What to ask before commissioning production

Send the same brief to three production companies and the quotes will often differ by a factor of three. Everyone involved is quoting honestly.

The gap is almost never margin. It is that a loose brief lets each company make different assumptions, and the quote prices the assumptions rather than the work. The questions below surface those assumptions before they turn into a surprise.

Why the quotes differ

A brief that says “a two-minute brand film” leaves at least six things unspecified: how many shoot days, how large a crew, how much pre-production, how many rounds of revision, who supplies music licensing, and what happens if the day overruns.

Each company fills those gaps with what it considers normal. The cheapest quote is frequently not the cheapest job — it is the one that assumed the least, and the difference reappears later as a variation.

Comparing quotes is therefore mostly a matter of making the assumptions visible.

The questions worth asking

How many shoot days, and what happens if we overrun? The single most common source of an unexpected invoice. Ask what the overtime position is and whether the crew is booked for the whole day or a half.

How many rounds of revision are included, and what counts as one? “Two rounds” means nothing until you know whether one round is a consolidated set of comments or each individual asking for something separately. Agree that a round is one collected response.

Who owns the footage when it is finished? There is a real difference between owning the delivered film and owning the rushes. If you may want to recut the material next year, the second matters a great deal and is far cheaper agreed now.

Is music licensed, and for how long and where? Licences expire and are often territory-limited. A film that has to come down in two years, or cannot be used outside the region, is a problem created at the quote stage.

Who is actually on the day? Some companies quote with a senior director and staff the day with whoever is available. It is a fair question and the answer is usually honest when asked directly.

Have you seen the location? If not, someone is guessing about power, acoustics and space — and those guesses get resolved on the day, at your cost.

What do you need from us, and by when? Good production companies have a clear answer: approvals, access, contributor availability, brand assets. A vague answer usually means the delay will later be attributed to you.

What a strong response looks like

A useful supplier will push back on the brief before quoting. If nobody asks what the film is for, who it is aimed at, or what a good outcome looks like, they are quoting for a deliverable rather than an objective — and the quote will be competitive precisely because it is for less.

Being asked awkward questions early is a positive signal. It is considerably cheaper than discovering the same questions during the edit.

What not to optimise for

The lowest number, without knowing what it assumes. It is not comparable to the others.

The largest crew. More people is not more quality. The right number for the day is what matters, and a good supplier will tell you when you are over-specified.

Camera specification. It is the most marketed and least decisive variable. Sound, light and preparation determine far more, and they rarely appear in a quote at all.

The one question that matters most

Before any of the above:

What do you want someone to do differently after seeing this?

If that has no clear answer, no quote can be accurate, because nobody yet knows what is being bought — nor what would count as it having worked. Answer it first and most of the other questions resolve themselves — including which of the three quotes is genuinely the cheapest.