Today, using videos in marketing is picking up steam across businesses of all sizes and virtually all industries. Fair enough, as video is truly the most engaging way of promoting your brand. Videos help people better understand your product or service and make great material for sharing, which inevitably translates into increased conversions and sales.
However, to reap the impressive benefits of video marketing, you should approach it wisely. Instead of DIYing your videos, it’s a good idea to entrust them to a professional video production company.
What is a Video Production Company?
A video production company is a type of business that creates video content, which is further used for marketing purposes, for instance, video ads, how-to videos, company story videos, product videos, or employee training videos. A video production company can assist you with all stages of the video production process, from developing the concept to providing you with the final, polished version of the video.
What Does a Video Production Company Do?
Video production consists of three distinct phases: pre-production, production, and post-production. Let’s take a more detailed look at each.
Pre-production
Pre-production involves the work that is done before the full-scale video production begins.
Communicating with the Client
For starters, video production company experts talk with clients to understand their vision of the future video as well as their expectations about the outcomes. Other topics usually discussed at such meetings include timelines, budgets, target audiences, etc.
Research
Of course, it’s crucial to fully understand the product or service that is going to be promoted through the video. For this, video production teams carry out detailed research into the product/service, target audiences, and competition.
Creating a Storyboard
Next, the team proceeds to create a storyboard. In a nutshell, a storyboard is a visual representation of how the video will unroll, shot by shot. It consists of a series of images representing each shot, followed by notes detailing what’s happening in the scene and which part of the script corresponds to that shot. A storyboard is used as a roadmap for video production. Although the final product often deviates from the initial storyboard, this phase is critical in the video production process.
Writing a Script
Meanwhile, a team of scriptwriters works on the perfect wording that will help attract your target audience.
Casting
If your video requires actors, a video production company will take on the casting process.
Selecting the Location
Videos are usually made at the company’s studio; however, some projects may require shooting somewhere outside. In such cases, the team at the video production company takes on finding the ideal location.
Contracting all Other Aspects of Production
Apart from finding actors and locations, video production involves numerous aspects such as hair, makeup, costumes, and props. Video production companies typically have an extensive network of contractors to help with these aspects.
Production
Production is the actual shooting of the video. Suppose the video is going to be made at another location than the company studio. In that case, the video production team will arrive there with actors, all the necessary equipment, and props and capture the footage needed. This phase also covers recording voices and creating motion graphics and animation.
Post-production
Last but not least comes post-production, aka ‘post.’ It includes cutting, sequencing, and editing the footage made during the production phase. Here are some of its major components.
Editing
Video editors cut and combine footage pieces so that they make up a cohesive product. Also, editors can add visual effects, such as on-screen graphics or subtitles. At the initial meeting, the video production team and the client typically agree on the number of free revisions and edits following them.
Working with Sound
Next, the sound mixing process starts. It involves combining and adjusting all of the sounds in a video and making sure that speech, music, and other effects are clearly heard.
Distribution
A video production company typically deals with video distribution, promotion, and even collecting analytics.
Video Production Company: Some Most Common Questions Answered
It depends on many factors, including the filming location, hours worked, the complexity of the video (animations, special effects, etc.), and duration. Many companies work with clients who have a range of budgets and are ready to find a solution to match any budget and requirements.
Not very long, up to a few minutes. What is more, it depends on the platform where you want to publish the video. For instance, you won’t be able to upload long videos on Tik Tok, while it is okay with YouTube.
The only thing that can’t be skipped is the initial meeting arranged to help the team understand the client’s needs and requirements. From there, the clients can have as much or as little input into the scripting, capturing footage, and editing as they would prefer.
Video production companies typically use the most common formats, such as mp4 or .mov. Still, they can convert these into virtually any other format if needed.
In most cases, creating a corporate video takes six to eight weeks. However, many video production experts point out that the most time-consuming part of making videos is the approval process on the client side.
Typically, yes. They usually have editorial platforms compatible with different source materials.
Actually, this is pretty common. For example, the team at Walla Walla Studio always makes sure that each project is designed in a way that will enable easy updates at a future date, including chopping, modifying, and adapting videos.
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