HOW CAN I DISTINGUISH THE BEST VIDEO COMPANIES?

Let me start by telling you where not to start. Today just about everyone claims to be an "award winning" company, but you have to consider that anyone can make this claim and there are many competitions and festivals that hand out awards like candy. As with any recognition, some honors are most prestigous than others. If you are going to be impressed by this ubiquitous claim, find out what awards a company has won, what merit the award carries, and the projects and years for which they received the recognition. The latter is usually very easy to verify. Then you can assess their value.

Web sites are the most common source of information about a company, but the content can be misleading. You can essentially claim anything you want and images are easily acquired from stock photo libraries. Try to be analytical and look for credible evidence that legitimizes their claims. A great place to start is to ask to see examples of their work if they don't feature them on their web site.

Knowing how long a company has been in business and visiting their office will also help to assess their qualifications.

If you have a project that requires a creative solution, ask several companies for creative proposals. Some companies will do this free of cost. This will at least allow you to evaluate their creative abilities, though it will not determine their ability to produce it. There again, seeing some of their finished work will help you determine that. See "What is the best method for putting a project out for bid" on this blog for advice on doing this.

All in all, it takes a little bit of investigation and analytical thinking to determine what company is best for you.

Jeff Gewert

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