Short videos need ideas, filming, editing, posting and counting, every week. Someone has to do all five. Here’s how the three usual options compare, who owns what they make, and the questions that tell you which one fits.
On this page
What the job involves
Short video for a business is five jobs, done every week:
- Ideas and scripts. A month of them, every month.
- Filming at your business. When it’s open, busy and looking its best, which is also when everyone is working.
- Editing. Cutting for pace, with captions, on-screen text, music and sound.
- Posting. On TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts, each in its own app.
- Counting. Checking what each post did, so next month is better.
Filming is the job that’s easiest to underestimate. Ideas can be written on a quiet evening; filming has to happen in the middle of the day, in front of customers, with the people who are busiest.
Count the hours before you choose
Before comparing options, write down who would do each job and how many hours a month it would take them. A sheet like this one, filled in with your own numbers, shows where the time would come from:
| Job | Who would do it | Hours a month | What it replaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ideas and scripts | Name them | Your estimate | What they’d otherwise be doing |
| Filming at the business | Name them | Your estimate | Serving, fixing, treating |
| Editing | Name them | Your estimate | Evenings, often |
| Posting on four platforms | Name them | Your estimate | Office time |
| Counting and planning next month | Name them | Your estimate | Office time |
If one name appears in every row and that person already has a full job, the plan depends on their spare time, and spare time is the first thing a busy week takes.
Your own team
Good at: knowing the business, being there every day, catching moments as they happen.
Watch for: the person filming also has a job. In a busy week, posting slips first. The ideas run thin after the first month, and when that person leaves, the know-how leaves with them.
What they need: hours set aside in the schedule, a phone that films well, a small microphone, and someone who decides what goes up.
Who owns the videos: under Canada’s Copyright Act, when an employee makes a work “in the course of his employment”, the employer is the first owner of the copyright “in the absence of any agreement to the contrary” (Copyright Act, section 13(3)). A video an employee films for the business, as part of their job, is normally the business’s.
Fits when: someone on staff enjoys filming and has hours set aside for it.
A freelancer
Good at: one part of the job, often editing or shooting, with flexible hours.
Watch for: one person usually covers one or two of the five jobs above. Ask who comes up with the ideas, who posts, and what happens when they’re away.
Who owns the videos: a freelancer isn’t an employee, so the general rule applies: “the author of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright therein” (section 13(1)). The freelancer usually owns what they film and edit unless they transfer it or agree otherwise, and the Act says no assignment “is valid unless it is in writing signed by the owner of the right” (section 13(4)). Moral rights, such as the right to be named as the author, “may not be assigned but may be waived” (section 14.1). So a freelance agreement should say, in writing, that the videos are assigned to the business, and include a waiver of moral rights.
Employee or contractor: calling someone a freelancer doesn’t settle it. The Canada Revenue Agency uses a two-step approach: first what the two sides intended, then whether the facts match, looking at control, tools and equipment, subcontracting or hiring helpers, financial risk, investment and management, and the chance of profit (Canada Revenue Agency, employee or self-employed). Someone who works only for you, on your schedule, with your equipment, may be an employee in the CRA’s eyes; ask your accountant before you set it up.
Fits when: you have the ideas and the time to manage, and need skilled hands for one part.
An agency
Good at: covering every job as a team, with a plan before the month starts, and carrying on through holidays and sick days.
Watch for: templates that make every client look the same, and promises of effort with nothing you can count at the end. Ask to see films made for businesses like yours.
Who owns the videos: the agency’s own people make them, so the agreement decides. Read the ownership clause: which files become yours, when, and whether you can keep posting them after you leave.
Fits when: nobody on your team has the time, and you want the whole month done.
Side by side
| Question | Your own team | A freelancer | An agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who comes up with the ideas? | Your staff | Usually you | The agency |
| Who films at the business? | Your staff, between other work | The freelancer, on booked days | The agency, on planned visits |
| What happens in a holiday or a busy week? | Posting can slip | Depends on one person | Ask who covers it |
| Who usually owns the videos first? | The business, for videos made as part of the job (section 13(3)) | The freelancer, for what they made, until assigned in writing | The agency, whose people made them, until the agreement transfers them |
| Who manages it? | You | You | The agency, with you approving the direction |
Who owns a video first depends on who made each part of it, and on what basis; an agreement between you can change that, and a signed assignment transfers the rights it names.
Keep the accounts in the business’s name
Whoever makes the videos, the accounts should belong to the business. Register each one with an email address the business controls, keep a list of who can log in, and when someone stops working on them, change the password and remove their access. An account opened with a freelancer’s personal email can leave with the freelancer.
A middle way: your team films, someone else plans
If someone on your team films well but the ideas are the hard part, you can buy the plan alone. Our DIY plan is $1,750 a month: Our strategy and content plan, filmed by your own team. It comes with 20 complete post scripts, with references, captions and storyboard, and our guide to “How to write a short video script” shows how a script works.
What to put in writing, whoever you choose
- What a month includes: how many videos and other posts, and on which platforms.
- Who owns the finished videos, from when, and whether you can keep posting them after the work ends.
- For a freelancer, a written assignment of the videos and a waiver of moral rights.
- Who holds the logins, and how access ends.
- What you can count at the end of the month, and how it is counted.
- How either side ends the arrangement, and with how much notice.
Common mistakes
- Handing filming to whoever is free. Without hours set aside, posting stops in the first busy week.
- Nothing in writing with a freelancer. Without a signed assignment, the freelancer still owns the videos.
- Accounts on someone’s personal email. They can leave with that person.
- Judging by followers. Ask what they made for businesses like yours, and what it did.
Where we fit
We’re an agency for short video. We plan the month, film at your business, edit and post on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts, and every plan guarantees its views. Once a month is paid, the videos we delivered that month are yours to post and repost anywhere, during and after our agreement. Read how that went for Icon Auto Centre and Da.Si.Mar Shawarma, or compare the plans.
Questions owners ask
Is it cheaper to hire someone in-house?
It can be, if the person really has the time. Count their hours for filming, editing and posting, then compare that with a monthly plan that covers all of it.
Who owns the videos a freelancer makes for my business?
Usually the freelancer, as the author of what they film and edit, unless an agreement says otherwise. A signed, written assignment transfers the rights it names; ask for one, with a waiver of moral rights.
What should an agency show me before I sign?
Films it made for businesses like yours, what a month includes, who owns the videos, and what it promises at the end of the month.
Can my team film while someone else plans?
Yes. With DIY ($1,750 a month), we give your team the strategy and the content plan, with 20 complete post scripts, with references, captions and storyboard. Your team films.
How do I start?
Apply to work with us: a few quick questions about your business. We read every application, and if we can help, we write back to set up a free thirty-minute video call. Apply to work with us
Keep reading
- CostWhat does social media management cost?
- ChoosingWhat is UGC, and does a local business need it?
- Making videosHow to write a short video script (template)
- RestaurantsSocial media for restaurants: what works
Sources
Updates
- : Rewritten at full length: an hours sheet for the five jobs, who owns the videos under the Copyright Act (sections 13 and 14.1 read), the CRA’s employee-or-contractor test, the accounts, a side-by-side table, a contract checklist and common mistakes.