If you spend even a few minutes online, you will likely come into contact with a video. Whether it’s an advertisement, a social media post, a news brief, or anything else, one thing is clear — online video content is important.
If you’re a business today, one way to break through all that noise is by creating high-quality content and videos. But how? There are so many videos already — how can someone impact their customers when it’s our natural instinct to ignore most videos these days?
The answer is hiring a video production company. Whether you’re in New York or Los Angeles, a conglomerate or a startup, this is a valuable strategy for success. Production companies enable businesses to find new audiences with their content.
Here is everything you need to know about how production companies work, why they’re so important, and how you can work with them.
What Is Video Production?
Video production is the process that any video goes through when it is made. From the initial ideation and brainstorming through post-release, video production involves countless facets. That’s one of the biggest reasons people reach out to film production companies in the first place — because video production can be intense and complicated.
If you want to create a motion picture of any kind, it’s important to understand how to differentiate between the three primary steps — pre-production, production, and post-production. Each of these stages is important, but optimizing a workflow with these steps can be overwhelming for larger projects. Working with a team that can switch between different roles in these situations is invaluable when creating a high-quality video.
What Are Production Companies?
When working on the filmmaking production process, one of the first steps is to get in touch with a production company. These companies have access to all the resources and skills a company needs to make a solid final product. While different companies specialize in various types of production, in general, production companies work as a creative agency that gets ideas across the finish line.
Large businesses and organizations might have an in-house staff that works on their videos. However, even if you have your own production company, they may not have access to all of the resources and talent of a full-service video production company. That’s why so many organizations outsource their higher-level content marketing to an external production house.
If you work with the right video production agency, they’ll be able to cover a lot of ground. This involves working on motion graphics, scriptwriting, storyboarding, corporate video production, brand videos, visual effects, and more like we do here at 7 Wonders. While finding the right media production company for your own needs can be challenging, investing the time and resources to find the best one is critical.
Whether you're making short films to accomplish a marketing strategy, designing music videos for artists, or producing feature films, involving a production company is necessary. Commercial production always needs to be of the highest quality possible, and working with a serious production team will lead you to success.
How Do Production Companies Help With Pre-Production?
The pre-production stage of making videos may be the most important stage because it sets up the whole production process for failure or success. Getting this step right can lead to smooth production, but getting it wrong can lead to stress, confusion, and disarray down the line.
Here are some of the processes that effective production companies go through to create a successful video:
Planning, Brainstorming, and Logistics
One of the most important things to do in the pre-production stage is to make sure that everything is planned and possible. If you’re creating a film that costs a lot, you must plan exactly how you’re using that money.
A dedicated production company can take care of basing video production on target marketing, informed decision making, and working within a budget for you. As long as you have the right company, it will be a mutually beneficial and interactive process.
Scripting and Storyboarding
Another essential piece of creating a video is knowing exactly what you’re going to be making, line by line and shot by shot. While anyone can write a script, it takes a lot of skill, practice, and talent to write a meaningful script that will have an impact.
No matter what video you’re going to be making, whether it’s a social media blast, explainer video, or feature film, you need a good script if you’re going to make a good product.
Working with the right people on scriptwriting makes the production process easier. It gives you a map of what needs to be done.
If you have a well-written script for your video, everything else will fall into place. Working with skilled people from a production company can help to make sure that happens every time.
How Do Production Companies Help With Live Production?
Pre-production is all about leading into the next step — actual production. This is where footage is captured, cameras are rolling, and ideas turn into reality. Of course, this is a difficult process to perfect and, depending on the budget, can involve equipment that costs thousands of dollars. That, combined with the fact that, often, professional-level gear isn’t accessible, is a great reason to look into production companies for live production.
Here are some things that a production company will take care of.
Cinematography
These days, everyone has a camera on their smartphone. Why can’t we take world-class video with those cameras? It’s because masterful cinematographers can take years, even decades, to develop their skills — not to mention you’re working with a major difference in camera quality.
Someone who can masterfully use a camera to communicate what you want to see is essential to filmmaking. A good production team will have a handful of talented cinematography experts who know exactly how to make your video look its best. That, combined with cameras that might cost more than your car, means your video is ready to look as professional and excellent as possible.
Acting
While good acting is sometimes overlooked, bad acting is virtually impossible to overlook. Even if you love watching actors do what they do, replicating good acting skills will take years of practice to be able to compare yourself to professionals.
A good video production company will have good actors on their team or know where they can source actors for the job. Many video production companies have connections with other agencies that they can work with locally, whether you’re in Oakland, the San Francisco bay area, Chicago, or anywhere in between.
Nothing ruins the quality of a good video like bad acting, so make sure you work with a production company that knows how to get the best actors possible.
How Do Production Companies Help With Post-Production?
Post-production is where everything comes together. If you’ve done the first two steps well, this stage will be simpler. Even still, countless processes are needed to complete your video.
Here are some of the things a video production company will get done for you during post-production:
Editing
One of the most important things you can do is get an expert to edit your video into a masterful piece of video content.
With editing, every frame counts. Editing masters who know how to make the best use of your video can make sure your videos are clear, concise, and easy to consume. While anyone can download editing software to their phone or computer and make a rough cut, skilled video editors can turn a large collection of shots into a piece of art with the skill and speed that only comes with years of experience.
VFX
Visual Effects (VFX) make up the best parts of many videos. However, if you don’t know how to use them properly, you may make something that feels off or strange. Working with a team that knows how to use VFX to their advantage will remove the possibility of embarrassing VFX failures.
Marketing Services
Once your video is completed, how will it end up in front of people? That’s where marketing comes in as a valuable tool for video creators. No matter how good your video is, if people don’t know where to watch it or don’t see it in ads, the whole process was for nothing.
A good video production company will work with ad agencies and marketing agencies to get your company name out there. This can mean everything from working with internet-based ads to interacting with podcasts. If you want to see success and a high ROI from your videos, marketing is something that you can’t overlook.
How 7 Wonders Can Help
If you’re looking for a video production company that can fill all your needs, 7 Wonders is for you. We’ve worked with companies, ranging from small startups to fortune 500 companies, to create the best videos possible. Our team has lots of experience in all kinds of video production styles, and no matter what you need, we can help.
Check out our list of services and portfolio — if you need something done, reach out to us. It’s our passion to create the most impactful content possible, and we’d love nothing more than to work together on your next project. To get started, contact us right here, and we can get to work as soon as possible.
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