I started my career at Ogilvy in Singapore, and that shaped how I think about the question of production company vs creative agency.
At the time, the industry tended to work in one direction: agencies developed the ideas, and production companies executed them. I was interested in bringing more creative thinking into production itself.
At the time, the industry was moving heavily in one direction: agencies came up with the ideas, and production companies executed them.
I was interested in the reverse.
I wanted to bring more creative thinking into production itself.
That idea eventually became a big part of how I built Blackbird Productions.
Sometimes you need an agency. Sometimes you already know you want a video.
If a brand is looking for a full campaign, positioning, media strategy, social, digital, print and everything around it, then a creative agency makes sense.
But quite often, that is not the brief.
Sometimes the client already knows one thing:
“We need a video.”
They may have an objective, a product launch, a story they want to tell, or even a rough script. What they do not necessarily have is the actual idea for the film yet.
In those situations, Blackbird can essentially become a video-only advertising agency.
Think of it this way: imagine a traditional creative agency was given a brief where the only deliverable was a film.
You would still expect them to think about the audience, the idea, the script, the tone, the structure and the best way to communicate the message. Most importantly, you would expect them to deploy the almost holy approach of finding an insight that makes your video effective at changing behaviour or inspiring action.
That is the role we often take on.
Except the same people developing the idea are also thinking from day one about how it will actually be made.
Creative thinking without separating it from production
Production knowledge can make creative ideas better.
If you understand locations, casting, performance, cinematography, editing, VFX and what can realistically happen on a shoot day, you start thinking differently about concepts.
You know where to spend the money.
You know what can be simplified.
You know when an expensive idea will barely show up on screen, and when one small production decision can completely change the film.
That is one of the advantages of developing creative inside a production company.
The idea and the execution are not living in separate rooms.
We also work with agencies
None of this means replacing agencies.
A large part of our work is still collaborating with creative agencies that come to us with strong concepts, scripts and treatments.
In that situation, our job is different.
We take the agency's idea, understand what they are trying to achieve, and help push the execution as far as possible through directing, cinematography, production design, casting, performance and post.
The best agency-production relationships are not transactional.
The agency should be able to hand over an idea and expect the production company to add something to it.
When clients come directly to us
Direct-to-brand projects often start much earlier.
Sometimes there is a script.
Sometimes there is a deck.
Sometimes there are three bullet points in an email.
Sometimes the entire brief is essentially:
“We have this product. We want to make a film about it.”
That is enough to start and we can help work out what the film should actually be, develop the concept, write or refine the script, establish the visual language, and then produce it.
For the client, it means there does not always need to be a separate creative agency sitting between the brief and the production.
Production company vs creative agency: where does Blackbird fit?
If you need a broader brand or advertising campaign across many channels, start with a creative agency.
If you already have a great idea and need someone to make it, you need a production company.
And if you know you need a video but want help figuring out what that video should actually be, you need a production company that thinks creatively as well as technically.
That was one of the ideas behind Blackbird from the beginning - to be a creative video production company.
Not simply to make what was handed to us but to make the idea better before we make the film.
By Keshav Sishta, Director & DOP, Blackbird Productions
