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The simple answer is that Video Production Companies produce professional video assets. Professional video production companies, like our production company in Alpharetta use professional audio and video recording devices, hardware, and software to capture and record sound and images. Back in the days of old Hollywood, video production was referred to as, motion pictures.
Video Production companies have three major levels of Production.
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Pre-Production
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Physical Production or Principal Photography
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Post Production
If you would like to know more about what happens during these stages of production, check out the following articles:
What happens during Pre-Production
What happens during Principal Photography
What happens during Post-Production
There are all sorts of video productions. Typically, video production companies focus on niches within the production community. These niches include but are not limited to:
Commercial Video Production
Commercial Videos are advertisements/messages from brands to consumers attempting to capture attention, just in case you may want to purchase their product or service. Most production companies will have a Commercial Video Production division. For additional insight to what commercial video production companies do and how they operate, click here. One of the most asked questions in the Video Production industry is How Much to Video productions cost. For that answer, make sure to read this article which discusses just how much video productions cost. The truth is, it varies greatly. Some of the factors are experience, client list, hardware/software used, length of the video asset and post-production needs.
Music Video Production
As if you didn’t already know this, Music Videos are videos produced as visual content for your favorite musician’s songs. Music videos and music video production has a very different energy and feel than commercials and commercial video production. Music videos tend to have moody lighting, use gels and typically are edited to maximize the viewer’s connection to a music track and what the artist is doing.
As you can imagine the look and feel of a video for Migos will be quite different than a commercial for Coke.
Music videos tend to be heavy on Pre-Production and Principal Photography. These video assets are typically not as heavy on post-production unless it’s for a major artist because of the high costs of VFX.
Branded Content Production
Branded Content can be a little tricky. Similar to commercial video production, branded content are messages from a brand to a consumer. However, Branded content typically uses a two, sometimes three notable brands to help each other make a bigger impact with consumers. As an example, Mercedes might use Luke Skywalker as their on-camera talent and the Mercedes turns into the Millenium Falcon and takes off to a galaxy far far away. Only Real Star Wars fans will get the reference. Branded content uses third party brands to increase the marketing value of a video asset and make an immediate impact by leveraging the popularity of another brand.
Unscripted Content Production
Reality TV stars from “The Hills” on the red carpet
Unscripted Production companies focus on producing your favorite reality shows. There are a number of great reality tv production companies out there. One we work with a lot is Intuitive Entertainment out of Los Angeles which is the first company E! partnered us with for our first unscripted development deal. When creating reality television content, casting is the most important thing. The truth is, Casting is the secret to every successful video Production. For reality, in particular, it is the most important. If you would like to produce the best reality TV show possible, cast great on-camera talent.
Scripted Production – Television & Film
Scripted production companies usually come in two types. Television and Film. You know the difference so we won’t get into those details. In Hollywood, production companies stay in their lane. Film production companies usually produce films and television production companies usually focus on television production. They “specialize” much like a neurosurgeon does not deliver babies.
For more information on differences in television and film production, check out our Showbusiness 101 series:
Show Business 101: Scripted TV
Show Business 101: Feature Films
Show Business 101: Reality TV
Smaller Video Production Companies often will specialize in many of these niches. The biggest and best, however, typically specialize in one, maybe two sectors and then dominate without spreading themselves too thin.
How do Video Production Companies Work?
As you can tell, there are many different types of Video Production Companies and they tend to work differently. Producers, Executive Producers, Writers, and Directors lead production companies. These creative executives tend to solicit and aggregate work for his or her company. Below explains how different types of production companies work.
Feature Film Video Production Companies
Producers at the head of Feature Film Video Production Companies work with Film Studios like Lion’s Gate, Paramount, etc to produce the movies you watch on television or digital platform. Development executives from the studio and production company work with writers and directors to develop the story then bring it to screen. Within the production company are a number of creatives and operations employees that work to bring a movie to the big screen. Some of those jobs include:
Production Manager – Oversees day to day operations of the entire production
Assistant Director – Helps the Director keep track of what is going on throughout the production
Assistant Camera – Helps the Camera Operator and DP with lens changes and suggestions for lens and lighting
Camera Operator – Individual operating the cameras on set
Drone Pilot – Fly Drones which carry cameras
Drone Camera Operator – Operates the camera carried by the drones
Director of Photography – Blocks off shots and styles lighting
Foley – Creates sound you hear. A glass-shattering, gun cocking, etc.
Key Hair – Leader of the Hair Department
Key Makeup – Leader of the Makeup Department
Key Wardrobe – Leader of the Wardrobe Department
Set Designer – Designs what the camera captures on set either by building the set or moving things in and out of a room
Sound Mixer – Records and mixes sound on a production.
There are many other jobs on set, bet these are the main ones. For a more detailed report on How Video Production Companies Work, click the link.
Commercial Production Companies
Commercial Production Companies utilize many of the same crew as Feature Film Production Companies, described above. The difference is the type of work they specialize in. Commercial Production Companies work with writers and directors that specialize in shorter form content. Writers and Directors that work on 30 seconds to 1-minute content think differently than writers and directors that work on longer-form content.
Think about it like this. Not all runners are built for the 100M. Some train for it, others train for the mile. Think about writers like this as well. At the end of the day, a professional runner that trains for the mile will still be faster than the average fast human, professionals that specialize in commercials work on commercials day in and day out. They think within a 30-second time span, a 30-second window to tell a story, whereas writers of feature films tell stories over 75 – 120 minutes.
How do Video Production Companies Make Money
HA! Now there is a loaded question. “However you can” is one way to look at it. At the end of the day, you start where you start. Start shooting videos for whoever asks you for one. Start a page on social media, showcase your work. If someone likes your work, they will reach out and hire you. Get to know your local businesses/entrepreneurs, 82% of internet traffic will be video within the next two years. Everyone needs video. Truth be told, this is a massive question. One we need to tackle in a different article. For a more detailed look at How Video Production Companies Make Money, click the link.
If you are reading this, you are well on your way to starting a video production company of your own.
It’s a long road, but one filled with Joy and maybe a little bit of pain. Sometimes it’s only Joy, other times, it’s only pain. But at the end of the day, doing what you love is never work and when you wake in the morning – you wake ready to conquer everything. Keep working, keep building, stay creative and before you know it, you will have the best production company around.
