Building an in-house video studio for your company comes with many benefits!
You’ve just received an urgent phone call from your marketing director. The good news - the new product you’ve been waiting for is ready to market. Now, all you must do is schedule time with your production company to shoot the new product. You’ll want to post it on your website and possibly send out an eBlast to current and potential customers. And you’ll want to do this as fast as possible. The only problem: The production company is booked solid for the next two weeks. That has you wondering if you should propose the building of an in-house video studio for your company.
The reality is that video has become an integral part of marketing. So, finding quality production resources that can accommodate your needs in a timely manner is getting harder. The solution for many companies is to build their own in-house production studio. That way, you control the schedule. No more waiting for the availability of outside production resources. Having control of the time and schedule is just one benefit of building an in-house video studio for your company. There are many others that we'll cover.
Meeting the Production Needs of Your Company by Building an In-house Video Studio
Each company has its own unique production needs. You’ll want to determine if an in-house production facility can meet your specific needs better than outsourcing. So, let’s take a closer look at some of the top benefits that building an in-house video studio for your company has to offer.
Convenience when you build an in-house video studio
Convenience is a major reason companies choose to build an in-house video studio. The problem described above would not have occurred. You could have simply set up a time with your own in-house video studio staff to shoot. If they were working on other projects, no problem. If yours takes priority, your company strategy could be to simply put the other project on hold for the day or so. Thus allowing this new project to be shot and edited first.
There are other ways that building an in-house video studio could increase convenience. For example:
- Reduced travel time. It means that executives and staff no longer need to travel outside of the building for production.
- Easy access. Management can walk down the hall and talk directly with the people in charge of production.
- Quick shooting. If you need to get a quick message out, it's easy. You can have your camera, teleprompter, lighting and sound all ready to go in a matter of minutes.
- Easy reshoots. If a reshoot is required, it can be scheduled based on your needs. The set can be maintained so that there's no big set-ups involved just for a reshoot.
- Quick editing. If edits need to be made, they can be done quickly and cost-effectively.
- Reduce wasted time. No more waiting for open time at a production facility with a schedule that's out of your hands.
- Large set-up convenience. Having an on-site studio is great if you have large items in your video. Additionally, it's perfect if you want to construct a set that you'll use often. Having all of this available at your location will save time and money. Otherwise you'll have to transport the items or the set back and forth to another facility and you risk damage.
Additionally, if you’re in a business that must deliver information quickly, in-house video production can’t be beat.
As an example, if your company is involved with crisis management for clients, you can have a video press release within a few hours. Another area where timing is critical is producing content for social media. With social media, timing is everything. Being able to produce content in your own in-house video studio is a huge advantage. It’s an advantage that you wouldn’t get if you had to outsource production.
Cost-Savings of building an in-house video studio
Building an in-house video studio for your company can provide cost savings in the long run. There are no additional costs when you use your own studio. It gives you the benefit of doing both higher level and lower-level videos without having to pay huge fees to an outside company.
Another consideration is the tax advantages of investing in various types of equipment. This includes production, editing, light and sound equipment. When you own your own studio, you enjoy depreciation and tax write-offs. This helps to defer some of the start-up costs of building an in-house video studio for your company.
But what if you don't want to go all the way with building an in-house video production studio? You can go smaller. You can design your space to bring only some of your productions in-house. For example, some companies build their in-house video studios for smaller projects, while outsourcing larger shoots. What are examples of these smaller types of projects? They might include shoots with a single on-camera executive delivering talking points. Or shooting tabletop videos. The great thing is that a studio built for just these purposes doesn’t require a vast amount of space. And there can still be costs savings this way over the long-term.
Although that's a valid strategy, if you’re going to invest the money on equipment, you might want to consider doing all production in-house.
Once you have an in-house video studio, there are more ways to save money.
Building an in-house studio doesn't always mean you'll have to have higher employee costs. Consider various options for staffing.
Using contractors in your studio rather than hiring a full-time production staff can help keep costs down. With this method, you don't have to carry the costs associated with having a full-time staff. That includes benefits such as paid time off, sick days, medical insurance, vacations, unemployment, etc.
This is a good approach if you don’t produce a large volumes of videos. You still get the benefits and cost savings of having your in-house video studio without all the financial responsibilities such as paying for benefits. Or you can carry one full-time staff member to coordinate projects and to hire sub-contractors. If this interests you, for further info and advice check out this article called "Hiring a Video Production Staff vs. Outsourcing".
When you build an in-house video studio you can control your brand’s voice
Having your studio in-house puts people with extensive knowledge and experience about your brand in control. The fact is, when you have your own studio, you’re the one who controls who will and won’t work on your videos. It doesn’t matter whether you have your own staff working on the projects or hire outside contractors. Ultimately, you decide who works on the videos you produce.
You must remember that all videos reflect your company’s voice. Your brand messaging must be consistent throughout all media. Whether it’s social media, web content or video press releases, they all must have a singular voice. When you put your own people in charge or decide which outside contractors will work on your video the control belongs to you.
Having an in-house video studio can help with protecting product assets
If you have large or fragile products to showcase in your videos, nothing beats having an in-house studio. You won’t have to worry about the logistics and potential damage that comes with transporting those assets to an outside facility.
For example, one of our clients sells mattresses. One of the reasons they chose to build an in-house studio is that they didn't want to have to transport their mattress samples off-site to a studio. Having their in-house studio will save them from all the time, effort, cost and risk of having to move their large mattresses.
The same applies to expensive products like jewelry, for example. It's safer and more convenient to keep the items on-site.
Another advantage of having an in-house video studio is that if you have a set that you consistently use, you can leave it intact for future production. With outside studios, you’ll have to dismantle the set and reassemble it each time you do production.
If you're still weighing your options, take a look at this article here: "Should I Build An In-House Video Production Studio?"
Ready to Build an In-House Video Studio for Your Company?
I (Greg Ball) have extensive experience with designing, equipping and building studios. We're also a full service Miami based video production company serving the business and corporate world. So, we understand how to design great studios that are customized for your needs and work flow. We're available to design and build your studio, with services throughout the USA.
Contact us now. If you’re considering building an in-house video studio for your company, I would be happy to share some examples of companies we’ve helped. I would also welcome the opportunity to discuss costs with you - with no obligation of course!