The Drawbacks of Outsourcing Video Editing: Hidden Costs and Quality Concerns

August 22, 2024

David Aguilar

The Drawbacks of Outsourcing Video Editing: Hidden Costs and Quality Concerns

As great as it can be, outsourcing post isn’t without its challenges. The further outside your organization a project gets and the more people added to the communication chain, the more the margin of error increases.

Need a bit more explanation about what outsourced video editing means? Check out the most common forms of outsourcing here.

Here are some of the most common downsides or pain points when working with an external editing partner:

Communication and Coordination‍

As we all know with the shift to more remote work since 2020, some things just aren’t quite the same as working down the hall from someone. Remote collaboration can introduce issues, which are only made worse if there are time zone differences or language barriers — common pain points we’ve often heard of working with overseas editors. Depending on the geographical distance between you and your editor, you may end up on opposite sides of day and night, or possibly even an entire day apart. Cultural differences can also pop up. What may be totally acceptable in one country may be a huge offense in another. Arguably the cornerstone of editing is storytelling and if you and your editor don’t speak the same language, it may show up in funny choices when splicing together narrative content. Finally, on a logistics level, you may need to adapt to your outsourced editor’s project management system (typically present with agencies or post-houses). Alternatively, you might need to integrate the editor into your chosen project management platform, which can add to the cost if you pay per seat.

Quality Control‍

A big concern for people considering outsourcing (and rightly so) is the risk of receiving back an unusable product. Ultimately, maintaining consistency and quality is a byproduct of thorough and effective communication. Achieving the level of confidence that the end result is going to be what you expect can be a challenge, particularly in instances where you’re working with multiple freelancers (whether on the same project or separate). Post-houses and agencies are more likely to have regimented systems in place to help ensure quality, but again, you’ll likely need to adapt to their systems for record-keeping and information sharing. This risk of mismatched expectations is the main reason our intake process on projects is so lengthy. There’s simply too much at stake to get started in the wrong direction, so we’re often playing 20 Questions or hopping on a few kick-off calls to make sure we’re fully aligned before diving too far in.

Turnaround Time‍

Getting a usable video back from an outsourced editor is a feat to be celebrated. But that’s not the only important detail. Aside from cost, your project also has to come back on time, especially if there’s an end-client waiting for it after you’ve received it. Right out the gate, the upfront logistics of sending media to an external team can introduce a delay to a project’s timeline. If you’re not shipping a hard drive, sharing files electronically is affected by both your speed in uploading the media and the editor’s download speed to receive it. Once the project is started, mid-stream delays may catch you off guard. If you’re working with a team on a drastically different time zone or with cultural holidays that aren’t consistent with yours, the issue of turnaround can only get more stressful. The variable of turnaround time may very well alone be the deciding factor not to outsource a project. We’ve lost our fair share of projects over this issue, and unfortunately there’s not a whole lot that can be done. Other than flying the editor out — which we’ve actually had the opportunity to do a few times!

Data Security‍

Sharing sensitive content with external parties poses risks. Regardless of which version of outsourcing you try (freelancer, post-house, or agency), the likelihood that some of your project’s media will end up on the internet is nearly an inevitability. For us, we’re usually sending final exports and media through cloud platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. Throughout a project, we use our favorite review tool, frame.io, to send drafts and receive feedback. Depending on the nature of your outsourced editor of choice, they may send media between their own team (or freelancers) through the internet, so the possibility of it ending up somewhere you don’t want it is there. Ultimately, you need to trust the external team with your proprietary information. If you don’t know how they work with it and where it goes during the process, ask!

Now What?

While these downsides aren't ideal, it's not all bad when outsourcing video editing. Consider how important these topics are to the ongoing operations of your business. Make sure to ask questions around these topics when looking into an outsourced video editing partner.

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.

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