You understand consumers crave movies. You need to be making extra movies. However you’re blocked. Must you spend money on in-house video manufacturing or pay for outdoor professionals?
It’s an historical debate, however you’re not alone.
Be taught extra about the place every choice shines—in-house video manufacturing vs. outsourcing—and when to make use of them, straight from the Vidyard consultants on the Video Island Podcast. Hosts Mathew King and Blake Smith sort out the subject, utilizing their mixed 20 years of video manufacturing expertise to give you sensible recommendation.


TLDR: Use each, and commerce off relying on the scenario.
In-Home Video Manufacturing vs. Outsourced Movies
Let’s outline our two choices right here. Doing issues in-house is the DIY choice: You purchase video tools and both rent or assign your advertising and marketing crew members to be the video manufacturing crew. There are fewer folks concerned, however they’re your folks.
For those who select to outsource, you do the alternative: You rent freelancers or, extra generally, a video manufacturing company, to handle video initiatives for you.
The video manufacturing course of sometimes includes:
- Writing a video transient
- Storyboarding and script writing
- Location scouting
- Buying and sustaining tools (cameras, lights, mics, and props)
- Pre-production setup
- Manufacturing (the precise filming)
- Submit-production (modifying)
- Animation, movement graphics, or particular results
Each in-house and outsourced manufacturing have their very own distinctive benefits. Constructing your personal video crew, you have got the chance to accrue expertise in-house, draw from a deep information of your model, and hold and reuse the tools you purchase. In the long term, in-house is sort of all the time cheaper on a per-video foundation.
“Filming in-house is about being fast and scrappy,” says Video Producer Mathew King. “Possibly all you’ve obtained is a smartphone and a handheld mic, however you get the topic dealing with a window with pure daylight and also you hit report and that’s all that it takes. Getting the video executed same-day is commonly higher than overthinking or overproducing it.”
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However outsourcing has huge advantages too. You get a accomplice with a impartial, outdoors perspective, plenty of expertise, and a ready-made crew. “Exterior video businesses take pleasure in a bigger, typically extra well-rounded crew that’s produced lots of movies,” says Mathew. “They know what they’re doing and it means they’re typically higher at estimating timelines and budgets.”
Companies may typically usher in specialist tools and a full suite of {hardware} and software program that it doesn’t make sense so that you can personal—as an example, a $50,000 RED Digital Cinema digital camera rig which prices greater than double Vidyard’s total in-house tools price range. “And even when they solely have the identical video modifying software program you utilize in-house, they might know the right way to use it higher, and should have post-production specialists on workers, like 3D animators,” says Blake Smith, Artistic Director at Vidyard.
Execs of Producing Video In-Home
- Deep understanding of your model
- Data of previous model movies
- Full inventive management
- Personal the tools
- Simple to schedule reshoots
- Set personal timelines
- Output is instantly tied to crew measurement
- Imperfections can create a way of authenticity
Cons of Producing Video In-Home
- Tough to be unbiased
- Preliminary funding in tools may be costly (however not all the time)
- Salaried crew members make downtime expensive
- Scheduling crew members as actors may be disruptive
- Workforce measurement limits manufacturing capabilities
- Your crew members should put on many hats
Execs of Outsourcing Video Manufacturing
- Unbiased, outdoors perspective
- Knowledgeable storytellers and writers
- Skilled actors who look pure on digital camera
- Movies designed for conversions and optimized for search
- No must supply and purchase tools
- Expertise working with quite a lot of purchasers
- No want to rent a full-time headcount
- No must distract workers from their work
- Expertise with particular results and animation
Cons of Outsourcing Video Manufacturing
- Time spent interviewing freelancers or businesses
- Much less refined understanding of your model
- Restricted inventive management
- Mission timeline out of your arms
- Costlier on a per-video foundation
- If utilizing freelancers, managing them can take additional time
Each methods have downsides as nicely. For those who go together with your personal crew, you’re taking a little bit of a big gamble which you could assemble the precise folks with the precise expertise to get issues executed on schedule. “The very last thing you need is a missed timeline plus added bills for unexpected revisions as a result of the crew hadn’t executed it earlier than,” says Mathew.
In-house groups are additionally liable to get caught talking in their very own firm jargon, says Mathew. “It actually helps to have any individual outdoors to bounce concepts off of.”
For those who select to outsource, you’re playing that another person can deal with the manufacturing course of higher, and that they’ll faithfully carry your concepts to actuality. Typically, businesses are busy and also you’re competing with different purchasers for his or her time.
Plus, it may be tougher to manage reshoots and edits. “Say you do a two-minute product video, then the product modifications,” says Blake. “It’s tougher to get that company again for a fast reshoot.”
And naturally there’s value. Companies’ specialised tools and folks come at a worth that’s larger on a per-video foundation, and also you don’t get to maintain something besides the video (and generally, the uncooked footage) once they’re executed.
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Ought to You Produce Video In-Home or Outsource? When to Use Every Choice
Which technique is healthier? Take into account a couple of eventualities the place every is a superb match.
In-Home Manufacturing: When to Use It
For a lot of companies, in-house means much less polish, which may be precisely the sensation you need for some productions.
DIY video is often scrappier, however it might have lots of coronary heart.
Having your inner video crew tackle a undertaking makes probably the most sense if you want somebody who is aware of your model, is aware of your product, and is aware of your folks inside and outside. It’s additionally nice if that you must get movies on the market quick so to see how your viewers responds.
Video Sorts The place In-Home Manufacturing Shines:
- Firm tradition movies
- Social media movies
- Product explainer movies
- Nurture movies
- Casual buyer testimonials
- Academic movies for purchasers
- FAQ explainer movies
- Inside communications
Right here’s an instance of an in-house video:
Outsourcing Manufacturing: When To Do It
Bringing within the outdoors consultants is the best way to go if you’re trying to produce a set variety of movies and need high-quality manufacturing for all—for instance, when you have got a biannual video marketing campaign and wish these movies to map again to a technique that drives leads. Additionally, outsourcing is nice if you’re on a good timeline and your crew’s already swamped with different initiatives otherwise you want lots of movies unexpectedly.
Video Sorts The place Outsourced Manufacturing Works Finest:
- Model movies
- Homepage movies
- Commercial movies
- Excessive-profile product explainer movies
- Buyer testimonials for the web site
- Animated, whiteboard, or stop-motion movies
Right here’s an instance of an outsourced video:
The Finest Technique? Do Each
With professionals and cons to every method, the very best video manufacturing technique is to do a little bit of each: Construct a crew in-house, however have exterior businesses do the issues your crew can’t.
To what diploma, lots of that may depend upon the dimensions of your corporation. As firm measurement will increase, so does the usage of exterior sources for video content material creation. Most small and medium firms use completely inner sources to provide their video content material, whereas giant enterprises are extra evenly cut up between inner, exterior, or each.
Assets Used for Enterprise Video Manufacturing

Chart by way of the 2021 Video in Enterprise Benchmark Report.
At Vidyard, our crew mixes in-house and outsourced manufacturing continually. When you get good at managing the trade-off, it might result in critical value financial savings.
“Typically we rent an company to shoot the movie, then take the edits again in-house,” says Mathew. “Our businesses have all of the folks and tools wanted to provide actual, actual high-quality footage. Then they offer it to us and we save 1000’s by modifying it ourselves.”
Having your in-house crew work along with your company additionally makes each teams higher over time. Your company will get a greater really feel to your firm and your in-house crew learns high-end manufacturing methods.
“Working with our company was an actual eye-opener for certainly one of our in-house writers,” mentioned Mathew.
“She’s used to writing weblog posts. When she noticed actors studying her dialog stay on set, she realized it felt disjointed. She tweaked the dialog and it’s made her a stronger author.”
In-house and outsourced each have a time and place. All of it is dependent upon what that you must do.
For every marketing campaign or video, ask your self:
- How a lot content material do I must create?
- What high quality degree do we’d like?
- What video codecs do we’d like?
- What’s our deadline?
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