Working with a commercial production company

The world of commercial productions can expensive, complex and filled with arcane terminology. For the uninitiated it can seem a little intimidating. But the reality is, even a beginner can have a rewarding experience working with a commercial production company.

Establish trust.
Create a real partnership between you and your production company so you can get them working efficiently on your behalf. If either side leaves out details or holds back information the process and the product will suffer.

Over-communicate.
Establish as deep as possible understanding of your expectations as possible before awarding a job. Show reference, share storyboards, hammer out the script and have a couple conference calls with the director. Video is expensive to create and if you and your production company don’t have the same vision going into the shoot, you won’t get what  you want at the end of the day. It’s crucial that you and your producers and directors over-communicate down to the last detail before shooting. Hate the wardrobe? Well, when the cameras are rolling isn’t a good time to go shopping.

Put the time in.
Don’t just award a job and walk away. When big ad agencies hire a production company, they have a dedicated producer and a creative team managing the process. If you’re hiring a production company for a TV commercial or corporate film, make sure you have a key person who’s responsible and available to make decisions in a timely manner.

When the production company is shooting, it’s important to be there. Hundreds of decisions are being made an hour. If you want to have input, it will be too late after the camera stops.

It takes an army. And armies are expensive.
Orson Welles was famous for say that “a writer needs a typewriter but a filmaker needs an army.” Everything about creating filmed content is expensive, especially on the equipment and labor side. To get a great product, you’ll likely be employing expensive people by the hour who are operating equally expensive equipment. Keeping costs down requires working smart and doing things once and never twice.

You don’t need to know everything. But you do need to ask questions.
No one knows how to do everything in film and video. It’s a complex process that can be very technical. There are certainly some wizards on set or in post production but it’s highly unlikely that anyone actually knows everything about shooting 3-D on location and also about composing music for final cut. Getting a great product is more about asking lots of questions and making informed decisions than trying to micromanage the process.

Have fun.
Production can be highly stressful but it can also be a lot of fun watching your vision come to life. Why not make the most of it?

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