Finding the perfect post-production partner for your brand might not seem like it’s all that complicated, but it is. Or at least, it becomes complicated when you’re already in the midst of a relationship and realize that there was much more to consider before diving in. Your chosen studio will become the keeper of your brand’s visual identity – for better or worse – and many professionals fail to recognize this importance from the get-go.
This is because after many professionals connect with their first post-production studio, they realize that they don’t know what they’re looking for. In other words, it’s only after the fact – good or bad – that we learn what’s needed for a successful collaborative process. But you don’t have to learn from mistakes; you can learn from other people’s experiences instead.
What Does Post-Production Include?
Before assessing potential partners, it’s good to recognize what you’re actually paying for. When many people think “post-production,” they think of “editing.” This is both correct and wrong. Editing is a huge part of post-production – cutting, arranging, scene placement, pacing, etc. – but professional post-production also includes sound design, music composition, motion graphics, visual effects and often music creation or licensing.
But here’s the thing: few studios do all of this in-house. It’s not wrong if they rely on others for certain parts of the process. For example, a Singapore post-production studio may work with a specific sound design company that’s down the street and a powerful color grading and visual effects in-house but utilizes external sound designers to achieve a comprehensive sound experience. Again, it’s neither wrong nor right, but you need to know who’s touching your content along the way and how that impacts timing and homogeneity.
Furthermore, the question of scope matters on your end. A straightforward corporate video differs from a social media campaign which differs from a product launch versus an ongoing content series. Each type has its purpose and will require different levels of complexity, which gives you discernible difference when it’s time to ask certain questions and glean information.
What’s on Their Portfolio Reel?
Every post-production studio will show you their best work. That’s expected. But that does not mean that you should fall into a trap of avoiding deeper evaluation. Look for distinctions within their portfolio: can they handle different styles/tone/personality, etc. or does everything come off feeling the same?
There’s a difference between technical execution and storytelling and if storytelling and communication are important for your brand (which it should be), then good post-production fosters coherency to narratives. It makes things clearer, more persuasive; it doesn’t just make things pretty.
Give them credit for technical merit but also watch out for presentations that lack the spirit of insightfulness and articulation. Red flags abound there.
Also, when inquiring about their portfolio, ask for things they’ve done previously in line with what you’re looking for. If you’re attempting to communicate B2B content but they’ve made beautiful videos for a fashion brand, while it’s good to know that their quality is pristine in rendering, it may not be relevant if they didn’t connect with the subject matter at hand.
Check for Employee Loyalty
Also worth knowing are client loyalty marks among studios. If they have had returning clients multiple times over, their team must be doing something beyond tasking and timely rendered files to suggest that they’re valuable in the long run.
The Communication Aspect Often Overlooked
We can’t forget about basic communication skills here as technical abilities highly matter – but so does the working relationship. You’re going to need to explain your vision, give critical feedback, and possibly even shift directions mid-project if necessary.
If initial conversations feel awkward or confusing or like there’s no way they’ll ever read between your lines, they probably won’t once you’re up against a deadline, and vice versa.
Where are the red flags? Lack of specific answers to specific inquiries; avoidance; unwillingness to share their process: these all paint an undesirable picture.
Where are the green lights? Getting suggestions not yet considered; asking intelligent inquiries about your positioning; sharing what has and has not worked in the past – all positive signs.
Learn how many rounds of revisions are involved in this process. What if they need more additional information? If you’re paying them for work as well, at what cost should it be evaluated and are the standards set for timeliness mandatory?
Technical Knowledge
You don’t need to be an amateur video production expert to understand whether a studio has sound technical standards. However, you should at least know what questions to ask to determine whether they know what they’re talking about. Find out software: what do they use; how does this translate to industry-standardization?
The better and more trusted software they use (Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects) shows they’re striving to keep up with standards within the industry.
But it’s also important to know their color grading capabilities, factoring into proper correction/grading of different footage rendered by different cameras on-site, and whether or not the color grading is improving mood/corporate sensibilities of brand colors across multiple screens.
These little things are important, and if color grading doesn’t hold its weight among bigger decisions (that require time too), then that’s a red flag.
Then there’s sound: studios cut corners when it comes to bad audio that ruins otherwise good footage. A professional studio should have appropriate sound editing rooms. Sound editors will be masters at mixing with levels, and if they’re not, it’ll compromise delivery at certain platforms.
Post-Production Time Line
You want your products yesterday, everyone does. But fair time frames diminish quality control systems; therefore, be skeptical if someone tells you it’s possible within two days unless there’s reasonable evidence to suggest otherwise (are they machine-like with compiling projects? Do they have limited caseloads?).
Also get an understanding of their workflow from inception to completion? Where do holdups commonly occur in their process? What will make me stand out?
This translates into their project management systems: how do they collaborate with clients? Is there any barrier that’s unnecessary taking place? Modern technology helps streamline situations faster than reading chains and vague emails ever could.
Pricing Fairness
Pricing varies and recognizing why pricing is contingent upon certain numbers can help weigh prospective quotes. Some studios charge an hourly rate; some charge project-based numbers; others have service packages designed. Some also overcharge, caveat emptor ,and some are so cheap that they’ll hire junior-level staff.
Be cautious of both extremes, just because something is good doesn’t mean it’s not without hidden costs, and just because something sounds low might mean it isn’t worth it after all due to final renderings.
What needs to happen is a need for fairness, not necessarily transparency, but value based upon what’s provided. Get breakdowns during each step along the way; if someone says “editing: $XX” but won’t explain what’s included in rendering beyond that, even if you’ve used them before, dig deeper.
Final Thoughts
Once you’ve evaluated your research-based options, spoken with studios themselves and gotten proposals of what’s next step by step, go with your gut, it’s not only about data.
If any particular studio feels like your brand’s baby, who asked all the right questions for something new to you all – and where you’ve felt most comfortable in professionalism arenas, this could be the one.
You may want to start small with something before diving into your next big campaign as it not only allows both sides to gauge potential working effectiveness without playing too many stakes, but also helps lower risk on what’s most vulnerable out there otherwise.
Over time, the right partner will mean that much more as they’ll have learned your sensibilities and your audience’s strengths over time, resulting in improved quality control measures guaranteed with less handholding each time you’ve partnered with them previously without losing context in translation from studio-to-studio grasping new accessibility each time with every note lost along the way.
Use this opportunity now, find partners that make sense for the long run instead of regrettably relearning somewhere down the line and risking it before recreating the wheel from scratch once more without collaborative access immediately provided.
