Videographer Toronto – 10 Questions to ask

Business marketing efforts are increasingly involving video as a tool, so fining the right videographer Toronto or video production production company is crucial.  In fact, Animoto reports that 84% of professional marketers have produced or outsourced at least one video for brand marketing in the past 12 months, setting the trend for 55% of small-to-medium-sized business owners who published a video last year.  Video is definitely a powerful marketing, sales and communications tool, but has to be done right.  Just like a delicious recipe needs well nurtured ingredients, video needs a well thought out objective, script and elements to make it successful.  A great video production company Toronto or camera operator can make that happen, but you need to be very selective in who you choose to partner with.

It’s always a great idea to meet with the production company or videographer Toronto so you can see the synergy as well as how well they understand your video objective and vision.  During the selection process it’s key to go over a well thought out creative brief. This is an effective way to communicate all of the details for producing the video. Along with the creative brief here are 10 questions you need to ask a videographer or production company:

10 Questions to ask a Videographer Toronto

1. How many years have you been professionally filming business videos?
   • This is an important question to ask to see their experience. There’s a lot of newcomers to the video production platform.
2. Where can I see your portfolio? Have you creating anything similar to what we want?
   • It’s always good to see their video portfolio and see what their clients have to say about their work. It’s not necessarily a negative thing if they don’t have a video in their portfolio that’s similar to what you want to create. A fresh perspective is so valuable. New ideas, insights and creativity are key to your video getting attention.
3. How would you describe your production style (documentary, cinematic, vintage etc.) Is your shooting approach more direct or journalistic?
   • A great camera operator/cinematographer should be able to clearly articulate what their video style is.
4. What sets you apart from other camera operators?
5. What is your resource pool?
   • Can you conceptualize, write the script, cast talent, production manage, assemble the crew needed for the production, execute the video editing, sound editing, animation, vfx, colour correction, audio editing, sound effects, music, sound mixing etc.
6. Do you offer all the services to get a video done from concept to completion?
   • A lot of camera people can only accommodate some pre-production tasks and execute the production component of producing a video. Depending on your needs, most of the times you will have to go with a full service video production company Toronto to get your video done from pre-production to post production.
7. What kind of video equipment do you use? How will you be capturing the audio?
8. What types of packages do you offer?
   • See if they have any package options that you can take advantage of. Perhaps they have a budget package that may a great fit for a smaller project.
9. Do you back-up and provide us with all the raw footage after the filming is complete? Is this cost included?
10. Are there any hidden costs?
    • Be sure that there are no hidden costs to their proposed budget.

These questions will help you narrow in on the right videographer Toronto or video production company.  You want to choose someone who you can collaborate with, understands your brand and that will bring your vision to life while providing excellent customer service and production value. These are crucial to developing a long term relationship. If you need help getting your video project off the ground contact us at VCM. We provide a free consultation so that we can do a thorough discovery of your video needs.