Almost every production company advertises the same list: photography, filming, drone, editing, streaming. So how do you choose between proposals that all say the same thing?
The answer is not in the equipment. It is in seven questions almost nobody asks.
1. Who will actually be in the field?
Many proposals are signed by one person and executed by another. Ask who directs, who shoots, who edits, and whether they are the same people behind the portfolio. In institutional production, the sensitivity of whoever holds the camera matters more than the camera model.
2. Have you worked in my sector?
Filming an energy conference and filming a rural community demand different things: language, pace, protocol, permissions. A company that has never filmed the beneficiaries of a social project will be learning on your budget.
3. How do you handle consent and data protection?
A vague answer is a red flag. An organization working with minors or vulnerable populations cannot risk footage collected without documented authorization. Ask how consent is collected and how it is handed over at the end.
4. How many review rounds are included?
"Unlimited revisions" sounds generous and usually is the opposite: with no defined limit, there is no reliable schedule. A serious proposal states how many rounds exist, who approves, and within what deadlines.
5. What happens to the raw footage?
A shoot generates hundreds of gigabytes that the organization paid for. Is it archived? For how long? Can it be reused in a campaign two years from now? The answer to this question can be worth more than the film itself.
6. Is the budget broken down by line item?
A single figure makes it impossible to compare proposals or justify the choice internally. Pre-production, production, post-production, travel and deliverables should appear separately.
7. What exactly do I receive at the end?
High-resolution master, social versions, subtitles, stills, archive. If the proposal only mentions "a video", the organization will likely end up requesting extras that were never budgeted, and paying for them.
The clearest signal of all
The best production company for your project is the one that, in the first meeting, asks more questions than it presents. If that first conversation is about your communication objective and not about their service catalogue, you are in the right place.
Renegade Films & Design works with NGOs, international organizations, companies and public institutions in Mozambique. Request a proposal and we start from your question, not our catalogue.