By: Melissa Jackson
So you’ve decided that you want to produce a video to help your business or organization reach its goals. We’ll give you a hand with where to start.
The first thing you need to have is a solid idea of the message you want to get across. Whether you have a marketing department to help you with this or you’re on your own, you need to know what you want to say, and what you want people to do after they watch your video. Having a strong call to action is vital.
Before you contact a video production company for a quote it is very helpful to know what content you want to include. You should consider where you want your video shot (in your office, at an event etc.). You should also decide about whether or not you want to focus on interviews or perhaps have a narrator read a script over relevant footage. Additionally, knowing how long you want your video to be is important.
There are so many kinds of videos that knowing what you want to produce is helpful, whether it be your first commercial or promotional video, or even a web series. Another idea that helps companies share your vision is by sending them links to a few videos you like and recommending elements from them that you would like to see in your own project.
After you have a strong list of what you want to do and how you want your video to look start contacting production companies. They’ll be able to put together a proposal for you with how they would approach the project. Choose one that suits your budget and you feel you can work with. Remember to double check the proposed shooting and post-production schedule and make sure it fits in with what you have in mind. Sometimes production companies get busy and may have longer production schedules than usual.
Once you have a proposal you are leaning towards, remember that you can always talk with the video production company about different elements and have them revise their plan. Be upfront about any restrictions you have. If you’re on a tight budget get the company to present you with a few options. One with higher production value and one that is simpler. This way you can see all the options available and won’t feel overwhelmed by the costs of some fancy features that you may not really need.
Once you have the proposal to your liking it’s time to sign a contract and get started on your project. For many kinds of videos, such as promotional ones, the production company will arrange a time to sit down with you and make sure they understand your vision fully. You may even start to develop a script if it is needed. If you’re doing a project with quicker turn around, such as an event, you may communicate via e-mail and phone, just to make sure that the company you’re working with doesn’t miss any important elements that you really want filmed. The best practice is making sure you’ve seen samples from the production company and that you are able to trust their judgement about what looks best and which content communicates well.
Melissa Jackson is a project assistant extraordinaire at Atomic Spark. A master of multi-tasking and managing miscellany requests she keeps everyone on track while blogging, organizing and whipping up nifty graphics.
