What to Consider When Choosing a Production Company

What to Consider When Choosing a Production Company

Potential customers form an opinion of your brand in just 50 milliseconds. 

Someone who views an advertisement or clicks on your website instantly makes a first impression, and this vital initial opinion is largely influenced by images. To update your brand design and appeal, you might consider working with a production company to create compelling and attractive videos and images for your business.

However, just because a business labels itself a "production company" doesn't guarantee you'll receive high-quality results. A wide range of elements separates good production companies from bad ones, extending beyond their portfolios. To hire the best production company for your project, you must look beyond flair or flashy advertising — you have to consider their reputation, experience and flexibility, as well as whether they offer traditional or full service.

1. Examine Their Portfolio

When looking for a production company, your first clue to their quality and style is their portfolio.

Most professional companies will have their body of work visible on their main website. Go through it thoughtfully, looking for any stylistic constants — what color tones dominate their galleries? How do they handle portraits? Do their images look generic, something you could find on a stock photo site? Or do they look original and compelling, drawing you deeper into the portfolio?

People are bombarded with hundreds of images every day — 1.8 billion photos are uploaded to the Internet alone every day. Most of the time, they fade into the background, unnoticed. To catch a potential client's attention, a photograph needs to stand out, to have a creative, artistic and unique edge.

Look through a production company's portfolio and see if they can produce a wide range of work in a variety of styles. Almost every company will have its own tone and style that threads through their portfolio. However, if their work includes avariety of settings, poses and subjects, you know that the company is flexible and can work with your brand's individual needs.

As you are comparing different companies, you might go through hundreds of different photos. Over time, they can easily begin to blend together. Instead of looking over all of a company's photos, try picking one element and comparing it across portfolios. For example, if you are looking for a production company that creates expressive and attractive portraits or headshots, look for the way different companies capture people. Do the subjects look colorless or faded? Do they look natural or awkwardly posed? Are the finished photographs professional and engaging?

Finally, compare a company's portfolio to your concept. If you already have a specific vision for your project, you want to hire and consult with a production company that can create something similar to what you have envisioned.

2. Contact Past Clients

After you've narrowed your search to a few different production companies, reach out to their previous clients. Although contacting past customers can be time-consuming and tedious, it's well worth the investment — learning how a company treats its clients gives you an indication of how they will work with you and your project.

When you're browsing through a company's portfolio, write down any client names or brands that are listed. This is an easy way to discretely find client information and allows you to choose which clients you want to contact. Look for clients that had projects similar to yours — talking with similar clients will give you the closest estimation of what it would be like to work with the production company.

Another quick way to check the reviews of a company is to search them online. Often, search engines will provide basic information about the company, and an evaluation section gives past clients a way to rate and review the company. See how many stars they have received, and read any quick testimonials posted below. While not as in-depth as personally reaching out to past clients, a brief online search can let you know how a company tends to perform and how they treat their clients.

For a comprehensive list of previous customers, ask the company to send you the names of previous clients along with their contact information. If they are hesitant to provide a list, consider their reluctance a significant red flag — a professional company should have no problem handing over the contact information of previous customers.

When you talk to past clients, ask them about the professionalism and quality of the production company. Did they provide a satisfying final product? Ask the client if they would work with the production company again — ultimately, you want to hire a company that you would want to collaborate on future projects.

3. Consider Their Experience and Flexibility

Ideally, a production company will have experience and flexibility — professional and creative expertise paired with an ability to listen and adapt to your needs.

A professional production company should have a team of highly experienced artists and technicians. At every stage of the process, they should execute your vision with creativity, innovation and efficiency. Because of their knowledge and proficiency, the best production teams contribute a strong point of view to your project — although they should listen and adapt to your needs, they should also guide the project with confidence and artistry.

Inquire about the company's production team. What is the experience of their photographers, editors, technicians and specialists? Who do they partner with? Production is a team effort, and the best teams produce the best images.

Every project is unique and personalized to the client, which means that every project has different goals, specifications and needs. When asked, a good production company should rarely give out a quote without knowing the details of your project — if they provide a quote without discussing the specifics of your project, you don't know if they will comprehensively review your brand or vision to create a high-quality product.

Few things are as frustrating than getting halfway through a project and having to switch production companies. A studio could lack the professional experience needed to produce efficient and attractive results, or they might refuse to bend on their own ideas to meet the needs of your brand. A company that lacks either experience or flexibility can't deliver high-quality, effective products, even if they have a nice-looking portfolio.

4. Other Considerations

Make sure you know exactly what is included before you hire a production company. Are they a full-service provider, or do they outsource different stages of your project to different teams? What type of equipment do they provide? What sets or locations will they use, and do they include editing and post-production costs in the final quote?

If your project is specifically geared towards advertisement, ask what marketing services the company provides. Will they work with you to spread your images, or is that left up to you? Ask about the steps of the production process, from beginning to end. Inquire about the level of communication throughout the project — will the team brainstorm with you and include you in the planning stages of the project? Will you have input throughout the process, even in the post-production phase of the project?

Finally, when companies provide you with quotes, don't automatically assume that the lowest bidder is the best, most cost-efficient choice. Viewers are overwhelmed with tons of images every day — for your brand to be noticed amid the flood, it must have the quality to stand apart. Good visual marketing is increasingly essential, so choosing the right production company is vital for the success of your brand or campaign.

Compelling and creative images give your brand the opportunity to draw sales and recognition from a wide audience, so choose a company that will produce high-quality photographs that capture the tone and message of your brand. In the end, a quality image will generate more return for investment than a cheaper, lower-quality photograph, so investing more on the front end of a project could be more cost-effective than choosing the lowest bidder.

Traditional Production Companies vs. Full-Service Production Companies

When you are searching for the right production company to work with your business, it's important to understand the difference between traditional and full-service production companies.

Traditional or technical production companies only provide the elements of the project that you cannot handle yourself. For example, you might feel comfortable photographing the images you need, or you might employ an in-house photographer for that purpose. Traditional production companies only handle specific parts of a project — for example, some companies specialize in editing and post-production work. Businesses hire technical production companies to take care of specific aspects of production instead of the entire project.

Alternately, full-service production companies handle every element of a project, from the earliest stages of planning and development to post-production. Full-service companies typically work with a team of experts to take care of every detail of your project.

When you hire a traditional production company, you will have to be involved to some extent with every stage of the process. However, when you work with a full-service company, you are only involved only as much as you need or want to be — you can trust professionals to handle every aspect.

Benefits of Hiring a Full-Service Production Company

A full-service production company provides many benefits over traditional companies, from a higher product quality to a reduced time investment.

1. Higher Quality

In production, you get what you pay for. Cheaper traditional production companies typically produce cheaper results. While full-service companies may cost more on the front end, the result has significantly higher quality.

Full-service companies also work with you on every stage of your project, guiding each part with knowledge and creativity. Their expertise means that you can trust the final product to have the highest, professional quality — something that's not guaranteed from a traditional production company.

For potential customers, the quality of your content reflects the quality of your brand. High-quality production supports and grows your business, leading to a higher long-term return on your investment.

2. Increased Value

If you hire a full-service production company, you ultimately get more value for your investment.

With a full-service provider, you don't have to outsource different parts of a project to different teams, such as the creative planning, production, post-processing and editing. It consolidates the process, allowing the project to move forward with maximum efficiency and consistency. The final product is high-quality, which will generate more long-term returns than a quickly and cheaply-made image.

While it might seem more budget-friendly to go with a traditional production company, a traditional company comes with many hidden costs. When you hire a technical company, you are responsible for many parts of the project, which can mean purchasing or renting expensive equipment or software. It might even mean unproductive work days while your employees devote work hours to the project instead of overseeing normal operations.

3. Reduced Time Investment

The process of creating, producing and completing a media project is expensive and time-consuming. When working with a traditional production company, the time investment is amplified — while traditional companies take care of some aspects of production, others are left for you to organize and outsource. For many brands, this means forming and maintaining relationships with many different vendors and agencies to handle various aspects of a project.

Full-service production companies reduce the time spent on a project. By choosing a single company to complete your project, the process is streamlined and efficient, reducing the time it takes for images or videos to hit the market.

4. Expert Opinions

A full-service production company brings fresh, expert eyes to your project and brand.

Bringing new insight to your brand and ideas, a full-service company has experience with all aspects of project development, from creative planning to final edits. Instead of providing narrow knowledge about a few specific parts of the production process, a full-service company is familiar with every step of the process.

Full-service companies have a team of professionals who stay up-to-date on marketing and design trends, ensuring that your final product is attractive, powerful and compelling.

5. Professional Reliability 

When you hire a full-service production company, you collaborate with a team that knows every stage of the production process.

Paired with a high commitment to artistry and quality, a full-service company's deep knowledge of the industry means you can rely on them to complete a project efficiently and effectively. With traditional production companies, you have to hire multiple agencies to finish your project — every company will have its own timeline and workflow, which can cause delays and unexpected costs. Full-service companies want to keep your project running on budget and on time so they can maintain a steady level of commitment to all of their clients.

Contact Mark DeLong Photography for Full-Service Production

Choosing the right production company can be overwhelming. You want a company that is professional, experienced, flexible and creative — a team that can handle your project every step of the way.

The team at Mark DeLong Photography offers full-service production, from the first brainstorming sessions to the final edits. One of the world's leading visual artists, Mark is a premier photographer and videographer. With his team, he manages every element of production, including casting, location scouting and all post-production work.

For more information, contact Mark DeLong Photography to discuss your project today.