Managing a Video Production Company

Tom Vaughan-Mountford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000408591
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Film et vidéo

Providing a detailed break-down of the skills required to establish and grow a profitable production company, this book enables content creators and filmmakers to navigate the commercial video production world and the needs of its clients.

Drawing on professional experience in the industry as well historical examples, author Tom Vaughan-Mountford illustrates the ways in which producers can avoid common pitfalls and better manage their business, projects, and clients. Making the corporate world accessible for filmmakers, this book covers all aspects of the video production process, equipping creatives with the tools—and the mindset—to offer their skills to paying clients in a reliable, repeatable, and above all profitable manner.

This book is ideal for filmmakers and content creators looking to establish a successful video production business, and features an online resource pack with example production paperwork including a call sheet, and example script re-writes.

1 Why are you doing this?

I reckon—gun to our head—many of us would admit we would truly love to be producing blockbuster movies, chart-topping music promos, star-studded television campaigns, or the next feverishly anticipated Netflix season, all with eye-watering budgets.

But think of the downside. We would have to give up quiet evenings at home to go quaff champagne with the stars at red carpet premieres and awards ceremonies. What an awful drudgery!

That said, the commercial video production sector continues its unstoppable growth and is no less of a career choice than Hollywood, or entertainment production anywhere else in the world. Filmmakers pursuing corporate clients must become comfortable with the commercial sensibilities required to walk the tightrope between pursuing their art and meeting the needs of their clients. Marilyn Heywood Paige is the Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the University of Denver, and Chief Marketing Officer of full-service agency Paige Black,

Every creative person has to manage the friction between creativity and commerce. If you want to be free to make whatever art you want, get a day job, and create what you want on your own time. There are so many distribution channels now; you are no longer limited by being unable to get your creative work seen. The opportunity and possibilities are fantastic, unheard of 25 years ago. But, if you want to make money and have a career as an artist, you will have to compete against other artists—and there are thousands of videographers and filmmakers out there—you will have to bend your vision to the needs of the person paying you to make art. It isn’t fair. I get it. Creativity should be unbridled, but when you want someone to pay for that art, their needs then become relevant. And there’s the rub.

While writing this book I talked with founders of production companies around the globe. I wanted to gain a broader perspective on what makes today’s commercial production business tick. Video is everywhere, and the quality spans the gamut from visually stunning and highly emotive, to painfully unwatchable. One thing is clear: Businesses have no qualms about allocating funds for video production. Video is the solution to a great many marketing and communications problems. Indeed, it is the medium that many consumers expect businesses to use. How much money those businesses might be willing to spend, and how much profit the producers of the videos will bank seems to lack any measurable benchmark; it is all open for discussion.

The video production sector is a highly competitive arena to play in because the barriers to entry have been all but removed. The upside of this is that there are countless directionless producers who have “all the gear and no idea,” i.e. many of your “competitors” are not really playing in the space you intend to dominate. They might just be satisfying pangs of creativity while playing at business. Marilyn Heywood Paige points out,

If you launch your own production company, you have to know more than just video production. You have to be able to sell and have a sales process. You have to be able to manage projects and people. There is a huge difference between running a company and being a creative.

So, if you are serious about doing business, you will be able to find a niche for yourself. Our business has a track-record of working for clients in retail, manufacturing, utilities, and healthcare; so, our team consists of as many planners and fixers as creatives. Our niche is the reassurance of rock-solid production logistics. To quote a regular client—speaking of another production company—“Sure, their work is very cool and a bit different, but we just couldn’t trust them with jobs of the scale you work on.” Perhaps your niche will be having a multilingual team, the qualifications to work in hazardous environments, or an understanding of a specialist industry that a competitor might not be able to get their head around. You should be capable of delivering great work for any client that comes through the door, but be able to excel in an area where few of your fellow producers will be able to follow.

The daily reality of running a production company is that nine out of ten potential jobs that come through the door will be relatively mundane, and many will be non-starters—never progressing beyond a speculative brief. I have worked on several high-budget videos featuring well-known celebrities, but those types of “prestige” projects form a very small fraction of the work that keeps the balance sheet healthy. It is good to aspire to create better work, and to chase more prestigious and wealthier clients. But temper this goal with some realism. Even when you become an established producer, most of your projects will not be destined for your showreel. Yet, those clients will want to feel they matter as much as those with larger budgets and loftier production concepts. Never give any client the impression that one of your other clients matters more.

Every glamorous project has been countered by dozens of productions about subjects such as sewage processing plants, biogas facilities, plastics extrusion lines, and beer-barrel washing systems. During the 1990s we worked with a paint roller manufacturer to film a guy in a lab coat rolling white emulsion onto a wall. Quite literally, watching paint dry!

On occasion you might find yourself working with clients whose line of work makes you feel uncomfortable. We have worked inside secure mental health institutions and operating theatres, and for several years we held a military arms manufacturer as a frequent client. Yes, even military hardware can benefit from a marketing video to demonstrate its “optimum kill probability.”

The single point you should take away from this: There’s rarely an ideal client in a creative sense. Yeah, you should pursue the dream clients that you’d love to produce work for; but never overlook the fact that—from a business perspective—an ideal client is nothing more than a reliable and genuine business entity that puts money in your bank account within your invoice terms, generates a profit for your business, and then comes back for more. Your dream client is almost certainly elusive and will have many other suitors in pursuit of them. Do not give up the dream; but remember that the strongest and most loyal clients are not necessarily the most exciting, or even the easiest to deal with. Many mundane and indecisive clients will readily pay for the exciting ways you can enhance their public image or the functioning of their business. Take pride in being the reliable expert who always does a great job for them, and keeps the needs of their business top priority, no matter what.

In summary

• Commercial videos are a means to an end. Meeting the objectives set by the project’s brief is the service you will be providing for your client; the artistic process is intrinsically for your own enjoyment.
• Becoming an even better Producer, Cinematographer, or Editor might make you a more desirable freelancer for those specific skills. But, when you run a production company, clients will be commissioning on many other factors besides the quality of your work.
• Keep searching for the cool gigs (they are out there, trust me) but temper your search with realism. Accept that it will not be possible to love every project you work on. Be okay with that. Do a great job anyway.
• You will frequently have to work with clients whose line of business you do not find especially interesting. Find a way to become interested.
• On occasion you will find yourself producing work for clients whose objectives might be at odds with your personal beliefs. This is sometimes the nature of commercial video production.
• If a client settles invoices promptly and returns to work with you again, that makes them a good client, and you a successful business owner. It’s that simple.
• If you ever cause a client to feel they are not your top priority, they will be entirely justified in walking away. Check your ego at the door.
• Find your niche; be it a sector where your skillset enables you to deliver truly outstanding work, or a variety of client you understand better than any other producer. This will be your area of competitive advantage.

2 Getting down to business

Structuring your business

At the outset I must make clear that I have always conducted business within the UK. If you are outside the UK, you should investigate the types of company formation options available to you. As with any business formalities, you should be clear on what the legal and financial ramifications are for you as an individual. However, there are three main ways to form a new business venture:

• Freelance. Sometimes referred to as being a sole-trader or self-employed. The “business” is simply the individual who is doing the work. If the individual ceases to do any work, the business essentially vanishes; the same is true if the freelancer takes a vacation. Crucially, the individual is responsible for any debts their business activities create. There can be many upfront outgoing expenses involved in the production of a video. If a client were to go bust without settling an invoice, any costs incurred by the project are going to come directly out of the freelancer’s own pocket. For that reason alone, freelancing is best suited to specialisms where the individual is selling only their time and knowledge to fulfil a specific role on a production.
• Partnership. At its most simple, a business partnership is a legal agreement drawn up between two or more individuals doing work together (in the USA this is often named a General Partnership). The agreement will set out arrangements for how all partners in the business will work together—and how management responsibilities, ownership, the share of income and other assets will be divided between them. In the UK and USA each of the partners is still considered to be self-employed. Partnership law is complex and—in the USA especially—there are numerous variations of the partnership model. Few production companies are structured as partnerships.
• Limited Company (in the UK) or Limited Liability Company (LLC; in the USA). The formation of a business in this manner creates a “company” which is a legal entity in and of itself. This process is known as “incorporation.” Debts belong to the company, and the company’s owners are shielded from liability for those debts. If a client were to leave an invoice unpaid, the company’s bottom line would take a hit, but the founders would not be expected to reach into their own pockets to make up the loss. A Limited or LLC business can accumulate value (its assets, the money it has in the bank, and the goodwill of loyal clients), and it can be sold as a “going concern.” When a Limited/LLC company employs payroll staff, the founders can sometimes take a vacation and the business will keep trading! But perhaps the coolest thing about incorporating a company is that you can give it a name, and no one else will be able to incorporate a business with that same name. Before deciding on a name for your company, you should check (if you’re in the UK) on the Companies House website to make sure the name is available. Establishing a Limited company can elevate how clients perceive your business. Businesses that are seen to be properly structured can command sensible prices for their expertise. Countless business books can explain the legal requirements of running a Limited company, although they are not too arduous. In the UK, a Limited company may be liable for Corporation Tax and VAT (you can find a full guide to VAT here, https://www.gov.uk/vat-businesses), and your accountant will be able to advise you on the formalities. At the simplest level, a Limited company is a vehicle you can promote as a brand independent of yourself.

To work as a freelancer, you need do little more than to register as self-employed and take care of bookkeeping, personal tax, and (in the UK) National Insurance arrangements. Freelancing is a working arrangement that suits many video production professionals, though most freelancers tend to specialise in a single skill, offering their services as a Director, Cinematographer, Sound Recordist, etc. I shall assume you will—at first—be filling several roles: Offering yourself to clients as a total production service, and tackling everything from creative concepts, scripts, production logistics, filming, and post-production.

Some may disagree with me, but “freelance” can imply relationships that last only the duration of the project in hand. If you’re going into business with someone else, subcontracting parts of the work to others, or even hiring your own team, you’ll need to break up with the notion that you’re simply a freelancer with a packed diary. When you work as a freelance hired hand you will only be building your own personal brand. To extend your reputation and ethos to others under your direction you will also need to be building the reputation of your business. It is a mindset change. In the enthusiasm of getting started many people get caught in the trap of brainstorming business names; buying domains; getting a logo designed; creating a website; setting up their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and all manner of other social media. Sure, these can all be valid tasks to act on when developing your business, but they do not in and of themselves create a business. We’ve all seen start-ups appear on our radar with a fancy website, an email blast to anyone who might listen, lots of activity on social media; yet we hear nothing on the grapevine about where this new business might be getting work from, or who their clients might be. Before long, the new kid on the block ceases to post updates, appearing to have gone out of business without even completing a single paying project. Getting caught up in tactics rather than executing on a strategy merely creates the public image of a business, with no real substance behind the façade.

As you’re hoping to build a livelihood for yourself—and, perhaps others—by providing your expertise all the way from initial brief through to delivery of a final production, the nature of your role will need to be that of a business owner rather than a freelance creative. It is worth noting that larger clients—while they may bring in expert freelance consultants for certain projects—often prefer to award work to incorporated businesses (those with “Limited” at the end of their company name, or “LLC” in the USA) as this can give them greater legal recourse if anything were to go wrong. Publicly owned companies will sometimes stipulate a requirement for copies of suppliers’ official reporting and ownership structure as a prerequisite for larger projects. Setting up as a bonafide registered company from the get-go lets you hit the ground running when you do eventually need to expand and bring other people into your business.

Employers’ Liability Insurance

It is essential to have the correct types of insurance in place to protect yourself should an accident occur. Starting a new business is exciting. It is natural to concentrate on the fun stuff. But mistakes and dispu...