When looking for a company in Dallas to produce that corporate video, you will find several different levels of production companies. And the corporate video production we’re talking about here are marketing videos, training videos, internal communications, sales and product videos, and web videos. This is for the Director of Sales and Marketing, the head of corporate communications, the public relations team, or the person in charge of corporate training.
We break down the levels into four sizes—the Big Dogs, the medium size, the small company and the one-man band. Let’s start at the bottom and work up. For some reason, the creative services industry can bring out some of the biggest egos in people. And this occurs throughout the following list. When you are looking for a great video production company in Dallas to work with, in addition to sampling their work, make sure you can enjoy working with the people. It’s one of the biggest comments we get from our clients.
The One Man (or Woman) Band
This “production company” is one person, maybe with an office or maybe not. The older, more experienced One Man Band can write, shoot and edit. And maybe he hires freelancers to assist. The younger One Man Band is typically a student or someone just out of school just trying to explore their craft.
This person will be the cheapest estimate out of the three for a corporate video. But they will usually be the lowest in quality as well. And because they’re alone, the project can take some time—especially the larger video projects. The adage “you get what you pay for” is especially true for this layer. But occasionally a corporate client will get lucky and find a gem. This level is the biggest gamble and some might say the payoff for a win isn’t worth the risk in the corporate video industry. Jobs and reputations are at stake within the halls of the company, and you don’t want to roll the dice, spending money for an ineffective video.
The Sweet Spot – The Small Company
In corporate video production, the small company (2-4 employees) offers the most flexibility and value. This company is doing medium and sometimes large company production work, and usually hires a team of contractors they work with often to keep the quality high. Contractors are specialists and superb at what they do. Only hiring contractors for specific shoots rather than hiring full-time staff is a savings that is passed on to the client.
They can estimate jobs on the lower side of the range while bringing top production value. But be careful, because many companies can be this size, quality can be all over the map. With a little research, this company can be the answer to top notch corporate videos. Make sure you look at their portfolio and, if possible, talk to some of their clients.
This size company is flexible– they have a small permanent team to keep consistency and dependability through the projects, and they can scale up quickly if needed. Because of that, they can still estimate towards the lower side while delivering outstanding value. Many corporations will go with this company, and stick with them if they deliver strongly on that first project.
The Medium Size Company
The production companies at this level usually have 5-10 employees. They can estimate low or high, depending on how busy they are, but typically will fall in the middle of the estimates as far as price. The overhead for a medium size company is greater and thus can reflect in the estimate. Therefore a client may find that they are paying for more that what directly contributes to what is seen on screen.
As far as quality, it can be hit or miss. Maybe they got to be medium sized because of one rain-maker client, but still lack many other skills and/or tools in their tool box to do more than what they specialize in. But maybe they’re really good and offer incredible value—high production quality at a decent price.
Usually there will be a strong creative type (probably running the company). An editor or two, maybe an animator. And a couple of shooters or production types, and a production or office manager to keep everything organized.
The Big Dogs—The Large Video Production Company
Dallas is a center for corporate and commercial video production. National commercial work ends up being a big ticket item. Large video companies, 15+ employees, will specialize in commercial production to help pay the large overhead they carry.
The Big Dog work will be first class (they can’t survive otherwise), but they will charge significantly more than all the others. And I do mean significantly. It’s possible that the One Man Band, the Small Company, and the Medium Company all come in fairly close with their estimates. The Big Dog’s price will often be a multiple of the others.
Larger corporations will pay this for several reasons—they feel more confident that the company will deliver a high quality corporate video (which makes them look good to their bosses), and the Big Dog can wine and dine them more, treating them a little more “Hollywood.” It’s the comfort level that the client ends up paying for.
Conclusion
Now there are exceptions up and down this list. You might find a small company that consistently delivers Big Dog quality (and maybe they even charge Big Dog prices). Or maybe a Big Dog will low ball an estimate for some reason. So it’s important that you do your research when picking a corporate video production company in Dallas. Comparing apples to apples is a difficult process in the video industry for the director of marketing, or the head of corporate training.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Where does SFilms fit in this chart? Call us and we’ll tell you. 😉
