Why In-House Video Editing Might Be Your Best Bet: Control, Cost, and Flexibility

August 23, 2024

David Aguilar

Why In-House Video Editing Might Be Your Best Bet: Control, Cost, and Flexibility

Choosing to handle video editing in-house offers distinct benefits that cater to direct management and integration. With an in-house team, you gain immediate oversight and control of the editing process, stronger collaboration within your team, and sensitive content remains securely within your organization.

What is In-House Video Editing?

To clarify, the term “in-house” to us means anyone who’s a dedicated team member within your organization that’s responsible for anything post-production related. While team members may specialize or have a knack for editing, they may split their time between duties between other tasks. These team members might be on-site or remote and they’ll typically use equipment, software, subscriptions, and facilities provided by your company.

Let’s explore the advantages of maintaining an in-house video editing team in more detail:

Control and Oversight‍

An in-house team allows for direct supervision and immediate feedback nearly any time your employees are working. Considering you’re their supervisor or manager, you’ll have the ability to dictate workflows and project priorities — which can be helpful if your company is producing a lot of videos with a limited number of staff. You also have the flexibility for unlimited revisions on projects (something that outsourced editors typically set a limit to within a project’s scope). Keep in mind that if you’re going to ask your team to continually tweak a project to perfection, that project will ultimately cost more and possibly delay other projects in the process.

Consistency‍

Let’s not kid ourselves: maintaining a consistent style and quality is easier with an in-house team. One big difference between in-house and outsourced editing is your ability to be involved on a fundamental level — like the opening-up-their-project-files kind of level. You’ll be able to monitor all the documentation your team is referencing. Brand guides, folder structure systems, types of tools used, and software settings, to name a few. Furthermore, you can base your team’s performance analysis on their adherence to those established brand standards and systems. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that this level of consistency is feasible with an outsourced team. Another shameless plug here, but we strive to be as reliable and consistent as an in-house team — a goal we’ve hit time and time again with our long term working relationships. Alright, back to the unbiased content.

Collaboration‍

With an in-house editor, you’ll enjoy direct communication between you, them, and all other team members of your team. In-house editors are also more likely to be involved from the start of a project and informed about a particular client’s nuances. In other words, they’ll be able to leverage “legacy knowledge,” all the little details someone wouldn’t have known unless they’d been ever-present in the company’s operations. If you’re looking to shake things up and try something new, in-house team members can also experiment and iterate alongside you. Trying out things like new techniques, software, or equipment, can all be done while safely under your supervision.

Confidentiality‍

If you’re concerned about your media or projects getting into the wrong hands, in-house editors allow for greater control. If your media is stored on-site, you’ll likely have the ability to restrict access if needed. Employees may also sign an NDA as a part of their standard company handbook, so that may help you to rest easier knowing you’ve done your best to keep your proprietary information behind closed doors.

Now What?

If building a team in-house feels like the right way to go, make sure you're considering the challenges that accompany this route. A clearly-written job listing with a reasonable set of expectations will be critical to your search for applicants. Or maybe you're choosing to hire from within. Either way, the task of outlining core duties and functions will fall to you as you look at expanding your in-house team.

Here's a guided list of the articles in this series, but feel free to check them out in the order that makes sense to you:

At Archaius, we focus on providing our clients the closest thing to a fractional in-house team. Meaning, we want you to feel like we’re right down the hall, but only when you need us.

Reach out through our contact form if you’d like to get the conversation started.

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