Video Production Services for the United Kingdom

There are many companies in the UK offering video production services for business and corporate use. These are dotted all over the country from London and the home counties through to the West Midlands, Birmingham, Warwickshire and Worcestershire up to Manchester and Liverpool. Many of these video production companies provide a wide range of video production services such as the creation of health and safety, staff induction, corporate, training, promotional, exhibition and website videos.

The latter service i.e. the website video is one of the high growth areas as many companies are seeing the advantages of having a video playing on their website. This could be promoting their latest product or service or maybe a talk from the CEO. Whatever the subject matter the web allows companies to broadcast their message to a very large audience which has significant advantages to just producing a few DVDs and have them handed out!

The format of videos used on company websites does vary however the most popular is using flash video which provides a high quality image in a small file size which means that the video will play well without the need for any special equipment or hosting service.

Although there are a large choice of video companies not all have the expertise to convert the finished movies to website format - it’s worth checking out a video companies credentials before you commission any video for your company or organisation.

So if your company is considering having a promotional, corporate or training video produced there is a lot of choice out there - just remember to check out their past videos first so that you can be sure you’ve made the right choice.

Corporate Video Production Company

When you want a professional corporate video producing it’s usually advisable to hire the services of a video production company. They will have the necessary experience in producing videos for a wide variety of markets and for almost any business and your video can be used in any number of formats including DVD. With the advent of high speed connections many companies are also using their videos on the internet.

However, choosing a suitable video production company to produce a corporate video can be confusing especially if this is your first time at having a video produced. One of the obvious things to look for is a proven track record where the video production company can provide suitable examples of their previous work. In addition you may like to get a reference from a previous client, especially one who has a programme produced that is similar to yours.

Many video production companies in London are quite small outfits however there are also a number of well established larger video production companies who have got a lengthy track record and extensive experience in producing advertising videos for a variety of enterprises. Another thing to look out for is to see if they are using all in house staff or just contracting the services of freelance cameramen, editors and graphics’ people. Although this is not bad it can increase the cost compared with video production companies who have all in house facilities.

Once you’ve established your chosen company’s experience then it’s time to start the production process. This usually starts with a brief from you the client – the brief should be concise and objective and include any initial thoughts, creative ideas, target audience and of course budget. This will help the film company decide on the best production method to produce the end video. This can include deciding on the number of locations to shoot, how much graphical content there will be and other items such as deciding on any required actors. Once this is locked down you should then get a full itemised estimate so you can see all elements of the production. If you’re happy with this the video film company should then produce a storyboard and script so you can visualise the look of the video as well as approve any voice over or acted sequences.

Most video production companies will ask for a stage payment when starting and this is quite normal – however, I would be wary of anyone asking for more than half the production costs upfront.

From here the video production process will start and this will usually begin with the locations being found and checked for suitability - this is called a recce.

Once the locations are finalised the shooting can start – this process can take literally hours to days depending on the complexity of the script, however the average induction video should take from one to three days to film for a 5 minute video.

After filming comes the editing and then the graphics before the music and then sound effects to finish the process. Although this sequence may alter you’ll usually find that most of these components are included in most videos. Finally the video can then be output on the requested format.