In the flow.

Video production is everywhere these days, and companies are realizing that producing regular video content is intergral to any successful business. This has led to a flood of "video production professionals" promising a lot while being unable to deliver even once, let alone repeatedly. In an age where cell phones can shoot "4K video" while high end digital cinema cameras like the Alexa are filming huge blockbuster films at ~3K resolution, things can get a little confusing to those outside the business, both in understanding what you are getting technically when investing in a TV commercial or video production, why it matters, and more importantly what additional aspects of dealing with a video production company on an ongoing basis you should be focusing on.

One aspect of hiring a video production company that we encounter a lot is the idea of shopping around to lower end vendors in order to commoditize the process. Unfortunately, this approach does not work and often ironically ends up being an overly costly endeavor. There are aspects of video production that have leeway in terms of budget, and there are things that do not, so the next time you approach a video production vendor offering you a price that seems too good to be true, here are some aspects to keep in mind:



Look at the caliber of work. The end product is all that matters.

When dealing with a video production company or commercial production company, there are a lot of moving parts and variables, many of which can be adjusted, molded and made to fit within different boxes. One thing that cannot be changed, however, is talent, ability, responsiveness and the quality of the end product. Training your eye to recognize top shelf talent will do wonders when it comes to deciding on a creative video company partner for your projects. Sometimes it's not entirely clear where costs come from when you're not familiar with the process of high-end video production, so learning more about all of the people, work, steps and craft that go into everything from the concept to the final color grade will help to notice quotes where a certain amount of cost is missing, which may lead you to scrutinize the end product from those video production companies more closely.

Viewing something as involved, varied and, for lack of a better term, "artful" as creative video production as something to shop around the way you'd shop for a good price on a printer may sound like a good idea at first, but using only budget to compare video companies has some pitfalls that may not be immediately apparent. Aside from the fact that a certain level of work commands a certain price just based on demand, one of the most important factors to consider is how a lower number on the initial quote could cost you more later.



Forget "Fix it in post"; for many video production mistakes, there's no way to fix it in post.

With video production, whether it's capturing a live event or executing a carefully planned out TV commercial shoot, you often only have one shot to get it right. You need to make sure you capture every moment, every angle, every beat that is vital to telling your story, and within those frames you have to make sure everything is the way you want it to be to represent your company. Everything from lighting to performance to production design says something about your company and your brand.

So what happens when something goes wrong? Maybe you don't notice it until you're reviewing the first edits that your video production company delivers do you. What then? Can you fix it in post? Maybe, but probably not--certainly not without added cost. There's an entire subsection of the visual effects industry that generates millions and millions of dollars in work based on mistakes made during the filming of videos and TV commercials. Considering the video production company you hired may not be able to make these kinds of advanced changes themselves, you're either at the mercy of a subcontractor they find for you, which you probably won't want to trust at this point based on their mistakes, or you're back to square one searching for a VFX or post production company that is capable of fixing errors in a completely believable way. This means you're dealing with a second company's margin, overhead and other factors. Will the video production company that messed up in the first place cover those expenses. I can almost guarantee they will not, especially if they're able to operate on such minimal fees that they stood out based on cost alone. Which is why...



Many times a very low cost video production company's project needs a complete redo.

Many times a company like Flow is the second one a potential client new to video or TV commercial production calls. They shop around, find a price that seems low and doable (even though most budgets with any reputable video production company should be a discussion, not a hard quote), and then they produce their video. It either doesn't come out the way they wanted, is ineffective, or in the worst case scenario turns out to be completely unusable. So then they need to hire another company to start over from scratch, and they might as well add the cost of the first video onto the total budget of a single video production. That's money that was completely wasted that could have gone towards getting it right the first time, saving you time during the back and forth of pre and post production, higher production values or maybe even savings overall in the long run.

Being budget conscious is a great and important thing, and any decent video production company you work with should be acting as a long term partner with you, finding the best way to achieve everyone's business goals and outlining a financial strategy for your productions that is sustainable and brings in a return on your investment that is worth the up front expense. However, being overly focused on just cost can end up costing you a lot more in the long run, or worse yet, sour your view on video production when it can be one of the most powerful and effective items in your company's arsenal when deployed properly.