Five [5] Steps to Hiring a Video Production Crew Worldwide
Production Craft is a video production company based in Chicago, but we create videos for audiences around the world. Although we would love to travel personally to each shoot, it’s not practical or necessary for many jobs. So we often look for video production crews to assist us in locations far from our home base.
“My first question is always “what kind of shoot are we doing?” No matter where we shoot, we want to make sure the crew we bring in is the best one for the job and that starts with knowing what the job is before we even start thinking about where we are filming it.”
- Alexis Crutchfield, Associate Producer
We’ve streamlined our approach to hiring crews around the globe. From experience to creativity, we’ve listed out the 5 things that are most important to us when hiring a video production crew.
“Reel” Experience
A reel showing the videos Production Craft has filmed worldwide. Some projects we work with local crews and produce remotely. Others we travel to the location with a small crew and work with our local contacts in the area to fill out other roles. Learn more about our resources and how they can help you on your next project.
If we’re shooting an interview, we look for a video crew that has experience filming interviews for a corporate video with samples that show great composition and lighting. For commercial video production, we might look for something more stylized. Or if it’s drone shots, we look for an experienced and licensed drone operator who has great samples and understands the FAA operating requirements.
We look for experience relative to the content we are shooting– similar style, business, or clients. And if we can’t find a video crew that matches all the requirements but we like what we see, we will reach out to discuss the project.
Proximity to Location
We look for camera crews that are local to the production site to minimize travel costs. Depending on the needs of the project, this might be a video production house that can provide a complete creative and technical team with equipment, or individual crew members like a DP and Audio Technician.
Technical Standards
Our Chicago video production team primarily uses cinema cameras and we ask out-of-town crews to do the same. We verify the quality of all video equipment and provide detailed notes on camera settings, audio, and lighting requirements, to ensure they meet our high technical standards. We also ask our crews to scout in advance to determine best shooting locations.
Creativity
A Production Craft team member participates during production via Zoom (regardless of the time of day or night!) to provide the crew with technical details and supervise the video’s overall look and mood But we rely on our crews’ expertise and creative input. They are our boots on the ground and need to make on-site decisions based on the location and talent.
Easy to Work With
Clients like us because our Chicago video crews aren’t just great at what they do – they’re also good to be around. When working outside of Chicago, we look for people that will be respectful to our clients and available to answer all the many questions that come up before production starts. If a crew has a great attitude, odds are they will do whatever it takes to do an excellent job.
Production Craft, Inc. is a video production company based in Chicago, serving markets worldwide.
We are proud to be a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) certified by the State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC).
