s Mill, followed by becoming one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution, and it is now home to international British companies such as Rolls-Royce, Toyota, and the British rail industry. That’s a lot of history to pack into one place.
Of course, that’s not all that Derby has to offer. Oh no, we know all about Derby’s vibrant creative force and how it’s continuing to blossom. It has a strong presence in the arts and culture community, home to icons like The Archers’ Patricia Greene and Blur’s Graham Coxon and host to the FORMAT International Photography Festival and the Derby Film Festival. Derby is where The Struts, The Beekeepers, and Sinfonia Viva originated from, so it’s obvious to us, and it should be to you, that Derby is a serious creative power.
Now that your eyes have been opened (or re-opened, if you’re already a Derbyhead) as to why this city is a creative powerhouse, we bet you’re wondering what Simply Thrilled is doing going on and on about the place. Well, that’s because we’re a creative video production agency which loves to work there!
If you’re not quite sure what a video production company or a creative video agency is, don’t worry. We can explain that just as easily as we can explain why we love working in and around Derby.
A video production company is a creative collective that aims to bring life and energy into every business’ video campaigns. Video is the most customisable, engaging, and digital age appropriate format for any organisation that wants to build their presence online, on the TV, and in the minds of new and existing customers. But developing, shooting, editing, and delivering a fantastically fresh video is not for the fainthearted. That’s where agencies like Nottingham’s own Simply Thrilled step in.
The technical, creative, and strategy wizards behind video production agencies like Simply Thrilled are here to help you and your business thrive through top-notch video content. We live and breath videos, which means we can develop content that fits you and your ethos like a glove. In creating stellar videos, we can showcase products, film corporate events, deliver promotional videos, music videos, or brand films, and so much more. The flexibility and ingenuity afforded by video is essential. It builds brand identities, delivers information with ease, and makes your business look professional, friendly, and reliable.
Now we’re both on the same page: you know why we love working in Derby, and that video production companies are your number-one fans when it comes to new marketing campaigns, product launches, or anything else you can think of.
So let’s continue on with this article. We’re coming right at you with our comprehensive guide to the video production agencies and specialists knocking around in Derby so that you can find a first-class creative team who can carry your business into the stratosphere and beyond.
The companies on this list are specially selected by us based on the quality of their work.
You don’t have to have read many headlines recently to see how much of a hit local independent creative businesses have taken with current events. Obviously, we’d love it if you got in touch with us, but if we’re not your cup of tea, please do buy locally and support any of the businesses on this list 😊
Simply Thrilled
Look, we get it, being humble is a virtue, but can you really blame us for putting us first in our own article?
Check out our showreel to see what we do best!
Here's why we should work together:
- We’re Multi Platinum Award Winning
- Past Clients: Including Universal, Bose, Boots, Download Festival, the University of Nottingham, Home Office, and Island Records.
- Highly Rated: Dozens of five-star reviews on Google and a multi-platinum award-winning portfolio.
Who We Are
- Creative Collective: Simply Thrilled is a video agency that unites video production wizards.
- Versatility: We work with both big and small organizations, offering top-notch videography.
- Proven Success: Our portfolio has over 53 million views online, with hundreds of thousands of likes and comments.
Our Unique Approach
- Friendly and Innovative: But it's our blend of filmmaking artistry and audience analytics that makes us Nottingham's premier video agency.
- Full Spectrum Services: Including cinema and broadcast-grade equipment, drone videography, 2D/3D animations, motion graphics, project management, and market research.
- Proprietary Technology: Our ViralPixel technology scans a 500-element matrix to determine what audiences love, guiding our concepts and campaigns.
Whether you’re looking for a:
- promotional video
- animated video
- explainer video
- marketing video
- event video
- product video
- social media video
- music video
…Simply Thrilled offers a full-service, start-to-finish solution for your next video project. Reach out to us today, and we'll ensure both you and your audience are Simply Thrilled!
If you're interested in reading about other Derby video production companies, keep scrolling.
Mair Perkins
Mair Perkins Ltd has been in operation since 2012 and is a video production company with a niche focus on animation and illustration services. These services cover the production of animated videos, explainer animations, motion graphics, and illustration production services. The Mair Perkins studio aims to help businesses and audiences communicate and engage with one another, and helps to explain ideas and raise awareness throughout their projects. A unique feature about Mair Perkins is that, unlike many video agencies, it is committed ‘to running an environmentally sustainable business’, demonstrating its long-term, future-facing outlook.
Looking with more detail at the services provided by Mair Perkins, they not only create animated videos for charity campaigns, science communications, apps, social media, and YouTube video brands, but provide more generalised services in script writing, storyboard designing, character design, voiceovers, 2D and 3D animation, music and sound design, and overall technical support. Past Mair Perkins clients include SPRINT, the Space Research and Innovation Network for Technology, the University of Nottingham, and Energy Rev, the BBC, The Alan Turing Institute, the University of York, Future Oak, and East Midlands Trains. Additionally, this company creates professional illustrations for children’s books, educational comics, adverts and social media.
VOWS Wedding Videos
The second featured company is Vows Wedding Videos, a video production agency which specialises in, as you might have already guessed, wedding videography and filming. Based in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, they are right in the heart of the county and are able to film plenty of content for their clients. Although they are not the only company on this list with a comparatively narrow niche of operation, they have a wide variety of services available for hire on a client’s big day. Vows Wedding Videos offers a range of packages which contain varying kinds of services such as 4K ultra high definition video capture, All Day Coverage, and Aerial Drone Footage.
The Vows Wedding Videos team also offers the expertise of their cinematographers and editors, some of whom appear to have experience in creating music videos for numerous iTunes-charting bands, to ensure every client has a unique wedding video to remember for years to come. Vows Wedding Videos focuses on capturing every moment of a happy couple’s special day through stylised highlight videos and full films. A unique detail about this agency is that it has experience in filming different types of religious and cultural wedding ceremonies, not just Christian or church-based events, ensuring that a wide variety of clients can feel that they are in safe hands.
Front Row Films
Front Row Films is a specialist videography and photography company in that they focus entirely on aerial footage capture. They describe themselves as ‘reliable, safe and legal’ and are CAA Approved, as well as fully insured with a £1 million public liability to cover them when they fly at altitudes of up to 400 ft (120 m). They also pride themselves on their pilot team, which consists of fully-qualified experts who are eager to adhere to strict safety and operational rules. By following these guidelines and upholding these standards, Front Row Films considers itself a first-class aerial videography service.
Front Row Films offers a variety of airborne services. For example, if a client needs to inspect a roof or an entire property, conduct a land survey, or develop a promotional video for their website, they believe themselves to be the people for the job. They offer inspection and survey services as well as advanced 3D mapping and photogrammetry expertise, as well as aerial hyperlapse or drone lapse sequences. As drone filming and drone photography continue to develop in speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, it is assured that the quality of Front Row Films’ videos will only continue to increase. Past clients include the University of Derby, Beard Theory’s Spring Gathering, and Derbyshire’s CemPump Ltd.
Purpose Media
Purpose Media is a marketing agency with over 13 years of experience in the industry with past clients that include Conspare, Derby County Football Club, Edgemere, and Penny Hydraulics. Purpose Media aims to bring technical and creative expertise to every project and to be a reliable marketing partner no matter the project, obstacle, or organisation. They are a strategic marketing agency who value results, strategy, and pragmatism in all of their projects and clients. They want to deliver, as their name suggests, media that is purposeful.
Purpose Media seeks to provide services in a significant variety of marketing-focused avenues, including but not limited to branded content, marketing strategies, ecommerce, and video and animation, advertising campaigns, social media platforms, and web design, as well as digital marketing and design. To engage their clients’ existing and potential audiences, Purpose Media aims to develop ideas which ‘blend insight, technology and creativity’ in a fluid, dynamic manner. In doing so, they can not only achieve the goals of their clients, but exceed them. The Purpose Media team believes in creating immersive and impactful social media advertising campaigns and does this by generating video content that maintains a traffic-driven, SEO friendly and shareable outlook. All of this comes together to boost their client’s presence on Google and other search engines.
Banks Mill Studios
Banks Mill Studios is easily the most unique video production and creative resource on this list, although it isn’t actually an agency or a company! Instead, Banks Mill Studios is what their website describes as ‘an innovative space for creative and digital industries’. Situated in the heart of Derby City Centre, this studio complex is less an agency of a collective of creatives and more a facility, though it certainly has the potential to draw in agencies and creatives. It offers an array of services through its thirty-eight clean and dirty studios, a gallery, and exhibition spaces, and allows local businesses and creators to rent spaces, boosting Derby’s creative enterprises.
Banks Mill Studios provides work spaces for all kinds of creatives, not just video producers. For example, they are home to fine artists, jewellery makers, computer game designers and printmakers. Many of their members are local to the Derby area, such as students at and graduates from the University of Derby, as well as plenty of other local entrepreneurs. They also collaborate with the Derbyshire Open Arts Festival and hold Winer Open Studios in November where visitors can view and buy original art and meet creatives. Located in a refurbished landmark building it allows creative minds to flourish. Their community consists of fine artists and ceramicist Abbie Sunter, oil painter Andrew Macara, and the environmentally-friendly print workshop Green Door Printmaking Studio.
CNS Media
CNS Media describes itself as ‘a reel smooth operator’, and we have to respect the pun. They are a video production agency centred in Derby who offer services in both animated and live action video projects. They believe that the possibilities with video are absolutely endless and want to help businesses in and around Derby thrive. They offer videos for events like product launches and campaigns, for website tours, and to merely help customers engage with local businesses. Some of CNS Media’s past clients include The Range, A. Vogel, the NHS, Care Fertility, First Direct, and Marks Electrical.
A key part of CNS Media’s ethos is the idea that 90% of brain transmissions are visual, and that visuals are processed a whopping 60,000 times faster than text. This makes it obvious why they believe that video is the way forward for any business. They understand that the video market is increasingly saturated and that any good video needs to be snappy and effective. They especially work towards social media channels like Snapchat and TikTok. CNS Media combines bespoke CGI and 3D imagery, branding design, content writing, audio and voice specialists, and AR Filters and lenses to make videos that audiences remember. As a ‘hybrid marketing company’ they believe that they are different from other agencies because they offer a lot without wasting their clients’ time, energy, or money.
Impress Video
Impress Video is a product video production company with offices in Derby, Manchester, and London. They produce branded content for a variety of brands across the UK and cover a wide range of services outside of product videos such as TV adverts, corporate videos, social media marketing videos, and animated videos. The Impress Video team has over 10 years of experience producing and creating adverts, documentaries, and films, and has worked with a range of organisations, from start-up brands to established organisations. Despite being a five-person, in-house agency, they guarantee a collaborative working pattern and a complete return on investment.
Impress Video has worked with Visqueen, Manchester Apartments, Wax Digital, Evolve Retail, Pravins Jewellers, London Fashion Week, and Aston Martin. They offer a lot of different corporate and branded services including animated explainer videos, live-streaming videos, event videos, as well as some photography services. They aim to bring the unexpected to every project, whether it’s tongue-in-cheek humour of sleek, sophisticated cinematography. One of the main goals of Impress Video is to retain a 100% customer retention rate and to develop long-lasting relationships with all of their clients.
All Video Productions
All Video Productions is another ‘say it as you see it’ video agency. They are a small company and their motto is ‘video marketing = problem solved’ so it seems like they know what they’re talking about. The core values of All Video Productions are to always approach every project with a problem solving outlook. Based in the middle of Derby, they create all kinds of videos but focus on powerful marketing strategies. The goal for every single one of their projects is to promote their clients’ brands, engage audiences, and build social media presences. Their team has a background in film production which allows them to generate successful and beautiful video marketing.
Founded by Brett Turner in 2012, the four-person team at All Video Productions has expanded out of Derby to Nottingham and across the UK, as well as into the global marketing world, finding clients in Europe, the USA, South America, and Australia. They believe that 60% of consumers are more likely to commit to buying a product after seeing it in a video, and state that any client wanting to boost sales should look to creating a quality marketing video. Even on a remote basis, this company has continued to work by taking footage already captured by the client and editing it from afar using a library of photos, animations, and voiceover artists. Past clients include DPI UK ltd, game developer Hell Let Loose, BMC, and Esprit Automation.
5 Lamps Media
Not to be confused with the Five Lamps pub in Derby, this corporate media production company provides 2D and 3D animation services via their in-house modellers, artists, and animators, blending learning expertise, corporate film production, and iVT software. They are a small team but describe themselves as like a Swiss Army knife because they have ‘many tools’ that help them to work towards success on every project they work on. 5 Lamps Media is a company that values an approach that focuses on the details and technicalities regardless of whether they’re working for smaller, local enterprises or multinational corporations.
5 Lamps Media aims to deliver creative and exceptional videos and media results which ‘work hard’ and get results. They also value integrity and trustworthiness very highly which is why they are a Platinum Development Fund Supported, Cyber Essentials Certified, Safe Contractor Approved, and a member of the DPP, a business network for the media industry that champions problem solving and creating opportunities. 5 Lamps likes to use their small, in-house team to provide lots of closely related services that get the job done. Some of their past clients include Rolls-Royce, ScotRail, Toyota, Bowmer and Kirkland, Transport for London, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Jimmy Knott Video Creative
Jimmy Knott Video Creative is an award-winning video production specialist based in Derby. He is a freelance video producer who enjoys creating ‘bold visuals from original concepts’ and has been working in the industry since 2003. Using his wealth of experience, he has developed video concepts for Marmite, Gordon Ramsey, Tassimo, MTV, the BBC, Nintendo, Sainsbury’s and Google. By focusing on commercial video, Jimmy Knott likes to bring humour, absurdism, and the surreal to life for audiences to remember and clients to love.
This one-man team still provides a range of services. By focusing on developing strong brand identities through video, he has worked with both small independent organisations and businesses but also on larger international campaigns. Jimmy Knott believes that in order to build towards a successful project, he needs to ensure there is a great level of understanding between himself and his agent so that he can be certain of what ethos he should reflect in his work. He states that he uses ‘research and strategy to push bold ideas’
Future Proof Films
The next name on this list (have you kept count of how many we have?) is Future Proof Films. This is a video marketing and corporate video production company based in Derby and directed by Drew Davis. They believe in creating video content that not only looks good, but which gets ‘real, measurable, tasty results’. Sounds pretty compelling! A small four-person team, Future Proof Films provides creative video expertise and services in promotional videos, animated videos, event videos, as well as training videos. They have also started to offer a ‘Pro Remote Video’ self-shoot service so that clients can keep capturing the content they need by hiring out equipment, on-call assistance from the Future Proof Films team, as well as guidance on launching their finished content.
A significant goal of Future Proof Films is to ensure that the views their clients get on their videos actually turn into engaged customers. They have worked on a global scale with a variety of small and large businesses and organisations such as Mercedes-Benz, 3 Squared Software Development Specialists, UBS, The Liquidation Advice Centre, Steps 2 Sport, Oracle, East Midlands Trains, and Sainsbury’s. Other projects they have developed over the years include video game trailers, case study videos, and recruitment videos. Future Proof Films appears to value working with a variety of sectors and clients in order to demonstrate the different ways in which businesses and organisations can connect to their customers in the digital age.
Big Ant Video
Like the common ant, Big Ant Video boasts that it is a small but mighty video production agency. They focus on providing solutions for their clients through ‘creativity and lateral thinking’ that allows them to develop media that can contain 3D elements, interactive elements, and beautiful camera work. Based in Derby, Big Ant Video is a team of specialists focused on web-based video. They understand that YouTube is the second biggest search engine globally, which means that videos are a highly important avenue for any customer looking for a business’ expertise, personality, and suitability. Big Ant Video can produce a wide range of content including educational videos, content for YouTube channels, company profile videos, personal CV videos as well as video logos and interactive videos.
Big Ant Video has a team with over twenty years of experience in developing and delivering primarily training and multimedia video content to corporate environments, and pride themselves on what they consider to be a fast and streamlined production system. Past clients who have worked with Big Ant Video include Siemens, Marks and Spencer, BT, J.B. Kind, Howdens, and Unify. During COVID-19 they have also developed online and remote learning content with Howdens to experiment with CGI and narrative storytelling.
John Watts Video Productions
Like Jimmy Knott (above), John Watts Video Productions is a freelance video producer who set up his company in early 2018. With over fifteen years of experience in the entertainment industry, Watts has worked at a wide selection of departments and programmes, from ITV to JTA, a production company based in Sheffield. As a freelancer, Watts plans, develops, shoots, and edits all projects himself, using modern digital technology and specialised special effects software. Projects Watts has been involved in include adverts, corporate videos, and trailers.
John Watts Video Productions offers services in many areas. This includes directing, corporate work across a myriad of sectors, video marketing (with a focus on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn), time management expertise, and media training for the web and social media. Watts ensures that every production he develops is created with broadcast-quality 4K cameras and a fully-equipped editing suite. Some of Watts’ past clients include Granite Transformations, a trailer for The Lost Emperor, Eureka, Blackpool and the Fylde College, Evolution Power Tools, and Bradford College
Simply Thrilled
We’re back again, though we doubt you would forget. Based in Nottingham, we regularly collaborate with Derby and Derbyshire-based businesses and brands to bring local, national, and international audiences together. Simply Thrilled has the technology, the artistry, and the professional passion you want to employ for your next project. Our films get the views, no matter what subject we’re focusing on. We’ve created projects for local sports teams, secret libraries, educational bodies, and entertainment organisations with global reach.
Simply Thrilled is a creative collective of editors, directors, writers, animators, and more, all ready to take your business to the next level. You should know by now that video is a vitally important avenue for marketing and engagement in the modern digital age, and we are ready to bring fresh ideas and audience data together to create videos you will love. As a general rule, if you can draw it or point at it with a camera, we can probably do it.
Don’t settle for less than the best when we have endless amounts of creative expertise ready to be sculpted into a video you and your audience will not be able to forget. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you.
…And there you have it! We bet you didn’t think that Derby could hold so much talent. This just goes to show the true strengths and potential of the city and of the wider East Midlands as a creative hub.
