Like it or not, most of us are swimming in a sea of digital media these days. Even those who don’t consider themselves media publishers have become accustomed to curating different kinds of content via social media.
Creating compelling content is the key to communicating any message or vision effectively. Many of today’s startup entrepreneurs, artists, and creatives need to be their marketing departments, producers, and strategists. Due to limited budgets and production resources, they have to make savvy investment decisions to support their projects.
Until recently, creating professional quality audio, video, and digital media content involved bringing together a diverse array of locally based resources. However, with more and more professionals working remotely and the DIY movement in full swing, there are some desirable and affordable alternatives to the traditional path.
Here are three top marketplaces that anyone can use to produce professional quality media content.
1. Music Production: www.AirGigs.com
AirGigs is a global marketplace for hiring professional session musicians, vocalists, and audio engineers. The talent pool ranges from emerging artists to Grammy Award winners. It caters to musicians, producers, and songwriters looking to enhance existing recording projects or take musical ideas from concept to completion. Service providers offer fixed and custom pricing for services in categories such as song production, vocals, strings, horns, keys, mixing, mastering, and more.
2. Video Production: www. feed. me
Feed. I am a curated community of professional videographers offering production services like branding/commercial videos, live-action explainer videos, location-specific videos, and more. They provide a very intuitive interface that allows clients to quickly find a videographer based on the quality and style of their past productions, industry type, and geographic location.
3. Digital Media Production: studio.envato.com
Envato Studio is a freelance marketplace for custom creative and technical services. They bring together a community of designers, developers, and creatives servicing the fields of custom graphic design, web development, online marketing, and more. Creative talent on the site is hand-picked by Envato staff, and services are offered with a fixed base price.
Considerations Before Getting Started
When considering working remotely with creative talent, following some basic guidelines is essential to ensure the best possible result. Perhaps the single most crucial element is communication.
Before you contact potential service providers, you have to be able to clearly articulate your vision and provide very concrete examples of the type of result you are looking to achieve. In every production, there is room for unexpected magic to happen, but you should never rely on it. It would be best to always prepare by having as many references as possible.
Planning a new website means finding 3-5 reference sites demonstrating design and functional elements that you like. If you’re producing music, that means knowing the specific instrumentation you want, preparing musical charts, and providing entirely made songs as references for the session musicians and engineers. Planning a video production may mean creating a basic storyboard, scripting critical dialogue, and providing examples of other shows that capture or approximate your concept’s essence.
In all these cases, providing clear direction and understanding of how a potential service provider is receiving and responding to your concept is essential. Aside from checking out their past work and testimonials from other clients, it’s also necessary to ask yourself whether you feel your vision is heard before ordering a service. It would help if you gauged how responsive a service provider is before you get started, as that is usually a key indicator of how responsive they will be once you’ve hired them.
Lastly, creative direction and production is a skill that takes practice, so if you’re entirely new to it, it’s essential to start small.
