You have a communication goal ... you want to show your customers how they could benefit from your product or service so you can boost your sales ... or you want to stay in touch with your regular clients so they will think of you first when needs arise ... or you want to boost productivity with top-notch training for your workforce.

We can help.

But before we start, we’ll answer all your questions. In fact, we’ll answer a few right now!

Q:What if I’ve never hired a video producer/animator/designer/ writer before? What should I expect before and during the project?

A:You can expect the Avanti Vision team to listen—carefully—to what you want to accomplish with your project. We’ll analyze your message and your target audience, focusing on what they know about your message now and what you want them to know, think, feel, or do after they experience your message.

After careful analysis, we’ll develop a media strategy to meet those goals with a maximum return on your investment.

Q:   How do we get started?

A:   Our first step ... plan and budget your project and present a complete proposal to you for approval.  The proposal defines the purpose and scope of your project, how we plan to develop and produce it, the schedule for development and production, the individual costs, and the overall budget. 

Second, when you’ve approved (or revised) the proposal, we’ll create a contract (Agreement) that reflects the project scope defined by the proposal.  The Agreement will also detail the rights and responsibilities we all agree should apply to this project.  Issues in the Agreement include: Delivery deadlines for each phase of the project, approval stages, costs, and intellectual property rights (the rights for your project will be contractually assigned to you in this Agreement unless we’ve made other arrangements with you.)  We will mutually sign the Agreement, invoice and receive your first payment, and get to work.

Q:  You mentioned a “first payment.” What do you charge for your services and what can we expect for our first payment?

A:   Each project is completely unique and so is its budget.  We can’t tell you what your project will cost until we do a full proposal and a budget estimate, but you don’t pay for the proposal or budget estimation services.  You don’t pay anything until you accept a project and budget proposal and sign an Agreement with us.  Then, typically, you will pay for the cost of your project in stages—usually one-half of the total cost upon signing the Agreement, and one-half after final approval of the finished project.  Sometimes the Agreement will specify more payment stages for a larger project.

Q:   How do I keep track of what’s happening while you produce my project?

A:   Before beginning, we create a project plan that becomes your map for all stages of your project’s development and production.  The plan will show you all the stages that will require your approval before we will move on to the next stage and when you can expect completion of each stage.  A production or project manager will also keep you informed about the progress.

Q:   If I have a tight deadline for my project, will you be able to meet it?

A:   We will always ask you about your critical dates and other project requirements during our initial discovery sessions with you.  It’s important that you let us know about any inflexible deadlines (such as a product launch date or a tradeshow) at that time.  If we don’t think we can meet your deadline, we’ll tell you so up front.  If we do commit to meeting your deadlines, we will promise to do so in our Agreement with you.

Q:   Where will we get the Agreement we will sign with you?

A:   If you have an Agreement you have signed with creative service professionals before—one that you feel comfortable with—we can sometimes use that one, if it covers all the services we will be providing to you. But we also have our own Agreements, ready-made for creative projects and customizable to each specific project for each individual client.  Our Agreements define work delivery stages, payments, copyright and intellectual property rights ownership, and our tax status as an independent Vendor. If we do use our Agreement, you are welcome to have a lawyer review it before signing. 

Q:   Will I own the copyright and other intellectual property rights to my project?

A:   In a typical work-for-hire arrangement, the vendor cedes all copyrights and other intellectual property rights ownership to the client.  In most of the Agreements we sign with our clients, we do exactly that, with the optional exception of retaining the right to exhibit the project on our website as an example of our work.