What Is A Video Production Company?

The term ‘video production company’ is broad – anyone from Warner Brothers to sixth form students filming their first marketing video on their iPhone can call themselves a video production company. Usually though, when we use the term ‘video production company’ we're referring to a team of experienced creative professionals, specialising in producing good quality, well directed films for marketing or broadcast.  

A video production company covers all stages of the film production process, from helping to create the initial concept to exporting the final draft of the video.  The steps along the process include creative consultation (coming up with the initial ideas and plan), scripting, scheduling, providing the kit and crew, casting, shooting, editing, composing the music, managing the sound design and dealing with the technical side to ensure the film is just right.  

Crew is key to any production company – a film is never made by just one person; teams of people work on every project. The key roles within a production company are directors (the creative lead), directors of photography (camera and visual gurus) and editors (post-production experts). These three people will shape a production.  

The best kind of production company will be able to help you maximise a budget – it’s easy to hire all of the most expensive equipment, the best actors, crew and locations, and you will get a great finished film – but it will be incredibly expensive.

The right production company will look at a project and work out how to spend the budget in the right way to produce a great film, without breaking the bank.  When it comes to using video for marketing, the production company needs to consider the aims and objectives of the project at every stage – it’s all well and good creating a beautiful film, but if the initial aim of the project is to generate business for the client and the film doesn’t do that, then it is a failure.  

Good production companies ensure the aims of the project are met in the planning stages of the project. In the first project meeting (known as the Pre-Production Meeting or PPM), production companies should be asking questions like “What is the intended distribution of the film?”, “Who are the target audience?”, “How long do you plan on using this content for?” and “Why is video the best method to get this message out there?”.  

Asking questions like these, and adapting the filming process based on the answers, will allow the project to be guided by the goals, becoming a marketing exercise and not an arts project.  

Finding the perfect production company is key to any successful media venture, whether it be a television commercial, an online marketing video, a promotional video or an event film. Eight Engines are a multi-award-winning production company with a proven record of creating world-class content. If we can help you with your project please let us know by emailing info@eightengines.com or calling us on 0161 503 0268.