So, you need a videographer for your marketing campaign, awesome! But before you spend thousands on a company or freelancer, you need to avoid these 8 mistakes in order to save you a ton of cash!
Let’s get started!
#1. Not Knowing Your Purpose
Why do you need this video? Do you even need a video?
What is the result you aim to achieve?
Do you want to sell a product?
Bring in new talents?
Promote a new company benefit?
Bring attention to an issue?
Showcase a new division?
Or get a puppy adopted?
It’s important to keep this purpose in mind. Not only will it minimize missed expectations, but it will also provide a conceptual framework to guide you and your videographer throughout the project. There is no point having a cinematic video if it doesn’t achieve your intended goal.
#2. Not Knowing Your Budget
Let’s talk money! How much are you willing to spend?
This can be a tricky question, as there is a fine balance between quality production and overkill. Two videos with the same purpose can greatly vary in budget. Also, something as simple as having 1 videographer instead of two or deciding to film in house instead of renting a fancy studio could slice the price by thousands of dollars. Other factors affecting the final cost include days of production, animations/special effects, areal footage, talent on screen and much more.
A commercial video production can range between $2,000 to $50,000 or more! It all depends on what you are looking for and your marketing budget.
If you need an internal company announcement, it doesn’t need to look like Marvel’s Avengers. On the other hand, if you want a jaw dropping Super Bowl ad, you’ll want the best of the best.
Just remember, you should not search for the cheapest, you should search for the most valuable one; or the one with the largest benefit to price ratio.
You are better off with a company that charges $8,000 for $16,000 worth of deliverables than with a $5,000 one with only the same in delivered value.
Search for value! Not savings.
#3. Only Focusing on the “Pretty Picture”
Cinematography is important; but is not the MOST important factor (look at Game of Thrones Season 8).
You want your videos to deliver RESULTS! Not just a pretty picture. This ties back to your purpose from Mistake #1.
When searching for a videographer or production company you want to make sure that they not only offer a professional production but are business and marketing pros themselves. Even if your video is not aimed to sell, you want those persuasive, emotive and intuitive social skills in your videographer to ensure you get the best bang for your buck.
Make sure to look at their videos, website and how they market themselves. If someone primarily does weddings, they are probably not the best fit for a product ad campaign. The best indicator that you have a good candidate, is that they’ve filmed a video and achieve a goal with that video that matches what you are looking for.
Additionally, you are not only paying for the video and the results but also for the client experience. You want a company that gives you constant communication, clear deadlines, a predictable sales process, and a pleasant and consistent experience to ensure repeat business. Finding a videographer can be rough, so isn’t better to just find the one?
#4. Not Communicating Expectations
Clear communication between you and the professional is indispensable for any project, especially a video production!
Make your expectations known, send them some video with examples of what you are looking for, tell them what needs to be there, what needs to be highlighted, how long it needs to be, the due date or anything else relevant to the project.
A real professional should ask all this questions anyways, and they might even show you that what you had in mind is not optimal towards your intended goal. A great sign that you have a winner, is if they put your project needs above their own earnings. Which means they might talk themselves out of charging you more knowing that you will be better off in the end.
If they don’t, you might want to find someone else.
A professional should also send you a contract with all the details of your project including filming day, price, revisions, and any extra work.
Never fail to communicate! Not only in the beginning, but in every part of the process.
#5. Being Unprepared
A production is a collaborative effort between you (the customer) and the videographer. Most corporate videos require the company’s employees to be interviewed, so it’s important to ensure they have a prepared script or outline and are ready for film day.
I personally use a teleprompter; the client sends it to me days before the shoot and the talent can read it on the screen, no memorization necessary!
It’s also important to ensure the filming area is ready, as most corporate videos are done in the client’s office or worksite. This means the area is clean, and there are no background noises or distractions during filming.
If you are not filming on company property, insure you have the permission or authorization to film in the other location. Consult your videographer if you have any questions.
Another issue I’ve encountered is client requesting a video last minute. A quality production could take between 2-3 weeks to put together, so keep that in mind when hiring a video professional.
#6. Not Being Efficient During Revisions
It’s a wrap!
Production is finished and now it’s time to edit. If you and your videographer established a clear framework, there shouldn’t be many surprises during editing. You should have an idea of what the final video should look like.
After a few days the professional should send you a completed video. Now, it’s your job to go over it and make sure it is what you were agreed. Most of the times it will need revisions. My company includes two rounds of revisions and anything extra is billed hourly. To save yourself money, frustration and time, here are some best practices for requesting revisions:
• First: Adding or removing objects to a video is VERY complicated and will likely result in expensive special effects charges and probably won’t look perfect. Therefore, it’s important to have everything ready during filming day. If you want your talent’s shirt to be purple, make him wear one! Don’t try to change it in the editing room after.
• Second: Since most videos are matched to the beat of the music, changing it entails a TON of work. Request your videographer to send you the music beforehand for your approval to avoid this laborious revision. Also, ensure they have a license for that music (or any other stock footage, sound, or asset) so you don’t get a copyright claim!
• Lastly: Send all revisions at once! I’ve had many clients tell me to correct a detail in one revision, and then instruct me to fix something entirely different in the second one. This could have all been done on the first request. Remember that most videographer will you give you a limited number of revisions (as they are time consuming), so take advantage of every round by laying it all out at once!
#7. Not Requesting Source Footage
Source footage is the composing clips filmed to make your final video. Professional 4K cameras record in HUGE data files (some over 3GB/minute) to preserve all that juicy information to facilitate editing.
So, it’s important to request this (and its corresponding usage rights) because you can now repurpose all the clips and use them in another project down the line. Any editor across the world can edit these for you (or maybe you have one in house) so it’s important to have access to them to prevent headaches, save time, and get the most out of your investment.
Like I said the file sizes can be huge! I often record 200+GB in 4 hours so you will not be storing this on any computer’s hard drive. Instead, request a USB or external drive and have the videographer ship it to you. Do not accept a downloadable ink for source files! Most business don’t the required computer storage or internet speed to download these massive amounts of data; save yourself the headache and have the videographer ship or hand you a physical hard drive.
They likely charge you extra (I charge $100) put it’s a add on you shouldn’t go without.
#8. Get A Package Deal
Many times, you don’t only need video. You need the thumbnails, pictures, multiple versions for social media, edited posts, voice overs and many other things to serve your marketing campaign.
Not every production company does this, but if you find one that offers you all these services in a package, that’s a great sign! Otherwise, you will have the find individual vendors to fulfill each task, which results in lost time, inconsistent media, and a heftier bill.
Try to get a “one-stop shop” for your media services to save you a ton of time and money! Companies that do this normally specialize in marketing campaigns, know exactly what you need, and might give you a screaming deal when you buy the entire package.
That’s it guys 8 tips to make sure you get the most out of your videographer for your marketing campaigns. If you have any questions feel free to send me an email and we will see you on the next video, peace!