How Does a Production Company Work With Our Agency?
The agency owns the client relationship, the messaging and the money conversation. The production company works out how to put that message on video, and supplies the crew, the shoot, the edit and, when asked, the concepts. Bring the production partner in at briefing stage for a short ideas session, or hand over a finished brief. Working under the agency's name or its own is the agency's call. Before anyone books a shoot, agree who writes the script, who talks price with the client and who handles problems on the day.
Key Facts
- An agency can bring us in for a 20-minute ideas session at briefing stage, or hand over a finished brief.
- Under an agency's name, our crew wears plain show blacks with no logos and uses the email accounts the agency issues.
- Before a shoot we ask for three named contacts: one for problems on the day, one for new requests and an IT backstop.
- We'll start on an agency's verbal go-ahead once it confirms the budget is there.
Who Does What When an Agency Brings in a Production Company?
The agency knows the client and what they need to say. The production company knows how to say it on video. Most of the detail follows from that split.
| Area | The agency | The production company |
|---|---|---|
| Client relationship | Owns it, and decides whether we're introduced by name or work under its banner | Stays behind the agency, or is introduced and handed straight to the client if the agency prefers |
| Messaging | Knows the client's business and what has to be said | Works out how to say it in video |
| Concepts | Brings the idea, or asks for options | Offers options at briefing stage, or works to the agency's concept |
| Script | Writes it when it knows the message | Writes it from scratch, works to the agency's script, or develops it with the agency |
| Money | Owns the quote to the client and every price conversation with them | Prices the production to the agency and holds that price unless the job changes |
| Shoot and edit | Reviews each cut before the client sees it | Crews the shoot, edits and delivers |
We see ourselves as an extension of teams. We're not looking to come in and own everything.
When Should an Agency Bring in a Production Partner?
As early as the briefing stage, if you can. Twenty minutes on the client's problem is enough for us to throw in some ideas, so you go back to the client with options.
A finished brief works too. Agencies often brief more clearly than direct clients, which means we can move quickly. Agencies also call us for shoot-only crew, and to take over a job when a previous supplier has missed the brief.
Should the Agency or the Production Company Write the Script?
Whoever knows the message best. If you work with the client day in, day out and know what they need to say, write it, and we'll shoot and cut to it. If it's a kind of video you haven't made before, we'll offer more guidance, or write it from scratch.
Plenty of scripts end up as a mix. Where we add most is suggesting how to make a script more efficient to shoot, or how to stretch it into more deliverables.
How Do You Pitch a Video Idea to an End Client on a Small Budget?
With a one-page approach and a few references. On a small budget, a full treatment is more than the job can carry. A single page that shows the set, the kind of talent and the shot types, with a reference for each, lets you put two clear options in front of the client.
Ask your production partner what it can give you before the pitch. An about-us document with relevant work, especially jobs you've done together, carries more weight in a pitch room than reputation alone. Having a go-to partner also saves a lot of back and forth at this stage.
Who Handles the Money Conversation With the Client?
The agency. The client meeting isn't the place for it, and if you ask us to keep pricing out of one, we will.
We answer your pricing questions directly, by close of business when you need it, and hold the price if the scope doesn't change. If you'd prefer, we can also invoice the end client directly, so the agency carries no cash-flow risk. How a production quote is built is in what goes into a video production quote, and what happens to the price when the scope moves is in why a video quote goes up.
Can an Agency and a Production Company Share One Master Agreement?
Yes, and once your packages settle it's often the simplest arrangement for everyone. The contractual detail lives in one master agreement, and each job gets a short scope document of its own. The terms are agreed once, and every new job only needs its scope.
Will a Production Company Start on a Verbal Go-Ahead?
We will, when the agency confirms there's no issue and the budget exists. We say plainly that we're starting on a verbal, and ask you to tell us in words that the job is approved.
Starting before the paperwork carries risk, and that risk should sit with whoever holds the client. It comes up most when an agency's own approval chain runs slower than the deadline, such as a quote waiting on an internal sign-off.
How Should a Production Partner Behave on Your Client's Site?
As part of your service. Expect your partner to turn up with:
- Plain show blacks, with no company logos.
- Your email accounts and tools, and no mention of anything the crew can't access.
- Its own connectivity, so it isn't asking your client for help.
- Pack-down counted in the scope.
Any request for new work on site goes back to you, never answered by the crew. The same rules should go down to the partner's own subcontractors, in the same words. After two jobs, a good partner knows exactly where it plugs in.
What Is an Escalation Map, and Why Ask for One?
It's a short list of who to call when something goes wrong or someone asks for more, agreed before the shoot. We ask for one named person for problems on the day, another for new event requests, and an IT contact as a backstop.
With that in hand, nobody on site has to guess. Problems reach the right person fast, and new requests go straight back to the agency.
What Happens When the Agency and the Client Want Different Things?
Someone has to choose before the voiceover is recorded, and that choice sits with the agency and its client. On one script, the agency wanted language that filtered out the wrong buyers, while the client wanted it simplified so it felt effortless. Both were fair, but they pull opposite ways, and the read and pacing of the voiceover depend on which one wins.
When we spot a conflict like that, we put it to the agency in writing and ask for one answer back before anything is recorded. If you want to see every cut before your client does, say so, and we'll allow for that step in the timeline. More on handling feedback from several people is in giving feedback on an edit.