Guide to Hiring A Professional Video Production Vs DIY Self-Filming

Whether an amateur smartphone video or a professional video production does better depends on several factors, including the context, audience, goals, and quality expectations of the video. Let's explore both sides:

Amateur Smartphone Video (DIY)

Pros:

1. Authenticity: Amateur videos can feel more authentic and relatable to viewers. They might resonate better with audiences seeking genuine, unscripted content.
2. Cost-Efficiency: Amateur videos are often cost-effective as they require minimal equipment and resources.
3. Timeliness: Smartphone videos can be quickly recorded and uploaded, making them suitable for capturing real-time events or trends.

Cons: 

1. Quality Limitations: Amateur videos may lack the production value, crisp visuals, and polished audio that professional productions offer.
2. Inconsistent Results: Quality can vary due to factors like lighting, audio, and camera stability.
3. Limited Creativity: Complex shots, special effects, and advanced editing may be challenging with limited equipment and skills.
   

Professional Video Production

Pros:

1. High Production Value: Professional videos offer superior production quality, including better camera work, lighting, audio, and editing.
2. Creative Flexibility: Professionals can create visually captivating shots, animations, and effects that enhance storytelling.
3. Targeted Messaging: Skilled professionals can craft videos that precisely convey your intended message, aligned with your brand identity.
4. Credibility: A well-produced video can enhance your brand's credibility and leave a lasting impression on viewers.

Cons:

1. Higher Costs: Professional video production often involves more resources, equipment, skilled crew, and associated costs.
2. Time-Consuming: Creating professional videos requires careful planning, shooting, editing, and post-production, leading to longer turnaround times.
3. Less Relatable: In some cases, professional videos might appear more polished but less relatable or authentic to certain audiences.
   

Choosing the Right Approach

The choice between an amateur smartphone video and a professional production should be guided by your objectives, target audience, platform and brand guideline:

• Audience: Consider your target audience's preferences. If they value authenticity and relatability, an amateur video might work. If they expect high-quality visuals and polished content, a professional video could be more suitable.
• Goals: Determine your video's purpose. For formal presentations, marketing campaigns, or brand showcases, professional quality may be more appropriate. For casual updates or behind-the-scenes glimpses, an amateur approach might suffice.
• Platform: The platform where you'll share the video matters. On social media, short, authentic smartphone videos can engage well, while professional videos may suit websites,
  advertisements, or presentations.
  

However, do note that content type and brand guidelines are equally important. Do you know that MNCs and the bigger Brands still engage professional creative video production agency to produce their social content and make it authentic with floaty effect like being shot on a smartphone, yet super sharp with depth and super fab background?

Yeah - it's all about understanding the medium. And when we talked about Brand guideline, your content has a direct impact on the content quality even though it's for social media. You don't want to position your brand as cheap as it look.

// VideoCheese is a full suite video production house.
We do the heavy lifting work for you. //

Understanding of the Medium

A professional video production team knows how to use those tools to communicate effectively. A chef, for example, has in-depth knowledge about cooking, and they can turn ingredients into gourmet meals with flavors that jump off the plate and create an extraordinary experience. A professional video production crew brings that same level of expertise to the video medium, producing results that make the skill behind them obvious to anyone.

Creating an Effective Approach

Professional video producer Singapore consider the needs of the video’s audience. Their experience with the creative approach enables them to tell stories deftly, provide instruction persuasively, and explain concepts expertly through video, and they ensure the message is clear.

Engaging Storytelling

Just writing down words is not the same as scripting. Telling someone something in basic terms doesn’t engage their imagination and deliver a memorable message. Professional video production teams can construct a story and put together interviews in a way that engages the audience, whether the video is teaching them something new or selling them on a different product or concept.

Professional video production Singapore and crews work in this medium every day. They guide their clients from conception to shooting the video and crafting the final product in post production. They have the ideas, strategies, and tools to pull off the process more artfully and effectively than an inexperienced person can conceive of doing with amateur equipment

There are two core reasons that hiring a professional video production crew is better than taking the DIY approach — quality and engagement. Videos cannot fulfill their purpose if the audience is bored and thinking about other things. Quality affects these aspects of the video as well:

1. Compelling Imagery:

Pointing a camera and shooting is not the same as composing a shot. Professional film makers have imagination, technical precision, and experience in their craft, and they know how to set up shots that add compelling imagery to the video.

2. Professional Lighting Techniques:

Illumination is different from lighting. Homemade videos can tend to look flat and muddy. Professional lighting techniques bring the images to life, add artistry and depth, and ensure that people look realistic. Video production services Singapore like us, do exactly that. We help elevate your brand and make you look good!

3. Clear Audio: Many people hyperfocus on the visual aspects of the video, and they forget that sound is at least half of the experience. Professional video production crews record clear audio. They also add music and sound effects in post-production. That helps tell the story.

4. Skilled Editing: Jamming images together is not the same as editing. Editing refers to deftly constructing visual stories from various shots and other source materials, including photos, graphics, animation, and text. Professional video editors and production teams bring these skills to the table.

5. Professional-Grade Equipment: Applying professional technology like prime lenses, large-format digital cinema cameras, and multiple cameras elevates the mundane to something compelling. Amateurs might not have the expertise to make videos that look or sound even close to what the right team can create with professional-grade equipment. In the world of event videography, it may not be equivalent to a video production team - as more skills are needed to capture a scripted shots in a collective effort.

Corporate videos reflect the company’s brand. A poorly made video can send the message that the company doesn’t care or doesn’t have high standards. High-quality videos, in contrast, build the idea that the company is successful, committed to excellence, and willing to work hard for its employees, customers, and other key stakeholders.

What are the Common Pitfalls of Opting for Amateur Video Over a Professional Production?

The advantages of hiring a professional video production crew are clear, but some people may still be tempted to make their own corporate videos. The DIY approach comes with a lot of risks. Business owners and managers should consider the following before shooting their own corporate videos:

• Color correction: Raw footage (direct-from-camera) can create unrealistic skin tones and dull colors. Professional video production agency would have shot in flat color profile, followed by color correction and grading in post-production to ensure that images pop off the screen and won’t leave viewers wondering why faces look weird in the video.
• Audio Capturing: Sound recorded from smartphones or prosumer recording device has limited ability to control the audio quality. Professional audio recording devices equipped with equalization and configurations that works with different environment. Let alone the state-of-the-art microphones that helps to capture the dialogs and interviews efficiently.
• Motion graphics and animation have to be used with finesse. This task often requires investing in expensive editing software.
• Lastly, what amteur smartphones or self-filming is lacking is the Expertise. Here is why companies and brands are willing to spend to produce a professional polished video.

Video production professionals know how to ensure technical accuracy. They simplify visual elements, eliminate distracting colors, properly litted environment, enhance images with sound, and artfully bring everything together to create a polished, persuasive finished product.

Learning all these skills to create a DIY video might not be an effective or sustainable use of time for most business owners or managers. They should focus on the other aspects of running a business and outsource this task to the pros (like us).

Your Go-To Professional Video Production Agency

VideoCheese Production creates high-quality professional videos for corporate clients and a wide range of other business purposes. We bring unparalleled creative vision, a cinematic storytelling approach, and functional expertise to every project.

Our team of production specialists has completed countless projects in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and London, but we’re also willing to travel to your location. Contact us today to talk about your upcoming corporate video project.

It's A Wrap! Now, Conclusion.

Ultimately, the success of a video hinges on its ability to connect with and engage your target audience. Consider your resources, goals, audience preferences, and the message you want to convey to determine which approach aligns best with your needs. Finding the right video production agency takes a bit of research and careful consideration. But by following these tips, you'll be able to find a video content partner that aligns with your goals, delivers high-quality videos, and helps you achieve your marketing objectives.

Author: Arigatographer
Digital Strategist and Video Producer

At VideoCheese, we are on a mission helping brands, companies make strategic videos that engages their target audience. Our services includes:

• Filming and crew
• Video production
• Live-streaming services
• Event management and AV production
• Video marketing and Digital strategy
• Motion graphic animation
• Media production services

Let us know how VideoCheese can help you with. We are ready to go!