The language we use to describe business relationships in the post-production industry is often focused on short-term goals and transactions. We talk about "clients" who hire us to complete a specific project or task, but this approach can limit our ability to build long-term, collaborative relationships that benefit both parties.

Instead of focusing on winning clients, we believe in building partnerships that prioritize trust, communication, and collaboration. Since we don’t sell a uniform product, a lot of time and energy  is spent upfront to build an effective team between our organizations. We take the time to understand your goals, tastes, preferences, etc, and we work closely with you throughout the post-production process to make sure you are getting exactly what you need.

What are the benefits of a partnership over a client relationship?

1. Ongoing collaboration: Partnerships involve ongoing communication and collaboration, which allows us to build a deeper understanding of your business and your post-production needs. This, in turn, allows us to deliver better results and more value over time. For example, we were asked by our a long-term partner in the logistics industry to create regular motion-graphics assets for a recurring internal communication of theirs. Instead of simply taking the gig and delivering the asset we worked with their internal team to build a motion-graphics package that their team could customize and reuse. This saved our client time and money and delivered beyond what they were initially asking for.
2. Trust and reliability: When you partner with us, you can trust that we will deliver high-quality work that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations. We take pride in our work and in building long-term relationships with our partners. One of our regular partners in the music industry brought us on to a 12 episode series they were producing, but the creative leads were stretched too thin to sit in to provide review for 12 hours of content. We knew our partner’s taste and preferences and (for the most part) were self directed until delivery. This much trust is rare but our partner was thrilled and the series was loved by many.
3. Flexibility: Partnerships allow for more flexibility than simple client relationships, which are often focused on specific projects or tasks. One-off projects often require higher minimum project sizes and longer timelines to give us the room to deal with the unexpected. On the other hand, we know our regular partners well and can easily take on smaller, faster, and/or more unusual projects because of the pre-existing working relationship. Need a quick animation or social post? We already have the assets and can have a V1 ready for you tomorrow.
4. Efficiency: long-term partnerships build a shared vocabulary and understanding of needs and expectations, without the upfront investment of time and energy to establish them for each engagement. In other words, when a partner approaches us with a new request we already know their preferences, concerns, etc and can deliver a service more quickly without excessive revisions and creative exploration. A lot of the time we even have their style guide and brand assets ready to go.

The most common pushback we get from folks, usually agencies, is this - are we just going to get the same old talent every time? Yes… and No.

The producing and management team will be largely the same every time, and the reason for this is so that we can build that relationship and trust. Where the stylistic and creative flexibility comes is the creative talent (editors, colorists, etc). If you have an editor who you loved we can absolutely bring them back for the next one - they already have a rapport with you and will be at a great starting place. Looking to mix up the creative? Perfect. We have a large network of other talent we can present. You get all the perks of a long-term partner with the freshness of new talent.

So what does this look like practically? …It depends. Most commonly we simply have repeat customers who we know well and enjoy working with. We also offer retainers/pre-payment structures for those who need pre-approved spend and quick turnarounds.

TLDR - Long-term creative relationships are better than one-off gigs. We look for partners not clients.

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