Episode 4
How to Operate a Video Production Company (ft. Corbin Visual)
This is the one where Creatives Grab Coffee actually becomes Creatives Grab Coffee. After three host-only episodes, Dario and Kyrill welcomed their first ever guest: Jon Corbin of Corbin Visual, an integrated producer and video production guru with over thirteen years of industry and business development experience at the time of recording.
Jon was a fitting choice to open the guest era. His innovative use of technology in visual storytelling has been featured in The New York Times, Mashable, and TechCrunch, and he has produced content for some of the biggest players in the Canadian media landscape. The conversation covers how he got started, how the industry changed between then and now, his read on where it was all going, and the practical business of actually operating a production company.
Key Takeaways
- This is the show's first guest episode. Episodes 1 through 3 were host-only. Jon Corbin is the guest who started the format that has since run for more than a hundred conversations.
- Experience compounds into perspective. Over thirteen years in the industry by 2020 meant Jon had already watched the business reinvent itself more than once, which is why the how it changed question was worth asking him.
- Technology can be the differentiator. Jon’s innovative use of technology in visual storytelling earned coverage in The New York Times, Mashable, and TechCrunch, which is a marketing outcome most production companies never get from craft alone.
- Small beginnings are not a liability. Corbin Visual grew from summer camp videos and event work into a full-service production company and content lab, the same unglamorous path most successful shops actually take.
- Operating is different from creating. The episode’s title points at the real subject: the systems, decisions, and business development that keep a production company running, as distinct from the work itself.
- This is the first of three visits. Jon returns in episode 23 on personal branding and again in episode 109, which makes his 2020 predictions about the industry checkable against what actually happened.
The Show's First Guest
The opening line on the original post says it best: we finally have our first guest on the show today. The first three episodes were Dario and Kyrill alone, working out what the show was, coming off the COVID shutdown and the business audit that followed. This is the episode where the premise stops being theoretical. Bring an operator on, ask real questions about how their business works, and publish the answers. More than a hundred conversations later, that format has not meaningfully changed.
Jon Corbin was a strong first choice precisely because he had been at it long enough to have perspective rather than just recent war stories. The following week the show would keep going with SDE Weddings on standing out from competitors, and the run has not stopped since.
Thirteen Years, and an Industry That Kept Moving
One of the stated threads of this conversation is how the industry changed from when Jon started to where it stood in 2020. That is a bigger gap than it sounds. Someone entering video production in the mid 2000s came up when cameras were expensive, distribution meant broadcast or DVD, and a production company was defined largely by the equipment it owned. By 2020 the gear was commodity, everyone had a distribution channel, and the differentiator had moved decisively to strategy, relationships, and speed.
That long view is exactly what makes veteran operators worth listening to, the same value the show later found in lessons in longevity. It also explains why the shift from owning gear to running a company is such a meaningful line to cross, the distinction unpacked in video production company versus videographer, and why a repeatable production process becomes the actual asset.
Technology as the Story
The detail in Jon’s bio that deserves attention is that his innovative use of technology in visual storytelling got him written up in The New York Times, Mashable, and TechCrunch. Production companies rarely earn press for the work itself, because a well-made corporate video is not news. Being early to a technique or a technology is news. Corbin Visual leaned into that, with drone work among the early bets, and turned technical curiosity into genuine visibility.
Being an early adopter remains one of the few reliable ways for a small shop to punch above its weight, whether that is drone video then or generative tools now. The show has tracked that same instinct forward in navigating the future of content creation, strategy, and innovation.
The Future of Video, Predicted in 2020
The last stated thread of the episode is the future of the video production industry, and there is something genuinely useful about hearing that discussion recorded in September 2020. Nobody in that conversation knew what the next five years held: the normalization of remote production, the vertical video takeover, or the arrival of generative AI that would make everyone re-ask the same questions from scratch, as the show did in Sora and the future of video production.
What makes this episode unusually rewarding is that you can check the homework. Jon came back twice: in episode 23 for personal branding, and again in episode 109 for vertical dramas, values, and hard times, where a very different industry is on the table. Three conversations with the same operator, spread across five years, is one of the more interesting throughlines in the archive, and it starts here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the first guest on Creatives Grab Coffee?
Jon Corbin of Corbin Visual, in episode 4, released September 29, 2020. The first three episodes were host-only conversations between Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov.
Who is Jon Corbin?
The founder and executive producer of Corbin Visual, a Toronto video production company. He is an integrated producer with over thirteen years of industry and business development experience as of this recording, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, Mashable, and TechCrunch.
What is Corbin Visual?
A full-service Toronto video production company and content lab making video and digital content for brands, agencies, and businesses, including long-term work with BuzzFeed Canada. Site: corbinvisual.com.
What does this episode cover?
How Jon got started, how the video production industry changed between his start and 2020, his industry insights, and his view of where the business was heading, alongside the practical side of operating a production company.
Has Jon Corbin returned to the show?
Yes, twice. He appears again in episode 23 on personal branding and in episode 109 on vertical dramas, values, and hard times, making him a three-time guest.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
Corbin Visual is a full-service Toronto video production company and content lab founded by Jon Corbin. The team produces video and digital content for brands, advertising agencies, businesses, and startups, with a reputation for early adoption of new production technology and long-running partnerships including BuzzFeed Canada. Learn more at corbinvisual.com.
