Working with a professional production team is an excellent way to ensure your finished product looks and sounds amazing.
Before you start your project, it’s important to ask all the right questions to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Table of Contents
- Key Factors for Hiring a Production Company
- Portfolio of Similar Projects
- Are You Working With the Owner, or Getting Passed Along?
- Transparent Pricing
- Their Understanding of Marketing and Distribution
- Are They Making What’s Good For You, Or Good For Their Portfolio?
- What to Submit When You’re Ready to Hire A Production Company
- Project Brief
- Location Details
- Visual Inspirations and Brand References
- Houston Video Production: Creating High-Quality, Affordable Corporate Videos That Get Results
Key Factors for Hiring a Production Company
Hiring a production company can feel risky, especially if you’ve never done it before.
As a small business owner or employee, you may be hesitant about the risks involved. And it’s tough to say on top of the constant evolving ways to make corporate videos more interesting.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential factors to consider, important questions to ask, and what to submit when you’re ready to move forward.
Portfolio of Similar Budget Projects
Look at the production company’s past projects. Make sure their videos are high quality and align with your vision.
But be warned: Many companies like showing only the most expensive videos they have produced because they look impressive, flashy, creative.
Are they showing you something legitimately in your price range?
Are You Working With the Owner, or Getting Passed On to Someone?
When hiring a production company, review their experience and expertise in your industry or project type are crucial factors to consider.
But who is answering the phone? Who is doing the preproduction meetings? Who is going to be on set? And who is doing the editing?
It’s worrysome when someone implies “Once you sign the contract I’m going to pass you off to someone else. Perhaps a junior with an impressive title. You’ll probably never talk to me again.”
When you’re investing in your business marketing, put it in the hands of the A team. Not a B team. Because your business investment into a video that should impact sales, conversion rates, and revenue shouldn’t be someone else’s OJT.
Transparent Pricing
Know your budget and find a company that offers good value. The cheapest option isn’t always the best. Focus on getting high-quality work within your financial constraints.
While cost shouldn’t be the only factor, it’s important to find a production company that fits your budget without compromising on quality.
- Do they constantly say it depends until you’re unnecessarily deep into the conversation?
- Do you end up with WAY too much detail in the quote?
- If you change something on the fly, will you get penalized?
- Are you worried they’re going to change-order and hidden fee you to death?
- Are you only getting x hours of editing time? How much work can be done in x hours? Is that an incentivize to work sloooooooooow?
We recommend looking for a production company who can easily offer an upfront flat rate for a production once they know the general parameters of your vision.
Many corporate productions do not need a large team, sophisticated equipment, or crazy long pre-production and editing phases.
Understanding of Marketing and Distribution
You’re hiring a video production company. But you’re really hiring a company to create marketing materials. It just happens to be video.
Does your production company focus entirely on what looks cool, what looks new, what fancy gear they have? Completely dismissing what will help you sell your product? Huge red flag.
We’ve found in the past, many video agencies don’t even employ a marketing strategist. A production company needs to understand content marketing, platform strategy, audience personas, and more. Telling a story is great, but how you tell a story on your website is different depending if it’s a top of funnel, mid funnel, bottom of funnel, or for different stakeholder objectives.
Look for:
- Knowledge of various distribution platforms (e.g., social media, websites)
- Understanding of video optimization for different channels
- Ability to create videos that align with your overall marketing strategy
- Experience in creating videos that drive engagement and conversions
Discuss how they approach creating videos for different platforms and audiences.
Are They Making What’s Good For You, Or Good For Their Portfolio?
Effective communication is essential for a successful video production project. The right video production company is making something for your business. For your brand. For your customers. NOT what they want. Many production companies are hyper creative and push some interesting project concept they would personally like to execute independent of the client they are working with. Huge red flag.
The right production company should be able to take your brand of existing approved assets and create something that fits perfectly within it. Otherwise you have customers on your website looking at some jarring outliner.
Look for:
- Ability to place themselves in your niche
- Responses to feedback that differs or challenges their recommendations
- How they add and contribute to your proposed ideas, but staying within the brand.
Pay attention to what they are sharing during your initial interactions. Are they trying to impress you with how creative they are? Or how they generate measurable results for their clients. This is often indicative of their overall communication style and how they will approach your project.
What to Submit When You’re Ready to Hire A Production Company
Once you’ve considered these factors and selected your video production company, you should prepare the following information. Honestly, these are questions the production team should be asking you up-front to scope the project. But it’s best to get it in writing.
Project Brief
- Outline of your your corporate video strategy
- Launch date. When do you need your video?
- Video length, and how many videos you want to produce
- Target audience and what you want them to do after watching the video
- Any existing brand guidelines or style preferences
- Project timeline and key milestones for getting on peoples calendars
- Budget range and any financial constraints (net30, net 60, etc)
- Any specific technical requirements or preferences
- Key stakeholders involved in the project and their roles
Location Details
Where do you want to shoot your video? Every location has different potential benefits and constraints.
- In-studio? In your office? In a clients location?
- Does your facility/jobsite require safety videos, PPE, or certifications?
- How noisy is the location (if you’re doing interviews)?
- Does the facility have nearby parking and elevators for transporting gear?
Visual Inspirations and Brand References
It’s helpful to share videos you admire or want to emulate. It provides a clear visual reference for the style and tone you’re aiming for (or things you don’t like). This helps the production team understand your vision better and emulate what you like, and create solutions for gaps.
Ultimately, it eliminates ambiguity and ensures everyone is on the same page from the start.
- Gather a variety of videos that highlight different aspects you like. This could include color schemes, editing styles, or narrative techniques.
- When sharing examples, be clear about what specifically you like in each video. Is it the way the story is told? The use of music? The visual effects?
- Have a discussion with the production team about the references. Listen to their feedback and how they can incorporate those elements into your project.
Conclusion
Hiring a production company doesn’t have to be a overwhelming. By considering these tips, you can minimize risks and find the perfect production partner for your video needs.
Remember, the key to a any collaboration is clear communication, mutual understanding, and a shared vision for your project.
Houston Video Production: Creating High-Quality, Affordable Corporate Videos That Get Results
Affordable high quality corporate video production is easy with Houston Video
As a top corporate video production company in Houston, we have worked with business owners, marketing directors, and the internal and external communications departments for companies of every size.
Whether you’re in Houston, have clients or offices in Houston, or want to produce something remotely, we are here to help bring your project to life.
Contact us today for a free consultation.
