FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What’s is 4K? And Do I need it?

• 4K is the resolution (or more specifically the pixels in a given resolution) for a video. What’s the difference between a non-4K 27” TV, and 4K 27” TV? Obviously not size, is the amount of pixels, or pixel density. What’s the number one reason we recommend 4K? If you want the ability to crop in post. Most advertising platforms aren’t needing 4K commercials, and due to that, you have the ability to manipulate the footage around within a 2K (1080p) timeline to the exact framing you want. Although we pride ourselves on rarely needing to do that, sometimes you just want to crop something out. The second (and growing) reason for 4K? Optimization. YouTube is specifically optimizing 4K video content as a value add to stay on the platform. They’ve noticed that lower quality videos typically increase bounce rate of a video – Better quality = Better engagement. That’s why we’re proud of the incredibly high production value we provide all of our clients for every project. Whether it’s our cinema grade Arri Alexa MIni (Movies shot on our camera) or the robust Canon C300. We provide varying 4K capable cameras to capture every project beautifully. In short, do you need it? No, but we recommend it.

What’s the difference between a videographer, a shooter, a cinematographer, and a Director of Photography?

• In short, they’re all the same, however it’s a bit like comparing a cook and a chef. They do the same thing, but just at very different levels. Typically a shooter specializes in weddings, a videographer weddings or events, a cinematographer and director of photography (synonyms) work in film, commercial, or TV. Some clients might think they want a “shooter” or a “videographer” or even a “cinematographer” but they actually want a production company. So what’s the difference? In short, professionalism and organization. Production companies manage productions, DP’s manage shots. Can a DP, shooter, or videographer help to organize productions, yes. But inherently they do only one aspect (DP), or a lower aspect of production. We help brands with full campaigns, how to best utilize a budget well, how to work around the legality of talent releases and usage rights, and even recommending based on your goals, if video is even a great option for you! A videographer will take your budget and spend it on a good looking video that might convert your audience. We have more experience on what elements ensure that happen.

What’s the difference between a production company and an agency?

• In short, agencies handle full marketing campaigns and a production company handles the video portion of that campaign. We’re in an interesting time in history where brands are specifically reaching out to production companies like ours to help them to solely craft a creative video strategy for their brand. Not only does that lower the cost overall, it also allows a brand to have an intimate relationship with the final product, making final decisions that they might not often get to make. We’re finding that most of our companies have internal team members with experience in marketing which allows our two teams to jointly work together in a beautiful marriage of knowing the content intimately (our customer) and exceeding in the highest quality production (Triarch Creative). Agencies are great, and many brands need them to handle all aspects of a marketing campaign for the year, but we’ve been honored to work with so many businesses that are deciding to handle individual video campaigns that can happen with a more nimble crew, more frequently, and with many more advertising dollars to be used for different channels to reach their audience.

• What’s the difference between a reputable production company and one that’s not?

  • Here are some questions I’d be asking your potential video partner. All of these we can answer with a resounding YES.

    • “Do you have production insurance? What about workers’ compensation? Just in case anyone gets hurt on set, we want to make sure you’re covering the insurance for your crew and not us (the customer).”

    • “Do you have a contract for us to look at before the project? Do you have milestones built in given any changes in scope?”

    • “Have you been in business at least 5 years? And have some companies you could send our way in the form of references?”

    • “Who will be my main point of contact? Will that change? Can I get their direct contact information?”

    • “We’d like a Shooting Script, Shotlist, and Call Sheets provided ahead of time for our team to look over. Can you provide those?”

    • “Do you have a physical office we can go to? We want to make sure you have reviews, and an established physical business location.”

What responsibilities will the customer (hiring company / you) have? What does a working relationship look like with us?

• We’re a full service production company, which means we handle all aspects of production. You can see all of our services listed here. We will work together to craft the specific strategy and outcomes for each project. After that, we will move forward and handle ALL aspects of production: creative direction, casting, hiring crew, booking locations, image and location releases, crew and client meals, coffee runs, editing workflows, data management, coloring, sound mixing, and editing – Essentially all aspects of the production. The best way our clients can help to ensure our timelines are hit are with thoughtful and expedient responses / approvals of assets or creative decisions. This is the best way to ensure we stay on track of the timeline, and we can work together to find a best day to send you assets for feedback to ensure your schedule and our collective timeline are the least impacted. In short, we do it all, but value a collaborative working environment when it comes to revisions and feedback so we can make it the best it can be.

Is it cheaper to do one (1) video instead of more than one?

• Generally, no. The industry as a whole works on 10 hour days, and the amount of can fit within that 10 hour block involves multiple factors: location changes, light changes, complication of the camera movements, actors needing to know lines. We comfortably fit 2-3 locations into a day. How many final deliverables that can come from that production day depend on the script and complication from the day. Additional editing time is fractional compared to the production cost and most can be added to an existing editing schedule. Check out our “How much does a video cost?” question for more information.

Why can’t you just take a still image from a video?

• In short, you can, but it won’t be crisp and clear. It really comes down the technical differences between video and photos. Stills utilize a very fast shutter, moving once, to capture a frame. Video utilizes anywhere between 24-200 frames per second. Due to the high amount of “stills” needed per second, we capture film at a slower shutter speed than a camera to blend the images together to make them look more natural to your eye. Try this at home, pause a movie during an action scene. You’ll see almost no part of the image is sharp, that’s to keep it looking smooth and cohesive. Typically stills (photo) cameras also have higher resolution sensors (full frame), whilst film or cinema cameras use only a portion of the sensor to keep a similar aspect ratio that TV’s and Movie theaters employ (widescreen / 16:9).

How much does a video cost? and why are we getting wildly different prices from different companies?

• There are two main reasons for the different of costs: experience level, and approach. I’ll dive into each of these aspects in deeper detail below, but a common example I use when we’re on an exploratory call is “Creative work is very similar to a building contractor. Imagine you asked him to remodel your home. What’s his first question to you? Typically it’s “what’s your budget?” Can you imagine if you said, “Well, what’s the cheapest we can do this for?” His response will be to laugh, and say, “well it depends on the timeline, the materials, and how good you want the final product to be.” This is similar to creative work. We can hire more people to ensure every aspect is looked over, we can get it done in a week, and we can film with the best equipment, crew, and talent. Or not…..

• Experience Level. For good or bad, you don’t need a degree to work in film, you don’t need a certificate, recommendations, case studies, or testimonials: it just helps. Some companies have 200+ employees and a $80,000 lease. Some are smaller who hire contractors for each project. There is general pricing, but the range is WIDE. On top of that, a company adds a profit margin (typically 20-30% on top of the project) in order to cover the yearly cost of running a business. And when you have an agency on top of that, it’s pretty easy for any project to reach $300k-$500k. Just like anything, there are those at the top of the market, and those at the bottom of the market, and there are clients for each of those. We like to stay in the middle, opting to work with clients that value medium sized crews (15-40) and budget levels between ($50k - $300K). collaboration, and 2-3 day productions. The main things to look for is that the company has a proven track record with a wide range of businesses, is incredibly responsive and collaborative, and understands your vision for the project. We often say, we aim to provide 10x value from your budget. So if you don’t know where to start, estimate your monetary goals for the campaign and divide it by 10. That’s a safe budget to start the conversation.

• Approach. How long does a :30 commercial take to film? 1 day, 2 days, a week? It all depends on how quickly you move from each scene, how big your crew is, and how great you want the final product to be. We’ve done all three of those timelines, and the differences are really just how much detail you need to pack into each commercial, how much moving around the crew is doing, and how high quality are you aiming for? Some projects can be filmed in one day. For instance, Zing Credit Union was a one day production, but because the client wanted to upgrade the quality, we opted for a pre-light day so we didn’t go into overtime (10+ hours) on the day. However, Wiley Edge, took more than one day. We had multiple locations, set ups, even different cities. Are the quality levels vastly different? No, but the approaches to get what the client desired were. We couldn’t have filmed Wiley in one day, and we could have easily filmed Zing in more than one. But it’s a risk reward of the budget vs. quality that we’re trying to thread the needle between.

• Unsure of where to start? Fill out our custom quote form below to give us a budget range of your lowest number and your highest and we’ll provide three creative brief options within those to help you know exactly what the options you have are. Additionally, every commercial we create comes with a shooting script to outline exactly what you’ll be receiving before we walk on set. Feel free to reach out with any questions regarding budget, timeline, and ways we can help you expertly connect with your customers.

What do you mean by variants?

• Anything on top of your initial ask. “We need a :30 commercial for Broadcast.” Anything on top of that is a variant that we will work with you on how to craft to get the most out of the budget you hand us. Sometimes it’s using the EXACT footage for the :30 and cutting it down. Other times it’s filming just an hour for that unique piece of content that doubles you deliverables at the end of production, helping you to diversify your marketing efforts to see which piece of content connects best with your customers.

What do you mean by social cuts?

• Social cuts are any piece of content that is created solely for social. That could be Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Posts, Threads, LinkedIn Videos, Facebook Videos, anything like that. They all have small but powerful differences in ways they’re formatted to reach the best audience, and we know how to export them for the most leverage on those channels.

What does it mean when they say they need it in “broadcast quality”

• In short, it means a specific set of video specifications, typically lower quality than a normal iPhone can film, in order to send it quickly across cable or satellites. More specifically, it’s typically 720p files (Yes, almost 3x smaller that 4K.) with what’s called “interlaced,” which instead of refreshing every part of the screen, it switches between lines, again, in order to save space and send partial information. For instance, we shot Shield616 in 4K and exporting it to YouTube and Vimeo in 4K, however we exported it at 720p 60i to ESPN to help ensure it met their specific requirements. Refer to our 4K question for a bit more insights on why shooting 4K can still be important.

What do the Producer, Director, and Cinematographer (DP) actually do?

• These are the three major department heads on set. In short: Producer handles the production (Budget, Timeline, Contracts, Legality), Director handles the talent and general creative (Casting, Scripts, Locations, Style), and the DP handles the image (Lenses, Camera, Lighting, Mood, and Camera Movements). Together they (and with their many, many support members) craft a commercial, a movie, or a TV show that you enjoy everyday.

Why can’t I open any files from our shoot that was sent to us from the production company?

• Most files from the shoot are filmed in a format that allows the most amount of data to be conserved for a professional editing software like Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Apple Final Cut Pro. These files typically have an incredible amount of information that these specific programs pull up in a unique way to load the files correctly. Any time you “open” a video on your computer, it’s because it was created in a file type that your computer recognizes for ease of use (.mov, .mp4) however these video files we’re referring to (.r3d, .mxf, XAVC) are specifically made to be open in an editor. The often need to be prepped to be cut as well. So although you have the files, you’ll most likely still need an editor to help you access them. So, you have all the files, but maybe not the right program to open them.