Best Video Production Companies in Minneapolis (2026)

Introduction

Minneapolis has 12 video production companies worth a close look in 2026, ranging from a production and post house with 35 years behind it to small owner-run studios working directly with marketing teams. All of them make commercials, brand films or both.

The market runs on Twin Cities headquarters. Target, Best Buy, General Mills, 3M, Medtronic, Polaris and Hormel all commission film work here, and the names recur across these companies’ client lists. Talent also moves into the city: in May 2026, SHOOT reported that colourist Patrick DeVine had left Company 3 in New York for Minneapolis post studio Pixel Farm, joining editor Jason Hinkley, who came from Lost Planet in Los Angeles.

Every company here has a Twin Cities office or studio, and the metro area counts, so Edina, St Louis Park and Arden Hills all appear. Animation-led and photography-led studios were kept for their own lists. The order carries no ranking, since the right choice depends on your brief, budget and how much of the process you want to hand over.

The best video production companies in Minneapolis

1. Drive Thru

Led by president Mark Setterholm · North Loop · drivethrutv.com

Drive Thru is a full-service production and digital post house that has worked in advertising and entertainment for 35 years. It covers motion-picture production, creative editorial and visual effects under one roof, and it is an official partner of Company 3 for colour grading.

Its reel is heavy on national spots: Subaru “Honk”, Hormel Chili “It Takes Two”, Skippy “Puppy Parenting”, Best Buy “Adaptable” and Craftsman “Power Tool Ballad”. Beth Wilson is executive producer. It suits agency work where production and finishing are best kept with one team.

2. Current Resident

Co-founder-led · Downtown Minneapolis · currentresident.tv

Current Resident is a crew-first production studio established in 2018 by Patrick Shelton, its partner and executive producer, and Chaddix, its head of post. It lists memberships of AICP, AdFed and the Minnesota Film Alliance, and it runs a 3,500 sq ft downtown studio with a 23 by 27 ft white cyc stage.

Recent projects include work for the Minnesota Lottery, Duke Cannon, Save The Boundary Waters and Stanley Infrastructure, and the client wall includes YETI, Polaris and FedEx. It publishes its pricing logic: a paid strategy session credited back against production, full-service work from $25k, and The Off-Roster, a director-matching service listing more than 70 independent directors.

3. Capture Film Co

Owner-led · Minneapolis · capturefilmco.com

Capture Film Co is a video and photo production agency that has spent more than a decade making digital and broadcast media for brands and agencies. Matthew Brue is its owner and creative director. Its work spans advertising campaigns, product launches and brand storytelling.

Clients include Polaris, Brooks, Radisson and Blu Dot, which gives it a useful mix of outdoor, sportswear, hospitality and design work. The company also shoots stills, so one team can cover both on a campaign.

4. W2 Films

Founder-led · Minneapolis · w2films.com

W2 Films is a Minneapolis content production studio launched in 2006 by producer and director Richard Wallin. It produces short and long-form commercial, documentary, television and streaming content. Wallin’s earlier career includes the BMW Z3 Roadster campaign tied to GoldenEye, which won Reggie and Effie awards.

The site features work for Thrivent, 3M, Lifetouch and the University of Minnesota Medical School, and its wider client list includes General Mills, Medtronic, Target and Delta. Cause work sits alongside the corporate projects, with the ALS Association and the Alzheimer’s Association among its clients.

5. Committee Films

Owner-run · Eden Prairie · committeefilms.com

Committee Films makes television, film and advertising from Eden Prairie, and has grown from four people to nearly 30. Andy Awes is president and co-owner, and Maria Awes, a co-founder, runs development. Long-form credits include 20/20: In An Instant for ABC and Her Last Broadcast for Hulu.

Its brand side has worked with Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Hormel and Porsche. Network documentary experience makes it a sensible call for branded series or anything that depends on real stories and research, more so than a single product spot.

6. Bloom Creativ

Ownership not published · North Minneapolis · bloomcreativ.com

Bloom Creativ makes commercial, corporate, event and nonprofit video from North 2nd Street. It works in three stages (concept and strategy, filming, final delivery), which keeps the process easy to follow for clients new to commissioning film.

Its site shows logos for 3M, Lululemon, Liquid Death, Pop-Tarts, Dell and the Minnesota Star Tribune, and it features projects for JetBoil, EVRY Makeup Studio and the Michelle Young Foundation. The site does not say what was made for each logo, so ask to see the relevant work.

7. CRASH+SUES

Independent · Arden Hills · crash-sues.com

CRASH+SUES is an independent creative content studio working from Arden Hills, and Clutch dates it to 1990. Its services run from video production and editing to colour, VFX, motion graphics and live production. Its Media Mongoose offering handles asset management, encoding, broadcast trafficking and closed captioning.

Clients include Best Buy, Hormel Foods, 3M, Land O’Lakes, General Mills, Cargill and Thrivent. Its range suits marketing teams that want production and delivery handled in one place, including the broadcast paperwork that often falls between suppliers.

8. Blue Key Media

Owner-run · Edina · bluekeymedia.com

Blue Key Media has made people-centred brand, fundraising, testimonial and recruitment films since 2017, led by owner and creative director Dan West. The company reports 10 Telly Award winners and three Midwest Regional Emmy Awards, plus eight nominations.

It is the clearest specialist here for nonprofits, with the American Heart Association, Second Harvest Heartland and the Minnesota Zoo Foundation as clients. It also works in healthcare and manufacturing, including recruitment films for Hawkins, and it rents out its Edina studio.

9. Mastcom

Veteran-owned · St Louis Park · mastcom.com

Mastcom, the trading name of Master Communications Group, is a certified veteran-owned small business making video for manufacturing, healthcare and B2B technology clients. It offers crews, editing, concept and script development, documentaries and animation.

Its site shows logos for Mayo Clinic, 3M, Medtronic, Ecolab, Best Buy and Dairy Queen. Technical subject matter is the main reason to shortlist it: executive interviews and product explanation need less hand-holding here than at a studio built around consumer spots.

10. Triumph Pictures

Owner-run · Minnetonka · triumphpictures.com

Triumph Pictures is the company of documentary director Cy Dodson, who makes marketing films for corporations and nonprofits from Minnetonka. His film Beneath the Ink earned a 2019 National Emmy nomination, and he received a McKnight Fellowship in 2020 and a Jerome Hill Fellowship in 2021.

Recent work includes Faces of Hope (2026), a documentary with the Anoka County Opioid Solutions Initiative, and a 2023 corporate documentary for General Mills. It is a small operation, so it works best for clients who want a director’s voice on a documentary-led brand film.

11. Visual Captive

Founder-led · North Minneapolis · visualcaptive.com

Visual Captive makes corporate, financial services, medical and industrial video, along with commercials and documentaries. Phil Skulte, its founder, directs and shoots. The company has an in-house video and photo studio, and it owns its equipment for location work.

Clutch reviews name tools company Gorilla, for which it made a one-minute hero brand film with 30 and 15-second cutdowns in a project that ran to March 2026. It has also worked as a production partner to advertising agency Linnihan Foy. The team is small, which suits direct, mid-budget commissions.

12. Token Media

Ownership not published · Minneapolis · tokenmedia.com

Token Media is a full-service video company with a long Minneapolis history (Clutch lists a 1997 founding). It makes marketing and promotional films, documentary-style interviews and b-roll, and it also hires out as a camera crew, from one operator to a full production team.

Named work includes a run of Red Wing Shoes films, Hormel’s Cooking & Culture Project, John Force Racing, and a 30-second Star Tribune and Minnesota United FC spot. The crew-hire option is useful to in-house teams that have creative and editing covered but need people on set.

What to look for in a Minneapolis video production company

Start with who the company is set up to serve. Houses such as Drive Thru and Current Resident work regularly with agencies and bring producers, directors and post under one roof. Smaller studios such as Blue Key Media or Visual Captive work directly with marketing teams and will often help shape the brief. Neither model is better in itself, though the second usually asks less of a client who has no agency or in-house producer.

Check sector experience against your own category. Twin Cities work clusters around food, retail, medtech, outdoor and financial services, and each brings its own demands: food styling and tabletop, regulatory review for medical claims, or location work and vehicles for outdoor brands. Reels here vary widely, so ask to see two or three films from your category, and ask who directed them.

Look behind the logos. Many sites in this market show large client walls with no detail, and a corporate training film for 3M is a different job from a broadcast spot. Ask what the company made, for whom, who on the current team worked on it, and who will be on your shoot.

Look at how footage and feedback are handled once the shoot ends. Rounds of notes across email and shared drives can slow a job, particularly when legal or medical review teams are involved. Ask where rushes are stored, how comments are tied to specific moments in a cut, and what you receive at the end of the job.

How Fabric helps video production teams

Fabric gives a production company one workspace for footage, client feedback and project knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The setup for commercial production teams keeps treatments, call sheets, cuts and notes in a single space for each job.

Footage sits in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space. Editors can open heavy files without waiting for a full download. Shared team folders hold the latest versions, which helps when a director, an editor and a freelance colourist are all working from different places.

Finding a shot gets easier once recordings are indexed. Audio and video transcription covers MP4, MOV and WebM uploads as well as audio, with clickable timestamps, and search works by meaning across those transcripts, documents and images. Results jump straight to the timestamp, so a line from a documentary interview can be found by what was said.

Client review works through sharing. Share a cut with the client as a commenter through a shared link, which works without sign-up, and they can leave timestamped comments on video and audio, add a drawing on a video frame, or draw on a still and attach a comment to the drawing. The team then marks each comment completed, so the feedback works like a checklist for the next version.

Finished films can go out separately. Any file or folder can be published as a web page, which is view-only with optional download, and protected with a password. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it, which is useful for treatments and director reels.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best video production company in Minneapolis?

It depends on the job. For agency-led broadcast spots, Drive Thru and Current Resident have the most directly relevant reels on this list. Blue Key Media has the clearest record with nonprofits, and Committee Films brings the most network documentary experience.

How much does video production cost in Minneapolis?

Most companies here quote by project and do not publish rates. Current Resident is an exception, with full-service production starting at $25k and a director-matching service aimed at budgets under $350k. Scope drives the figure, chiefly shoot days, crew size, locations and post.

Do Minneapolis production companies have their own studios?

Several do. Current Resident runs a 3,500 sq ft downtown space with a white cyc stage, Visual Captive has an in-house video and photo studio, and Blue Key Media rents out its studio in Edina. Check for power, sound treatment and parking if you plan to hire one independently.

Should a brand hire a production company directly or go through an agency?

Both routes are common here. Companies such as Capture Film Co and Current Resident work with brands and agencies alike. Going direct suits a defined film with a clear brief, while an agency earns its fee when the film sits inside a wider campaign. The creative agencies in Minneapolis list is a good starting point for the second route.

Where do animation studios and post houses fit?

Some companies here handle post and motion in-house, including Drive Thru and CRASH+SUES. If animation is the main medium, the animation studios in Minneapolis list is a better fit. Pixel Farm is a Minneapolis studio for VFX, motion design, editorial and post, if you already have the footage and need it finished.

Related lists

Video production in other cities: New York · Los Angeles · London · Chicago · Toronto

More in Minneapolis: Creative agencies · Advertising agencies · Animation · Photography studios · Content studios

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for commercial production · Fabric for video editors · Best cloud storage for video editors