5 Things To Consider When Looking for a Video Production Company
Looking For A Video Production Company and don’t know what to look for? We’ve got you covered!
You have your brand and you’re ready to broadcast it to the world and we are here to cheer you on! Now where do you start?
Not all video production companies are created equal! Finding out what is important to know and ask is a great starting point to figuring out who is the best fit to work with.
This article will talk about five different points to consider when looking into video production companies.
- Niche
It’s important to find out what focus and experience the video production company has. It’s not uncommon to find a company with a niche – maybe their focus is working with musicians and creating music videos, maybe it’s more of a corporate video focus. Then of course there are always the narrative and short film creatives that aim to get into the Cannes Film Festival and make it in Hollywood. We’ll put it like this… Say you’re craving a pizza, but not just any pizza, a grandma style vodka sauce pizza with chunks of mozzarella on top. Pause We’re drooling already. Now that you know what you want you just have to go get it so you head to a sushi bar, which says they’ll accommodate your request. Would you trust the chef to make that pizza or get what you actually wanted? Probably not.
When looking for a video production company you want one that best fits you and specializes in what you need produced. Know what type of content you need created, or at least have an idea. Finding a production company who has the proper experience can be a huge advantage when it comes to working with them to create relevant content for your target audience. Be sure to ask questions about past work and what they think is the best kind of content to create for your area of expertise – this way you know they can deliver the pizza… err video you wanted!
2. Portfolio
Ok now that you ordered your pizza and are back, we promise not to use any more food analogies. Looking through a company’s portfolio helps you to see what they offer. Often a production company will have a “reel” which highlights different productions they have worked on. Obviously looking into content they share on their website and social media is a great start, it’s also recommended to reach out and ask about any sample work they can share. It’s not uncommon for video production companies to not publicly share all their content.
When looking at someone’s portfolio there are several things to consider. The visual appearance of their work is indicative of camera quality, lighting, and the skills of the people behind the scenes. Granted making things look good is usually not the hard part when it comes to video production.
A bonus of perusing a portfolio, you can use concepts from past works as inspiration for your production needs as well!
3. Professionalism
Looking into professionalism is extremely important and takes a certain level of observation and question asking on your end. Professionalism isn’t necessarily only how they may carry themselves and appear as a company. If you’re looking for video production that means you plan on investing your time, money, and energy. Make sure you save yourself potential headaches and consider the following when choosing a video production company. It’s very easy to get a video camera, start creating content, and call yourself a production company – but what does experience and professionalism entail?
Ask what the production company does to prevent losing data. What if a microphone suddenly stops working and the audio is missed from an interview that cannot be easily filmed again? What if a memory card is corrupt and video files are lost. Will the entire production have to be recreated? Preventative measures are extremely important in every step of the way. Here at Shore Point Productions we make sure to record multiple sources of audio, record to multiple memory cards, and have backup equipment. After we have a production day, we store data in an onsite media server that has its own backup and file recovery system. In addition to that we also store all the media in separate archived hard drives and one more copy of all the media that is stored off location. If anything were to go wrong on set or with file management, we’d be prepared.
Anytime there are cameras, lighting and a crew that means there will be a lot of heavy equipment, cables, and things that can fall. While making sure to do our due diligence in taping cables down, using sandbags and spike tape (bright colored tape) to prevent accident or injury – what if something serious were to go wrong and someone is injured on set. Does this company have production insurance? Are you working with sensitive content and material thats being filmed? Will the production company have encrypted data storage and cybersecurity insurance. Liability is a long list – will errors and omissions or professional liability be a potential issue. Ask questions about their experience and coverage.
Coordinating large scale production and projects can be a daunting task. Is this production company a one man band or do they have a team to assist in planning and coordinating. Is there a project management platform they will invite you to join, so you can see every step of the process and be a part of?
From the initial proposal that is delivered to you through pre-production, production, and post-production. Having the experience and level of professionalism is extremely important.
4. Cost
Hold on to your britches, this one is a long one. As much as we wanted to keep this section shorter, we want to share exactly what your hard earned money is paying for. We’ll preface this with many production companies try to accommodate a wide range of budgets. That being said, getting quality video production is costly for a number of reasons. First off there is a lot of time, energy, and attention to detail that goes into the planning phase of video production. That pre-production planning is what will guarantee a consistently good quality product, which aligns with your goals, time and time again.
Of course the necessary equipment for video production carries a big cost – cameras, lenses, computers, lighting, and media management costs tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on the level of production that’s needed, this will have a big impact on overall production budget as well.
A very important deciding factor is finding a fully insured production company. A production company looking to protect their clients and themselves from any potential mishaps is a production company that most likely values quality, safety, and professionalism. Of course this is another factor in the overhead cost of video production.
The cost increases if the video is going to be broadcasted on local or national television. Cost of licensing music, hiring talent goes up. The production and post-production phases will be impacted as well due to additional steps needed to prepare a video properly for broadcast standards (which may be different based on different networks).
Now on top of all that, production budgets can vary greatly – which can make it difficult to say off the bat how much a “simple” 30 second video may cost. Is there on camera talent that needs to be hired? Do we need a makeup artist? Will there be a need to bring in massive lights that run on generators? Or will this be a one man band with a camera in hand kind of shoot?
Many production companies work with all different budgets. So when requesting a proposal with an estimated production cost, be sure to ask questions of where those costs are going. It doesn’t hurt to ask if there are areas where the costs can be cut – this could lead to the conversation of understanding what the cost will have on the result of the product.
5. Value
Time and time again we see it – a cool looking video gets made and posted to social media and gets a lot of likes, but then what. A lot of likes on instagram doesn’t add up to conversion or even a measurable way to calculate your return on investment. We want you to generate value in what is created and see your hard earned dollars put to use in a way that benefits your brand/organization. Majority of video production companies do not specialize in marketing, when it comes to running campaigns and delivering analytics, but some will help strategize when creating video. Do they have experience working with marketing teams? A good marketing campaign revolves around analytics and making sure there’s purpose if what is created and how it is created. Having a production company that is experienced in producing content for a specific purpose, platform distribution, and targeted audience is crucial.
Creating content for platforms is not equal. For example, YouTube pre-roll is what you see when you watch a YouTube video and get that ad that you’re allowed to skip after several seconds. If you’re creating an ad for YouTube pre-roll it has to captivate your viewer in the first few seconds to prevent them skipping the ad. Scripting a VoiceOver or having talent say something that really catches the viewers attention is a great strategy for YouTube pre-roll. Meanwhile if you’re having a video created for Facebook it’s a different approach. According to studies 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound. Your strategy to capture this audiences attention is completely different from YouTube pre-roll. One size does not fit all in this situation.
Does the video production company simply just create what you ask for or will help strategize creating your video to help produce results. Do they have experience working with marketing teams? Be sure to find a production company that has the right fit to develop the proper video strategy needed.
Conclusion
When looking for a video production company you make sure their niche is suitable to you. Checking their portfolio will help you to see if they are experienced and if they will be able to execute your vision. Be observant and ask questions to make sure you are getting the level of professionalism your brand deserves. When it comes to cost, understand how the production budget works. Last but definitely not least is generating value finding a company that helps steer your vision to the right audience so you see a return on investment. Asking the right questions will lead you to find the right match and help drive your brand to the next level!
If you’re looking for video production, contact us and let’s start the conversation today!