5 Crucial Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Video Production Company

In my role as Creative Director for Seattle Video Production Company, GoodSide Studio, one of my jobs is to talk to new clients about their potential projects. I know that the people who call me don’t deal with video production every day and sometimes find it intimidating. To help take some of the mystery out of it, I developed this list of questions you should ask any video production company in Seattle or anywhere else for that matter, when you first call them.

1.    Are You a Match for My Project? You may call the best video production company in Seattle, but if they specialize in one type of video, and you need another, you’ll want to figure that out right away. Detail your project a little and ask if they have experience with this kind of work. Ask for URLs of examples, keeping in mind that every video is different, so they probably won’t have a sample that’s just like your project, but they should be able to show something to give you confidence that they can deliver. You can take a look at some of GoodSide Studio’s work here.

2.    How Much Will it Cost? Ok, this one is pretty obvious, but I bet it’s very important to you. To develop an estimate, the person on the other end of the phone should have some questions for you. Early in the call, they should ask you about your target market, and desired outcome. They’ll also ask about the general scope of the project. If they start throwing around packaged prices before getting some good info from you, they may be jamming your project into a cookie cutter mold, that serves their needs more than yours. No two videos are the same and the production company should pay attention to you and your project as individuals. Here’s some more information on pricing.

3.    How Long Will it Take? How long will it take to complete your video production? How long will each of the steps take? Let’s set accurate expectations right off the bat. If you need the project done in a rush, that’s probably fine – as long as everyone plans for a rush job.

4.    What will be Required of Me as the Client? Some clients want to be involved in every step of the project, others are too busy to get involved with the nitty-gritty. Find out what level of involvement the production company will need to achieve your goals. At a minimum, you should expect to review their work at several stages of production and post production.

5.    What is included? Make sure you feel informed about what you’ll be getting. You can ask the person at the other end of the line to outline the whole process from initial concept to the deliverable in your hand. Then ask them what parts of those the production company will manage and specifically what they will deliver.

6.    Bonus Question – Anything you want to ask! We know that you don’t talk about video production every day, but we do, so we’re happy to answer any questions you have.

Which reminds me – GoodSide Studio is a Seattle Video Production Company and we’re always happy to hear from you, whether you’re ready to start your production, or just want to discuss how to begin. You can email us at Studio@GoodSide Studio.com, or do it the old fashioned way and give us a call at 206-322-1576.