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However, it can be difficult for many organizations to have a dedicated in-house team responsible for all aspects of video content. Whether for financial reasons, complicated editing requirements, or simply needing video content on an infrequent basis, many organizations turn to video production agencies to help them create their videos. 

Video production agencies handle the grunt work and provide talent on-demand that can save you money (versus retaining design staff or coordinating with a revolving door of freelancers).

However, because of this rapidly-growing sector for marketing, not every video production agency has what it takes to avoid some of the most common problems that come with collaborating on your projects. These include:

1. The creation process is longer than you expect.
2. The editing process is always the most difficult and time-intensive phase of any project.
3. Creating a reliable workflow with an agency takes work.
4. Limited scalability can be an obstacle for growth.
5. Utilizing top-quality video equipment may impose new variables in creating work.
6. A changing talent pool at an agency may lead to inconsistencies.

To help you anticipate these problems, we’ll take a look at six (6) of the most common challenges when working with a video production company. We’ll also touch base on how to avoid these conflicts, any alternatives you can choose, and much more.

1. The creation process is longer than you expect.

Creating video content often seems easier than it actually is. From recording video content, adding striking visual images, creating the right pacing, adding subtitles, and continually editing until the work is in a presentable state (see #2 below), there’s more to video production than meets the eye.

Of course, video production agencies are happy to advertise the fastest turn around times to attract more customers (and greater profits). Despite astonishing estimates of work delivered when compared to the competition, the truth is often less promising.

Estimated time frames are just that: estimates. And more often than not, estimate is a code word for “minimal time frame” until the final product is delivered. Each revision or delay adds to the overall time frame, so you’ll want to keep how significant each edit actually is.

Consider the following aspects of video production that often increase and/or complicate the time involved in creating video content:

• Planning the scope of the project before submitting it to the agency
• Working through pre-production
• Establishing the primary method of communication for the project
• Creating a streamlined workflow with frequent meetings and status updates during the editing process (see #2 and #3)
• Requesting revisions
• Finalizing the deliverable(s)

Adding to this, many production agencies are often backlogged with other projects. This means that if they’re experiencing higher-than-usual volume, your work may take a backseat to more urgent matters until it’s next in queue.

How to avoid this problem:

In all honesty, you may need to change your expectations when it comes to how long it takes for a production agency to create appropriate video content. Many customers have unreasonable expectations for the video production agencies they hire. After all, if it was so easy to create the finished product, why would organizations outsource in the first place?

While everyone wants their project completed yesterday, the sheer volume of work that’s involved is often underestimated by these companies in hopes to attract more clients (and greater profits).

Therefore, take estimates with a grain of salt, but you should use them as a way of pressuring the video production agency to prioritize your work if they consistently fall behind targets. Because their reputation is on the line (and the future of their business is at stake), holding the agency accountable can redefine your expectations as the work progresses.

Last, always be aware of when good-enough is “good enough”. Continually editing video content far from its conception date can lead to a quagmire of unusable content that may be far from your original intention.

2. The editing process is always the most difficult and time-intensive phase of any project.

The process of creating a great piece of content often takes more time than recording video and other materials. Honing content that appeals to a target audience is difficult, where the creative decisions of the video production agency may not reach the desired outcome of their clients.

At a minimum, editing often requires a minimum of two to three revisions – and sometimes even more. This back-and-forth between the client and the agency usually involves several weeks of direct collaboration – requiring a greater time and effort investment to get things just right.

To make matters worse, if there are multiple people involved in an organization that have a say in what the final product is, approval can be severely delayed. For example, your sales team might take issue with what the marketing team has in mind, leading to a bottleneck in communication each time you try to accurately convey what the original intent of your video content is. Worse, you may have trouble tracking down your own team for thorough feedback, delaying the editing process and resulting in costly miscommunications.

How to avoid this problem:

When it comes to editing, you’ll want to know how much of the “heavy lifting” your organization can handle before passing off any work to the agency. The more your organization can do, the less decision-making there will be for the video production agency.

This is why planning is so essential. A well-conceived plan guides your editing efforts and enables you to refer to a document of required events (and not just ideas). And when there’s a need for adjusting or revisions, the plan still provides a logical roadmap to complete your deliverables.

If the agency prefers to handle the entire editorial process from start to finish with minimal guidance, ask for regular review periods and how your team can assist them with their needs. Depending on how your planning remains the same during pre-production, you can easily pass the project off to the agency and focus on other tasks (which is the desired goal of outsourcing to any video production agency).

Last, time is always of the essence. Unless you’ve established an efficient and agile workflow (see below), content that you’ve produced will need to account for lengthy edits. If time isn’t a significant factor or you’ve allotted enough time beforehand, you can focus more on “evergreen” content instead of videos that may be obsolete by the time they are completed.

3. Creating a reliable workflow with an agency takes work.

There will always be a disconnect between the video production agency that you’ve hired versus internal operations. You may have a team that collaborates in-person and works towards singular goals, but involving a video production agency means that you’re at the mercy of their own internal time frames.

Even with projected deadlines, maintaining a reliable workflow can be hampered by any number of issues, including:

• Ease of communication with the point-of-contact at the agency (and your project lead)
• Time zone differences
• Holidays
• Weekends
• Available personnel on hand
• Language barriers
• And more

How to avoid this problem:

Effective collaboration between two organizations always requires being in alignment with a “collaborative rhythm”. This collaborative rhythm involves working in an efficient manner to meet targets, deadlines, output, and communication goals without unnecessary delays.

It may be necessary to start off with a trial project/assignment before staking your needs with an untested video production agency. During this trial period, you’ll want to pay attention to any delays or hiccups on account of your own organization’s shortcomings or those that you’re working with.

While there are always delays in collaborative rhythm when it comes to new hires, look for issues that seem to gum up the process. For example, if your team is late on providing pre-recorded content by a day, would the project be delayed by another business day or set the project back further? Ironing out these details beforehand will help motivate your team to work more efficiently or lessen expectations in a more reasonable time frame.

After the trial assignment, you’ll have a better sense of working together. If a project’s delivery is completely bungled or the end-result seems rushed, consider looking elsewhere for production services. On the other hand, if these difficulties were handled in a professional and realistic manner, then you may have a reliable agency to work with on larger-scale projects.

4. Limited scalability can be an obstacle for growth.

There are limits to what every video production agency can produce. Despite their promises in terms of efficiency and output, reality sets in when your project is mired in delays and endless revisions. The problem? Scalability.

The worst outcome you can have is a slapdash project that looks well below your standards. Worse, missed details and errors due to enough eyes on the project can actually be detrimental to how your intended audience sees the final product. Because a company’s media is “forever” on the internet, having a substandard product that seems rushed or incomplete will reflect on your company poorly. You want to view the video production agency as an extension of your company, not a liability.

Of course, this means determining whether the video production company has enough manpower on hand or efficient processes that enables them to grow with your needs. While the agency may excel on one-off projects, what happens when they can’t handle your live streaming needs at a major company-wide event? Or, maybe they can’t handle your volume of work over the long-term, creating a noticeable disparity in quality (even if you’re paying the same rates).

How to avoid this problem:

Not all video production agencies have the ability to handle large-scale projects. To be sure that they’re able to scale to your needs, take a look at recently-completed projects in their portfolio. You’ll want to assess whether your content is similar in scope to what you have in mind.

Furthermore, get a clear idea of how much time and effort is required during pre-production. The more time spent in pre-production, the greater the likelihood that your project will hit all agreed-upon target dates and the better the end-product will be.

As a solution to scalability, you should start off with simple projects and gauge the capabilities of the video production agency. Try to see how they can accommodate exactly what you want. For example, see how they handle a simple promotional video before hiring them to document your live-streamed events. .

Also, pay attention to employee turnover and their own ability to scale resources. Some video production agencies work with their competitors when work exceeds their capabilities, while others hire from a roster of freelancers  or via platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork. If you notice a lack of listed staff members on their About Us page, for instance, you may want to ask how many hands they have on deck to take care of your project(s).

5. Utilizing top-quality video equipment may impose new variables in creating work.

Let’s be honest: Modern high-quality video equipment is expensive. And like any other cost of operation, the best-quality equipment makes a substantial difference in the quality and consistency of output.

Many small- to medium-sized agencies don’t always own the equipment used to produce the videos they make. These agencies may rent gear on a “per day” or “per week” basis, meaning that if a camera or other equipment isn’t available, your project may suffer.

Additionally, not all video production agencies have staff that are familiar with all brands and varieties of camera equipment. For example, adding drone footage to your hosted live-event might be beyond the capabilities of the agency. Or, the video quality between cameras may be so jarring that it reflects poorly on the end-result.

How to avoid this problem:

Start by asking about any equipment that the video production company is currently using. Request a list of equipment they have on hand, as well as what they regularly rent. If there’s a lot of rented equipment, you will want to ask the agency whether they guarantee having the equipment on hand during live events, like conferences or academic meetings.

Next, you will want to make sure that the agency’s team has sufficient experience with the gear being rented or used. Look for experienced team members with years of experience and a substantial portfolio of high-quality work. And to expand on the paragraph above, don’t be afraid to also ask for examples of previous work created with the same audio/video/lighting equipment that will be used for your project.

6. A changing talent pool at an agency may lead to inconsistencies.

It’s very common for video production agencies to have significant turnover or their own stable of freelancers on hand to handle work. Without consistent processes overseen by an experienced team, keeping quality consistent will be an issue. After all, a freelancer that travels to document your live event may use different decision-making in terms of lighting, what to record, how experienced they are with equipment they’re provided with, and other factors.

This problem can also be exacerbated if you have your own in-house staff in addition to their own freelancers coming up with a cohesive end-result. Instead of cohesiveness, the end-result could be a hodge-podge of poor decision-making, lost opportunities, and other inconsistencies – especially for live, one-time-only events.

How to avoid this problem:

As mentioned before about the scalability of the production agency, do some research and due diligence before officially handling any agency that you haven’t worked with before. You should ask about reviewing any sample footage that was created by the same team that would be assigned to your projects. In this way, you can be sure that the team has a working relationship and be relatively conflict free.

If you’re looking for a long-term partner to handle your video production tasks, don’t be afraid to also go the extra mile and research their reputation on employer-review platforms. Look for positive reviews by former employees, but also pay attention to negative reviews.

Very often, negative reviews will shed light on potential difficulties and endemic issues with a company. Of course, look past “sour grapes” that disgruntled employees may express in their reviews but look for consistently negative aspects. If, for example, the company is accused of hiring low-rate freelancers or cutting corners, look elsewhere for your video production needs.