Questions to Ask Before Signing With a Video Agency

Nearly every difficult video project was identifiable as a difficult video project during the first conversation. Not because anyone was dishonest - usually because the questions that would have surfaced the mismatch didn't get asked, by either side.

What follows is questions worth putting to any agency you're considering. In each case the answer matters less than whether they have one.

1. Who will actually be doing the work?

Pitch meetings and production teams are not always the same people. Ask who directs, who edits, who you'll deal with week to week, and whether they're staff or freelance. Freelance is entirely normal and often better, what matters is that the answer is specific rather than vague. Usually we endeavour to have the same creative from pitch and development meetings through to delivery.

2. What part of this brief do you think is wrong?

The most revealing question on the list. An agency that has read the brief properly will have found something, an unclear objective, an audience mismatch, a timeline that doesn't work. One that agrees with everything has either not engaged with it or isn't willing to say so, and both are expensive later.

3. How many rounds of revisions are included, and what counts as a round?

The second half matters more than the first. "Two rounds" means different things depending on whether consolidated feedback from six people counts as one round or six. Getting this defined in writing prevents the most common source of friction in post-production.

4. What happens if we want to change the edit after sign-off?

You're asking how they handle the awkward conversation, not whether it's possible. A clear, unembarrassed answer about additional cost and time suggests a team that has had the conversation before and handles it professionally. Vagueness here tends to resolve into an uncomfortable invoice.

5. Who owns the footage, and what can we do with it?

Rights vary more than people expect. Can you re-edit later? Use the material in other contexts? Does the agency retain usage rights for their own promotion? Is the raw footage handed over or kept? None of these have a single correct answer, but all are worth knowing before rather than after.

6. What's the music licence, and what does it cover?

A frequent and avoidable problem. Music licensed for web use doesn't necessarily cover broadcast or paid advertising, and discovering this when a campaign expands means either re-licensing or re-editing. Ask what the licence permits and how long it lasts.

7. What could go wrong on this project?

Every project has risks - weather, availability, access, approval timelines. An experienced team will name them readily and explain how they're mitigated. "Nothing, it's straightforward" is rarely true and tells you something about either their experience or their candour.

8. What formats and versions are included in delivery?

The single most common source of unexpected additional cost. List every place the content will appear and confirm each version is in scope. Versioning planned upfront is cheap; versioning requested after delivery means reopening a finished project.

9. What would make you turn this project down?

An unusual question and a useful one. An agency with a clear sense of what they're good at and what they aren't is more likely to tell you when something falls outside it.

What the Answers Reveal

Across all questions, the pattern matters more than any individual response.

You're looking for specificity, comfort with difficult subjects, and willingness to disagree. An agency that answers precisely, raises problems unprompted, and pushes back on parts of your brief is demonstrating how they'll behave for the next three months.

Equally worth noticing: what they ask you. A first conversation where the agency does most of the talking is a reasonable predictor of a project where your business context never properly makes it into the work. The questions you get asked about your audience, your commercial situation, and what you're actually trying to change tell you how the thinking will be done.

A Note on Price Comparison

Quotes for the same brief can vary considerably, and the variation usually reflects genuinely different interpretations rather than different margins on identical work.

Before comparing numbers, compare what's inside them: how many shoot days, what crew, how much time in post, which versions, what music licence, how many revision rounds. Two quotes that look far apart are frequently describing two different projects, and the cheaper one is sometimes the more expensive once the gaps are filled in.

The more useful question than "why is this more expensive?" is "what would I be giving up at the lower figure?" Most agencies will answer that honestly if asked directly.

If you're weighing up a project and want a conversation where the difficult parts come up early, get in touch.