Video Production: In-House or Not?

If you’re a medium to large sized business or non-profit organization, chances are you may have given some thought at one point in time to developing an in-house video/media production department.  Maybe you already have one.  But, what makes you sure an in-house production department is right for you?

Creating an in-house video production operation is quite an investment of time, employees and money.  There are three major questions to ask before doing so.  

Before you develop an in-house video production department, ask yourself these questions:

·       How often do I produce video content?

·       What level of production do I need?

·       What is the level of investment?

How often do I produce video content? Every company is different and an organization’s needs may fluctuate throughout the year.  If you have consistent needs for video content, then an in-house production team may make sense.  But, often times, I’ve seen companies that still need to outsource video projects, even if they have their own departments!  Sometimes an in-house team may be backlogged on internal projects and are unable – or ill-equipped – to handle complete a major, unplanned external project within the needed timeframe. Or, quite the opposite can happen:  an in-house team may only have to complete a few projects a year and company management may wonder why they’re paying for the overhead and costs associated with the in-house department.  

What level of production do I need?  The answer obviously varies, depending on each individual project.  Some may require a more “homegrown” or “grass-root” look while others may call for high production values, top of the line lighting techniques, and a cinema look.  It’s difficult to know for sure until a project is underway and it’s often times impossible to prepare for all types of scenarios. I’ve known of corporate in-house departments with limited production capabilities.  Either management doesn’t completely understand the video production process or is unwilling to invest in the right equipment needed to deliver a quality production.  And, if an in-house department isn’t properly equipped, staffing becomes a challenge: it’s difficult to attract and retain talented staff to work with an ill-equipped set-up.

What is the investment?  There’s a lot that goes into creating a video production department, including equipment and staff – and both are expensive.  What management sometimes may not understand is that even though there are fairly inexpensive cameras on the market, those aren’t always the best product for all jobs.  And, we’re talking about more than cameras – other necessities are tripods, light kits, microphones, editing systems as well other production needs like graphics or animation software, rights to music clips, and more.  The list seems to go on and on – and that’s not even including the training people who can run the department.   The most challenging part about technology is that it’s ever-changing:  equipment often becomes outdated quickly, making an in-house department a risky investment.

So, what are the options to an in-house production department?  One option is to outsource your video needs on an annual, retainer basis.  This eliminates the need to invest in expensive equipment and staff needed for a successful operation.  Many companies, like Focal Point Studios, offer custom, long-term production agreements that can accomplish a broad range of multi-media communications needs.  At Focal Point Studios, we pride ourselves in truly getting to know your company and its needs – and consider ourselves an extension of your staff.  We have access to the highest quality, most up-to-date equipment and tools to meet your needs quickly, efficiently, and on-time.  With decades of combined experience in storytelling, the media, and production our staff delivers high quality productions under tight deadlines, whatever the project – large or small.  And, it only takes a phone call to get started.  

Digital Cinema - Motion Picture Quality at Affordable Rates

Have you ever noticed how some video productions look a lot like film?  They’ve got a softness or smoothness to them, a different depth of field and well, they’ve just plain got a high-end look. 

Digital Cinema is the buzz of this video industry these days.  It used to be that clients who wanted the best quality products would turn to film – which is both time-consuming and expensive to shoot, edit and produce.  But now, with digital cinema, you can get similar results for a fraction of the cost.

When it comes to video production, there are varying levels of quality – everything from home-grown look to high end and well produced - and now, there’s digital cinema.  Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to produce high-resolution, cinema quality motion images, but without the use of conventional film.

You may have heard of the HDSLR or the RED cameras – those are a few of the biggies in digital cinema, with marketing materials that include words like “revolutionary” and “game changing.”  It’s a whole different approach to video production – some even say it’s the true “high definition” where HDTV is the really “low definition.” 

The biggest difference is the depth of field.  When shooting with digital cinema, cinematographers have a much greater control over the depth of field – producing images with soft backgrounds like what you’ll see in a movie theatre.  It’s all about the sensor.  35mm has a much larger sensor than a standard video camera, and digital cinema utilizes the same size sensor as 35mm film. 

The work flow is different, too.  Video cameras allows us to zoom in and out, pan left to right and other things.  Digital cinema is different in that there’s no zoom. The camera is physically moved either by hand held or using a dolly, jib or steadi-cam to create this effect.  Dolly, Jib and Steadi-cam moves help create stylish, cinematic images and add an instant level of class to the production…giving the production that WOW factor.  Plus, the audio and video are recorded separately with most digital cinema style cameras.  Video is captured by the camera and audio is captured separately, then they’re synced up during the post production process.  This allows for better audio quality and more flexibility in capturing sound – for example, the camera can be 50 feet away from a subject and the audio technician is up close to the action to capture the best sound.  More flexibility makes for a better end result.

All in all, digital cinema provides clients with another option.  It’s not the answer for every scenario – every project and budget is different and many require different approaches.  Most quality production companies have a variety of camera packages to meet each client’s own need.  Digital cinema is the latest and greatest on the market and is becoming more widely used.  Hence, the buzz.  

	Video	Digital Cinema
Overall Look	Clean, crisp look; everything in background is visible very much like daytimeTV shows	Has a softness, smoothness to look; more cinematic, like motion picture production
Depth of Field (how much is visible behind subject)	Smaller sensor provides little variance in depth of field	Has larger sensor, similar to 35mm camera; allows more control over the depth of field
Dolly/Jib vs Zoom	Lens can zoom in/out from wide to tight focal lengths.  Inexpensive camera movement; rarely seen in well-produced productions	Most camera movement comes from physically moving the camera with a dolly, jib or steady cam.  Lens change required for different focal lengths
Audio Workflow	Audio is recorded in camera; microphone is either hard-wired to camera or wireless with receiver on camera	Audio is recorded by separate audio device and synced during post production; allows for more flexibility in capturing audio .