In this first article on the video production company selection process, we’ll explain some of the “information you need” when you’re calling a company because you’re considering starting a video production company.
In the following sections, we’ll get the information you need to know when; scheduling recordings of presentations, training videos, trade show videos and other types of videos for business projects. We’ll also cover what you need to know and ask about the video production company you’re contacting.
We know that often when a company calls or meets with us about making a video, they are often not involved in the actual production process and are not sure what to ask or how to get it. . the answers they need. More often than not, they’ve never figured out what they want their video to do and/or what it should have. We try to help such people by guiding them through a series of questions and providing information designed to be crystal clear in their minds. We strive to make the process as easy and stress-free as possible.
We hope that the information we provide in this article will be useful.
Of all the videos people watch on YouTube, some think it works by showing up, filming, and the video turns out to be a miracle. This can happen with some types of video projects, but for a video business to be successful, it takes a lot of planning ahead and going through the whole process. The three stages of video creation are; pre-production, production and post-production. They can and will vary depending on the type of project you want.
Any legitimate and knowledgeable video production company you call will want to ask about your project. If they just say, “Okay, we’ll show and film your work,” that should be a big red flag.
The same red flag applies if a company gives you a price without knowing the details of your needs. Often when this happens they are unable to do the work or have more cases later. To make good video with professional look a corporate video production company is very important to hire after proper evaluation.
Creating a business video project is like doing any business project where you first have to decide what you want to do and then gather information and plan how you will achieve your goal. A video production company should start by asking potential clients to find out what is needed.
The questions we asked
A video production company should start by asking the customer;
Why would they want a video?
Hopefully this will reveal why a video may meet certain needs. They may need to show viewers why their product or service is better than the competition, let the public know what they do, or practice something they like best practice. More often than not, now it’s because a company needs to use a video to explain something for marketing purposes on their website. They know that video gives them an enormous return on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value and can get their message across to millions of people.
Sometimes it’s about satisfying a need placed on them. An example of this is that in some states, if control equipment is installed in buildings, the manufacturer/installer of the equipment must provide a training video as part of the bid. Knowing the reason will determine the direction of the video. So with the above example of state requirements, every video made should conform to the structure and guidelines provided by the state and another waste of time and money. If we didn’t know the reason, we could easily go in the wrong direction.
How do they want the video to reach the audience?
A video created for a TV commercial, which is limited to less than 30 seconds and must deal with the details of the broadcast, is different from a video designed for placement on a website, where the exact length is not critical. Who is the audience?
Different demographics require different treatment. If the goal is to speak Spanish, then the English video is less understandable. If it is a specific category of workers, then the video should focus on what is important and use familiar jargon to express that category. If it is to appeal to the customer base, it should usually be structured to give them a call to action or a reason to buy or information to use. What do you want the viewer to do after watching?
This is especially important because the entire video must be focused on this purpose. If it’s a marketing video, we need it to be not only attractive to the buying profession, but it’s something they feel can really meet their needs. When it comes to training, we need to make sure that it is designed for training and that we incorporate training theory into it, such as repetitions and summaries.
What kind of warranty material do you have? If a company has a certain image with graphic branding, it usually needs to be followed. If they have successful marketing materials that they believe are available, we want to try to use them. If it’s for training and they have practices they want us to write, we need it. If they have other videos they want to link in style, we need to know. If they have a sketch or a rough script, we can start with that. When they have a PowerPoint presentation, it’s always the beginning. Sometimes there are specific entrepreneurs, customer testimonials, business locations or experts that need to be worked on. Going back to our desired state example, we may need sitemaps or operations and maintenance manuals to create a script.
In this root question, the company often has to ask the caller;
What sets you apart from your competition?
Why do your customers say they like your business or product? These questions must be asked in hopes of finding out exactly what their competitive advantage is. If they don’t know the answer, we ask them to ask their customers. All of these materials and ideas give a sense of direction and what the video can do.
What is your budget?
After covering the required information described above, we will determine if the budget range the customer is requesting is reasonable and discuss what can and should not be done with their budget. We can work with any budget, big or small, and what we design will ultimately be dictated by the budget.
I can’t tell you how many conversations we’ve had where people who never really knew anything about videography want months of work by many people and use hundreds of thousands of devices and expect it to be a few hundred dollars. In their defense, they hadn’t been involved before and weren’t familiar with the process, so we tried to help them understand. A video production project is different, like choosing a car with multiple brands and options available. Depending on what goes, the cost will vary. A web ad might require half a day of filming with a 2 person crew and part of a day of editing and might end up costing only about $1,000. Or the same web advertisement may require; A month of scripting, multiple locations, several days of shooting, a 3 man video crew, a full 3 man lighting crew with truck equipment, teleprompter and operator, makeup, multiple cameras, studio green screen and more. Of course, with all these additional resources, the later project becomes more expensive.
We help your business shine!
Aardvark Video has been in the Las Vegas Full Service Las Vegas Production Company since 1987, first in New York and based in Las Vegas since 2002. Unlike many video production companies, our trained staff have decades of industry experience with a proven track record of satisfaction customers.