Recently TIZA VIDEO have been approached by several marketing and communications agencies looking for the perfect video production partner – now we’re not saying we’re perfect by a long stretch, but we are perfectly positioned as a video production agency in London and Surrey to help.
Video is on everyone’s lips right now and new production companies are coming online daily, which is good in some ways because it means healthy competition for video work and choice for you the agency, on the other hand more video makers doesn’t necessarily mean BETTER choice, it can make it more tricky to find the kind of video production agency who are genuinely capable of understanding your industry, whether that is creative design, marketing communications PR or whatever – the point is a young and highly talented young team of filmmakers, can make delicious looking video BUT and this is a big BUT they are never going to understand the bigger picture of WHY the video is being made, WHO it’s being made for and WHAT it has to achieve for your client. They will also struggle to be able to talk to your client in a mature and experienced manner in order to instil the confidence they need to make more video and develop an ongoing video production strategy which fits within the rest of their marketing activity.
Corporate video is a bit of a dated expression and being a London video production company, we wouldn’t want to appear to be unfashionable… however, Corporate Video is very much alive and well even if you don’t want to call it that. We’ve recently started referring to the corporate video as an ‘About us’ film OR a ‘Business Essence Video’ both of which are actually corporate videos but have the feel of the progressive digitally aware businesses they represent.
What else might you not get? You might not get the production values you deserve for your video – sound is often neglected by the less experienced video production team, interview lighting is also a weak area for many new video production crews and of the course the skill required in editing can vary dramatically especially with less experienced teams.
The point we’re trying to make I guess – is to ask questions of the next video production agency you speak to, especially if the plan is to partner with a video agency and to white label video production on your own behalf. Make sure you have a list of pertinent questions which will hopefully weed out the video producers you should not be considering.
Here’s a short list of 5 things you should ask as potential video production partner:
1/ Are you more than a one or two man band?
You need to be looking for a team of at least 4 who can deal with a good sized video production from end to end and communicate well.
2/ Ask to see some examples of their work.
If you don’t see anything you feel is close to what you need the likelihood is they haven’t made anything like this before and may not be capable of it – therefore you’re taking a big risk partnering with them.
3/ How much do they charge? Too cheap and you could regret it (you get what you pay for) Too expensive and you won’t have any room to mark-up their prices to your client.
4/ How mature are they? 23 year olds with Shoredich beards can work wonders, but can they communicate with you and your clients? In the same breath can a 60 year old ex-BBC cameraman really understand the finer points of making affordable sub 2 minute online video content?
5/ Finally do they fit your company? Are they like-minded and do they ‘GET’ what you do? If not, move on.
Hopefully this short post will be enough to get you really thinking about who you choose to be your new video production partner. Good luck.