How Do I Hire A Video Production Company?

By J Wardrup – Owner

How to hire a video production company can be a bit daunting if you’ve never done it before. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to go about hiring a top-tier video production company. If you’re searching for a financial consultant production, law firm videographer, e-commerce product videographer or if you’re a retail store, real estate agent, non-profit, small business or a corporate company seeking to enhance your brand with video production, this guide is tailored just for you.

1. Define your project. First things first, start by defining your needs. What’s the purpose of your video? Who’s your target audience, and what message do you want to convey? Understanding these aspects will set the parameter and lay the foundation for your project.
2. Research the company. Next, it’s time to begin your research. You can look through the highest-rated businesses on the Google Business pages, flip through YellowPages and Yelp, scout for video production companies on UpWork, tap into recommended companies from associates who’ve hired for video production before, or even explore industry events to find the perfect event production company match for your vision.

3. Study their services. Don’t forget to delve into their video production services, requirements and crew size to see if they fit the bill for your needs. Check out their collection of past work for event production, real estate video production, advertisement video production, and video marketing services to ensure that their video production type and technique aligns seamlessly with your vision and video marketing requirements.
4. Ask for pricing. Video production budget considerations are vital, and we know that this is a make or break area for many (if not most) companies and individuals looking to hire. Set a comfortable budget range for your project and reach out to them to inquire about our their pricing structure. Ask about pricing packages that wrap videos up into bundles or have add-ons such as photographers and drone videographers in the contract, free to you.

5. Compare rates. When you’re ready, request quotes from multiple companies to compare options. Know what to look for in a videographer and how much a videographer costs in Dallas before beginning your inquiries.
6. Ask for recommendations. It’s important to be confident in why you need video services so write a list of what you’re certain you want, and what you’d like recommendations on. Remember that if video marketing is the goal, your videos and marketing strategies like video SEO, should be about quality, versus quantity. This can also assist in bringing pricing down due to lower filming hours and labor required, while reaching your ultimate goals at the same time.
7. Learn their specializations. Your video production company’s expertise should ideally lie within a similar or the same industry as your own, or in the specific event category that you’re booking video production for. Whether it’s for a celebratory event like a wedding, a corporate video, video advertisement, speaker videos, website listing videos, marketing videos, etc., the level of knowledge and capability needed to produce the best video you’re hiring for can absolutely reflect in the finished video. Your video production company should be adequate in their ability to communicate why and how they’ll be tailoring the video production to your specific requirements.
8. Check credentials. Research the company to find out if they hold the necessary credentials, work ethic, and experience to give you peace of mind throughout the video production company collaboration. Check out their reviews, call their references, and pay close attention to their chosen showcased videography portfolio or demos. Don’t be afraid to gain insight into their experiences by asking them specific questions, such as any unfamiliar terms used in their proposal, areas where they’d be willing to compromise if needed, and what their on-boarding process looks like.

9. Book a consultation. Next, schedule a meeting to discuss your project in-depth. They should be all-ears when it comes to understanding your needs, and provide helpful, educated, insightful, and goal-oriented suggestions. If they’ve been able to instill confidence in you and your team that you’re hiring the best video production company for you, it will be apparent early on in the hiring process.
10. Ask for a proposal. Once you’ve got a clear picture, and if you decide to proceed with the video production company, ask them to present you with a detailed proposal and scope of work. This will outline the scope video deliverables in whole, the project’s timeline, additional deliverables, and budgeting information to ensure clarity and transparency.
11. Keep communication open. From there, they’ll exercise their processes for storyboarding, logistics for filming location and scripts, inform you of the estimated finalized video turnaround and maintain clear and open communication throughout.
12. Ask for strategic direction. Once video storyboarding and video production shoot plans are ironed out, ask the video production company to give recommendations for strategic direction by mapping out content strategy if possible and desired, then have them use that direction to drive pre-production, production, and post-production stages.
13. Give feedback. Your feedback and critique should be communicated without hesitation, and received professionally and devoid of personal emotions or hard feelings. Feel free to provide input during every stage to guarantee that the final product exceeds your expectations.
14. Evaluate against expectations. After post-production, you’ll receive the final version of your deliverable(s). Quality should be polished, and always feel freely to evaluate it against your initial vision and requirements.

Remember, each step in this process is necessary to creating a seamless and successful partnership with your hired video production company. If you’re interested in working with us, visit our video production service page for info, or contact us today! Our expertise is in working on projects ranging from corporate event production, event production and individual speaker videos, law firm video production, retail and e-commerce product video production, Dallas church videographer services, and a host of small business, nonprofit and Dallas real estate video services, and we’ll tailor our videography services to your specific needs. We’re excited to embark on this creative journey with you!