How to Choose The Best Video Production Company?

Creating a video for your business might seem quite challenging, especially if you haven’t had much experience with video production before. But hey, no worries! Make sure you follow the tips and it will not only be easy, but fun!

First, you need to know answers to these questions:

What’s the goal of your video?

Who should it target?

Where is it going to be published?

Now, every experienced video production team should start with asking you these questions. Why? Because these are the things that your video needs to fulfill or match! It needs to serve your goal, speak to the audience it’s targeting and be created in a format (size, duration, attention span), that works well with the platforms it’s going to be published at!

So: “How should I know which video production company will help me the best?”

Follow me.

Ways to look for a video production team

• Search Engine

Surely the most popular way, which gives a few ideas of who to contact. Remember, though, that the fact that one company is listed as first on the first page of Google, does not have to mean they are the best and will match your needs. Surely, they have done great job with their SEO, but remember not to stop on their contact page only.

• Recommendations

We all love recommendations! Hopefully, via a recommendation, you can get some comments and insights on working with them. So, try to ask friends if they could recommend anyone and if not, make sure that the companies you’re coming across have some testimonials on their site.

• Cool projects

Enjoying a particular Kickstarter Video, or another promo video that you just saw online? Great! Look for the production crew name in credits or in video descriptions. Even if they are located outside of your city, that’s not necessarily a big deal. Usually, it’s possible to arrange everything online or on the phone. And! Video production crews are used to traveling. If that is the company that seems to match your expectations – it’s better and often less costly to go for them, than to risk working with someone else just because they are in your neighborhood.

What you should know and what to expect?

After you have a few leads to different video production companies, make sure to check these things:

– How long is their experience? –

It is good to ask this simple question at the beginning. A concrete, decisive answer is what you should hear. Do not take answers like “We’ve been doing it for ever” seriously as this does not sound very credible. Some freelancers may say that they graduated from film school, have done several projects and will be on the cheaper side. Lack of experience though may really hurt your project and your company image, you need to be careful about that.

– What kind of videos they do? –

Against common sense, a super varied range of videos in company’s portfolio is not the greatest sign. It’s good if a video production company focuses only on one or two segments of videos, for example – product and promotional videos. The narrower their focus, the better, since it means that they truly specialize in what they’re doing. Most importantly – they need to have types of videos in the portfolio, that you are looking to produce.

– How do you like their portfolio? –

A portfolio is often the most important clue in choosing the video production company. Look at the quality that they represent: Does the lighting look good? Are the shots well framed? Are the crucial elements in focus? Is the editing dynamic and interesting (there is a reason why Snapchat lets you shoot only 10s clips)? Do you understand the story in a video? Are the graphic elements modern and clear?

Remember, that quite often not everything can be published on the company’s website, because of the property rights, but usually at least some samples of their work should be available for public. You can always ask them for more examples of their works that’s relevant to your expectations. If you like the style and overall outcome of their work, then chances are high they will do great job with your video as well.

– Do they offer more than just camera operation and editing? –

When you’re hiring a video production company, you want to be able to rely on them and trust them as experts. You’re not only looking for a camera operator with a good camera. A production crew should be able to advise you on what can be done to reach your goal. Usually, the collaboration starts with rather general ideas, since getting more into detail involves work and time, however, it is important to make sure that the company is willing to think creatively.

Tip: You can always ask the crew about their previous samples and if they participated creatively in the ideas.

– Are they responsive and communicate well? –

Working on a video usually involves a lot of collaboration on both parts. Just like with doctors and lawyers, you want to feel that they will be there to respond to your questions and thoughts.

Before the project starts, they should ask a lot. During the production you will be in touch rather regularly. Later on, you will want to know how close it is to the final effect and maybe you will want them to do a few corrections. It is crucial that they respond to you quickly and efficiently and inform you about the progress. Fast responses will be necessary and you don’t want to be frustrated because of lack of communication. It’s good to pay attention to that right from the beginning.

– How prepared are they for the first meeting? –

Do they already know something about you or your company? Did they appear on time and remember your previous arrangements or the information you already shared? In the future you will want to feel confident that they keep deadlines, remember about your previous agreements and that they value your business.

– What is their pricing? –

At the very beginning, it is usually hard to determine a specific price for a video. At this stage, you will most likely be given a price range for producing the video you need. If you quote a few companies and receive a few widely different numbers, you may ask each of them for the reasons why they gave you these prices. Try not to judge from the very beginning. A very low price may mean that they did not really understand your needs or omitted some crucial aspects. A very high price may mean that they predicted much more advanced production than you actually need.

Tip: If you like the overall style and communication with the company, but the price they gave is too high for your budget, tell them what prices you are thinking of. Maybe by optimizing some costs they can get closer to your budget expectations!

So, when you are looking for a video production crew it is good to go pay attention to a number of factors. It’s best to go through the above list. It will help in contacting potential video production company and you will have a very good idea of which one will be the best fit for your project!