These days it’s not difficult to find and hire a video production company. With the surge of video content consumption, faster internet, and easy editing tools, it seems like anyone with a recording device can deliver content. That said, it’s still essential to choose the right video production company to help you navigate telling your story with ease and deliver content that leaves an impact on your viewers.
Diving in and choosing a video production company is not the best approach. Instead, you must ask yourself the right questions before starting your search. Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure you team up with the right video production partner for your brand and project.
Questions to Ask Yourself
1. What Is My Story?
Doing a deep analysis to formulate your video storyline and your target audience and conceptualizing what you want to say before reaching out to a video production company is important. This question alone will allow you to clarify the direction for your video and solidify the information you would like to share with a video production company as you go through the initial brainstorming process together.
2. What Is My Ideal Timeline?
Video production can be a long and arduous process requiring some planning. Having a loose estimation of your timeline will help the video production company estimate its deadlines and turnaround time. The time constraints you have can also impact the project’s scope and complexity, all of which can be communicated to the video production team early on so that they can work on your video project accordingly.
3. What Is The Creative Control I Need?
Do you want to be a part of every last detail, or are you comfortable providing basic guidelines to your video production company and allowing them to initiate their creativity? Either way, it’s important to be realistic about what you expect from a creative perspective and relay that information to a prospective video production company.
4. What Is My Budget Range?
The truth is money matters, and your budget should be a fundamental question to contemplate. As much as you want to splurge and as much time as you may be taking to coordinate your brand story, purpose, and placement, make sure the spending matches the vision.
Be realistic. Do your research. Take a moment to consider what it means to make a quality investment in an experienced video production company versus hiring a family member. It may cost more, but the potential to catapult your business and create quality results for the future will be more likely.
Questions to Ask The Video Production Company
Once you have answered the above questions, the next phase is even more important (and yes, friends, there are more questions for you to consider). The following questions assess if a video production company is compatible, the payment terms, and the video production process for each company you are considering.
5. How Does Payment Work?
Considering equipment rental, ideation, pre-production activities, and post-production needs, payment may look different for every video production company you consider hiring. Some may require deposits, have clauses requiring additional payments due to ad-hoc requests and revisions, or may expect all of the payment upfront. It’s important to ask about payment early and determine whether it will align with your expectations.
6. Can You Share Your Portfolio?
Don’t hesitate to ask for previous work examples related to your request. Doing so will allow you to understand better if their experience aligns with your needs. In addition, it is often good to ask for a range of previous work so you can assess different types of videos and concepts. This will give you an idea of the quality of work they deliver.
7. What Kind Of Equipment Do You Use?
Equipment and gear can be expensive, and not all video production companies own every piece of equipment needed. Not to mention, some companies may not know the best equipment to use for your project type. Most times, in the event equipment, needs to be rented, this will be a line item on your proposal. Knowing exactly how the company plans to use its gear will clue you in on the budget allocation that may take place, as well as the quality of your project.
8. What Is Your Work Process Like?
As much as seeing an inspiring finished video or portfolio may make you want to quickly sign off and start with a video production company, first learn their process.
What does pre-production look like? Will there be multiple check-ins throughout the process? Will you be able to provide feedback along the way? Will your needs, wants, and edits be addressed promptly? These are just a few questions that will help you to assess whether a company has a designated and organized process that you can trust.
Ask what is to be expected at each stage, what the ideation process looks like, and how the video production company will incorporate creativity into an often very technical process.
…and there you have it.
We would love to chat with you about everything from telling a great story to the latest drone technology. We love this stuff from concept to delivery and can talk about it all day. To learn more about Bottle Rocket Media, all of our video production services, and how we differ because of our Rocket Sauce, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!