Crafting a standout video story is the heart of your video marketing success, but it’s not worth two peanuts, unless you’re able to produce the video, in the first place!
Typically, I recommend to my clients to build video production capabilities ‘In-House.’ Invest in one or multiple team members so that they can shoot and edit your videos, without needing to enlist outside help.
This way, you can act more quickly and produce videos for less money–especially when you execute according to the Resource-Based Video Production principles. I offer regularly-scheduled ‘In-House Production Team Building’ workshops and guide my private consulting clients to that effect.
That being said, there are times when you could strongly benefit from bringing in outside help, but that adds a whole different cocktail of complexities.
I crafted the following post to help you navigate this sticky terrain by addressing:
- How/When should you hire freelancers?
- What are the positions, and how should you prioritize them?
- How do you manage them?
- Are video production companies a good choice?
- What about full-service video marketing agencies?
Each video production team structure comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, each requires different management, expectations, and budgets on your end.
The following team structures are your options in order of cost (Low–>High), not necessarily effectiveness:
Option #1: Just You or an In-House Team: $-$$
Ideally, if you have the skills, yourself, or have a utility knife creative in your organization, AWESOME.
You’re lucky.
This should be every business’s aspiration. Truly. Cultivate the ultimate ‘all-in-one’er’ in your team. They will be faster, less expensive, and more honed in to your organization’s tone.
They can be the ideator for your stories, or they can execute on your vision–whether you’re on the marketing team or the business owner.
If you do have this all-in-one team member or several team members to share the load, I recommend you apply resource-based filmmaking as a basic starting approach, so you can craft stories that are quick and easy to shoot. Build stories around the resources you have at your finger tips, and get them into the world quickly.
This video creative doesn’t need to do video exclusively. Perhaps they also handle social media, photography, web design, or some other marketing skill. Finding someone who has basic skills in some or each of these areas can make regular video production an attainable goal for smaller businesses. These team members can then shift tasks, as your advertising needs shift.
This being said, if you don’t have a competent video production-capable team member, your next least-expensive option is hiring freelancers/contractors on a project-by-project basis.
Option # 2: Freelancers / Contractors- $
Having spent the first 10 years of my career as a freelancer, I now offer you the inside scoop on how to get the best results from working with them:
First off, freelancers are paid to do their individual job well, and they can be cost-effective, but they may not have the big picture in mind. You may end up with a mess on your hands when you try to assemble their disparate parts, if you aren’t managing the process effectively.
That being said, it can be a great way to scale up or down per project and to be cost effective, while avoiding the additional costs of an employee, like health or retirement benefits.
Here are some tips on how to make the most of freelancers with the fewest headaches:
Prioritizing Hiring
One of the biggest questions when marketing teams look to hire video freelancers is knowing which ones to hire and when.
If you are unfamiliar with the technical process of making a video:
I highly recommend hiring a producer to manage the freelancers and assemble the team (you can find a lot about this on my podcast episode with David Siciliano).
A talented producer will save you headaches and make the best video for the least money. They will hire the other contractors, manage schedules, and make sure all the team members are operating in unison from production (shooting) through post-production (editing).
You can find producers through word of mouth, via filmmaking groups on Facebook (depending on your market), directories like Production Hub, or plain old Craigslist (but proceed with caution there). It’s possible for your producer to even work remotely, so the talent pool is quite wide here, but having one in-person on the shoot is probably your best bet, as they can trouble-shoot in the moment. And there is always trouble…
If you have some knowledge of the video production process (and I recommend you develop it):
It may be more cost-effective to manage the freelancers, yourself.
Here are my recommendations for how to prioritize hiring crew by the number of people you can afford:
One-Person Crew:
- All-In-One Utility Knife–Videographer + Editor: It can be hard to find a really good one, but many people who can fit the bill–especially in smaller markets, where video freelancers are used to doing it all. The stronger the script, the better your chances that your vision will become a reality. Look at past examples of their work where they filled all the roles you’ll need them to perform–not just where they performed one of these tasks (like editing or cinematography)! Be clear that you have a specific script you want created. It could be helpful to provide visual samples of other videos you like that fit the mood. They should be able to shoot and edit the video, using your script as a road map.
Two-Person Crew:
- A Director/DP is your best investment. They can have story-interpreting skills, as well as the technical imaging capabilities to bring them to reality. They should be able to handle all of production, so long as you wrote your script without heavy dialogue. Audio makes things more complicated.
- Editor/Colorist/Audio- find an editor who is comfortable doing all three. Obviously, if you’re doing a big budget commercial, you can hire each individually, but most content and digital commercials for small & mid-sized businesses don’t need that. Quite often the director/dp can recommend an editor they’ve worked with in the past.
Three-Person Crew:
- Director/DP, Editor +
- Designated Audio– it may seem like they’re sitting around a lot on the day of the shoot, but if your project requires dialogue, it almost definitely needs a sound mixer. Something always goes wrong if you don’t. Bad imagery can be managed. Bad audio cannot.
Actors:
- Professional Actor -normally a flat day fee, but to really save money up front (and spend more later), I cut a deal of a % of revenue up to a certain point. This may require legal fees up front to draft the contract, but can make you much more nimble, which will pay off down the line. Unless you’re doing a larger commercial project, you likely want to avoid hiring union actor (SAG or AFTRA), as they come with a boat load of legal and logistical requirements. Their talent can be well worth it for larger fictional projects, but commercials can be skillfully written to avoid the need for such cultivated talent.
- Amateur- choose based on how they look and how easy they are to work with, and don’t expect great things. Build the script around these expectations
- Friend or employee- Oh dear. If you must, you must, but write your script with this in mind.
- When you write your script, consider the minimum viable number of actors to make the project work. You may be able to use public places to use other people as extras, but proceed at your own risk. It’s unpredictable and may not be 100% legal, depending on where you are shooting. Especially during Covid, the mask-wearing might get weird too…
One More Note on Self-Producing Your Video
At the point you’re hiring a team, you may discover (hopefully sooner than later) that your idea is too grandiose to execute without inviting some craziness into your life.
For example, if you used the story structures to create an epic adventure commercial– like the Kohr video example, go through the story and replace certain details with ones you have access to that are easier to shoot. Perhaps a car pulls into a local diner, instead of a motorcycle pulling into a desert diner. You’d be surprised at the resources you have at your disposal. If the emotional core of the story remains, the details can be quite flexible.
Option # 3: Video Production Companies- $$$
Video production companies handle all the production for you. They typically have producers on staff and a regular stable of crew and talent. They may have stock camera gear that they’ll include in their fees. Some may develop the story with you, or they can execute on your story.
Video production companies won’t help you distribute the video or integrate it with your advertising/marketing strategy.
Even though production companies will take care of the production, the strength of the final video depends, in a large part, on the specificity and appeal of your script. You’re still the conceptual leader, so make sure you’re comfortable in that role.
Also make sure the production company is working with as lean a team as possible. Ask for itemized expenses and look to make sure they aren’t padding the budget too much with high-priced equipment rentals or unnecessary crew. You may or may not be a good judge of that. You might consider enlisting the help of someone who is up front. It could save you a lot.
Option # 4: Video Marketing Agencies- $$$$
If working with an agency, they’ll likely handle everything from story ideation through production and distribution (and expect top $ for doing so).
Just make sure that their ideas align with your values, tone, and that of your potential clients. Remember, you are the top authority on your clients’ preferences. The agency is there to work from your foundation.
They’ll likely have production capabilities in house, or they’ll partner with a production company or other freelancers. They should have this under control.
The disadvantage of using an agency is that you can’t work nearly as quickly or create other videos/versions from these raw goods for future campaigns. Your resources go into one pot, and you hope it works.
This generally is against the principles I teach, because videos need to be living, breathing tools that can adapt to audio response. If you put a ton of money into a video, and it doesn’t resonate with your audience, that can be a big financial blow for many businesses.
But for some businesses–especially larger companies–money is less of an issue than management and time. In this case, outsourcing these costs to an agency could be a good choice.
I should identify one last detail about agencies with regards to smaller businesses. They actually could be beneficial for small businesses, if they offer ongoing content creation.
As a small business, you may find that ongoing content creation is just too much of a headache, and that outsourcing it makes more sense. You could form an agreement for them to make a certain amount of content per month to populate your social channels and ad campaigns. This approach can work well, but make sure the content isn’t just farmed out, generic goods, which is often how agencies do this, without being tightly integrated with your business’s day-to-day operations.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it!
I hope this overview of the different video production team structures proves helpful in your future efforts.
If you are currently feeling overwhelmed, I get it! Video production can be a complex process. But it can also be simplified to match the resources of your business.
If you know video could help your business and are looking for a way to start developing your production capabilities, I recommend you check out my ‘In-House Video Production Team Building Workshop’ for a lower-cost solution, or you can reach out and schedule a consult call to see if more ongoing assistance could be a better fit.
