Sustainable success: How to find the best video production

Finding the right company for a video production is tedious. The many providers are difficult to compare. Methodical procedures help with the decision and ensure a successful cooperation with a good price-performance ratio.

It is difficult to find the right production company. Having sat on both sides of the desk myself, I know how much time it takes even for an insider to find the right contractor for the project.

How much more complex must it be for someone who knows about as much about video productions as I do about buying real estate. However, a methodical approach can make the choice easier.

Best experience and contacts

Do you already have good experiences with a video production company? If the new project is similar or the production company also serves your new segment, you will certainly want to remain a customer there.

Otherwise, your employees, acquaintances or business partners may be able to help you. Someone in your network certainly knows someone who knows about a successful collaboration.

If the film flap gives the start signal, it is already too late. The right film production has to be taken care of in time.

Mastering the pitfalls of online search

The online search is more complex. The offer is huge and heterogeneous. Here it is particularly important to use your own search criteria. The more precise the ideas, the better the search results. What kind of video do you want? If you want to commission a cinema spot, you won’t be able to do much with a video journalist.

It can also be a content search, for example, if the editorial staff of the production company is expected to have special expertise, for example on medical, energy or environmental topics.

No price tags?

If you are looking for a video production, you certainly have a budget in mind for what you want or can spend. With larger budgets, more experts will work for you, and the production tasks are divided up.

Apart from attracting and package offers, serious film productions will rarely quote prices. Not because they don’t want to. Video films are always unique. This requires a tailor-made calculation.

Indications for the price range

Nevertheless, there are indications for the price range. How many different experts are involved in the project? To do this, use the quick check: How do I recognize the best film production?

What do the references say about the video production? Are they renowned companies and institutions? Do they include national TV stations? These are all criteria that also say something about the level of the productions. Expected costs can be derived from this.

Individual service

After the pre-selection, you may have five candidates on your list. Depending on your mentality, you first pick up the phone or write to your favorites. You can still keep your wishes and ideas covered or go on the offensive. You can expect a good, service-oriented film production to react individually.

Before a tailor-made offer can be made, the video production company needs a briefing. It can help by, for example, working with a structured briefing template and requesting all the information needed for a cost estimate…

Do not compare apples and pears

And more than that. The structured briefing discussion may address further questions, the answers to which are important to you. This way you can continue to work on your video project. It doesn’t matter whether you choose the video production that went through the briefing with you in the end.

Only your complete briefing documents make it possible to obtain one or more binding offers, which you can then compare with each other better than apples and pears. In addition, there should be work samples (cases) of the video production, which come closest to their briefing and their price expectations.

Use one’s gut instinct

You have intuition. Use this ability. During a telephone call or direct personal contact, you will find out whether it also fits emotionally with each other. This is important, because the video production, despite all the routine and experience on the side of the film production company, still remains first and foremost a creative process.

Rely on your intuition. Hands off if you are uncomfortable with your potential partner.

It is therefore necessary to know oneself in a friendly, creative atmosphere in a process of partnership and partnership, even if opinions differ. However, there is no doubt that you are the client and that it is important to implement your wishes in the best possible way.

Rights for the future

Offers must be transparent and comprehensible. The more detailed the video production offer, the more security you have. In this way, you can check whether it is the services you want. They also have it easier for later complaints.

Rights are also an important point. The following applies here: consider in good time which rights to the video films you need immediately and which you may need in the future. It does not make sense to acquire flat-rate rights that are never exercised. To stick to the above example, you will certainly not be running a VJ production as a cinema or TV commercial. Therefore, it makes no sense to acquire these performance rights.

Binding acceptance tests

A serious video production requires acceptance by the client for different stages of the production process. These are then the binding basis for the next production step. For example, it would not make economic sense to discuss the concept again after the rough cut. At least the acceptance of concept, rough cut and the final acceptance are usual.

The price of the production should also include correction loops and the entire editing project including media data project should be stored on the editing computer for a few more months.

Archiving as a service

This is not a matter of course, because the amount of data is often considerable, but only in this way can changes still be made at a reasonable cost at a later date.

If you are dealing for the first time or rarely with commissioning a more extensive video production, it is certainly not easy to find the best video production for the client and to receive the most favorable tailor-made offer. After this article it has hopefully become a bit easier.

Our tried and tested briefing tool for you

The best way to start now is to download our sustainable briefing template. You can go paperless with the tool. But sustainable also means it’s a methodically validated tool that reliably guides you through the entire production process, from the initial idea to marketing. And because it will soon be very familiar to you, you will be happy to use it again.