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What's in a High-End Video Production?

These days video is ubiquitous. That's both a great thing and a challenge; it's hard for newcomers to know not only how video production is utilized for business, but also what goes into making a truly great and effective video. This can lead to a couple of issues: for one, how can you tell if your video production company is doing a good job along the way without knowing the ins and the outs of the process? Secondly, even if you have some experience producing videos with a video production company, there's no telling if they were doing things "properly", covering all of their bases from the ground up to ensure a smooth planning, execution and delivery of a video for your company--until it's too late. And, even if things went smoothly the first time, that's not necessarily an indication of how things will go in the future.

A solid, often proprietary method of approaching every step of production is the only way a commercial or video production company can generate consistent top shelf results over and over again, no matter what the project and no matter who the client is.

Below we will go into just a few steps that comprise a fairly standard high end video production experience.

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If the video production company is doing the creative in-house, what is their process?

Great agencies and full service video production companies both know that creative is the soul of any good project. But how do you arrive at the perfect concept for your spot? What factors go into developing this, and what does that process look like from your perspective as a client? You can tell a lot by how a production company creates and communicates its concepts to you, and this can give you great insight into their general philosopy.

First and foremost, great creative often is a result of a great relationship, one where the people executing your ad get to know you, your business, your business drivers, challenges, obstacles and competition. This does not happen overnight, and they may not find the right solution in the first round of concepts. An experienced production company will approach this stage as a conversation, one that is expected to have back and forth and unfold in an organic manner to arrive at the best solution at this exact moment in time for your business needs. So from the first meeting, keep an eye on the questions that they ask: is their focus on themselves or on your business needs? Do you feel that your initial conversations covered enough aspects of your business that any concepts they might pitch will come from a place of understanding and a finger on the pulse of your industry?

The same goes for the back and forth after the initial pitches. How does the production company approach your feedback? Are they pushing concepts based on other criteria that feel like a poor fit for what you're trying to achieve? Are they willing to throw away large amounts of work dispassionately in the interest of developing a spot for you that will achieve maximum success? And above all, does dealing with them during the creative stage feel like dealing with a sales person, or with a partner who is a part of your company with aligned business goals?

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Casting, location scouting, assigning a director and more.

One measure of a great production company is the ability to find a balance between their artistic preferences and the most important needs of your video as a business tool. Many times this is reflected in casting, which is one of the most important steps of any spot. Almost any other aspect of a video production can be overlooked to a degree if casting is perfect, and this takes an eye and an instinct that must be honed over years of dealing with actors in a wide variety of situations and projects. A lot of people with less experience may have a good eye for casting in some regards while overlooking others, and a great video production company's job is to glean from a client's input the spirit of what they're trying to achieve and combine that with their own well developed eye to find the perfect stars for your next TV commercial production. However, when a video production company seems to ignore your input completely, or sell you too hard on casting that is completely off the mark for reasons anyone should be able to understand, then you would do best to take pause and re-assess your production company's intentions and even their expertise before it's too late with this critical step in your vieo production.


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Post production is a measure of your video production company's full understanding of your needs.

The post production process is the culmination of the applied understanding of all of your business needs combined with the material collected during the shoot. The tone, information and look of a spot should be fairly close to the mark from the early stages during post. However, even if it's not, a great production company that is functioning as a partner will be able to take your notes, interpret them and apply them technically and artistically to move quickly towards a final edit and color grade. One thing to look out for during this stage is a constant back and forth and endless revisions. Whether that's happening because the video production company you're working with isn't doing what you're asking, or if it's because you have a lot of stakeholders, aren't sure exactly what you're looking for, or are not consoldiating feedback on your side, the blame usually rests with the production company since they're the ones who engage in this process all the time. Look for a video production company partner that will help guide you through the process, ask the right questions, and apply the right amount of pressure to ensure that the post production process doesn't go on forever. Keeping things on time and on budget is an art sometimes, and you want to make sure the company producing your next TV commercial has your back.

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