Online collaboration tools have certainly made it easier for video editors to work remotely. If a client likes an editor’s reel and wants to hire that editor, it’s easy to ship hard drives or, in the case of smaller jobs, simply use an FTP to send raw footage.

Whether you use Frame.io, Ziflow, Dropbox, or something else, clients can watch approval cuts and then type comments directly onto the viewer window and the editor will receive those revision requests, complete with corresponding timecode. It’s all so quick, easy, and efficient.

But in this online collaborative landscape, we’ve lost something critical to the client/editor relationship: collaboration.

What’s important to remember when hiring a video production professional is that the video team often brings a fresh perspective to a client’s project. Internal marketing teams can be too close to the brand, and while that’s certainly invaluable to maintain brand consistency, it can limit creative thinking. As a result, the company may continue producing video content with the same formula again and again.

The video production company, in collaboration with the client’s marketing team, can develop content that feels new and different, because the video team isn’t as close to the brand day-to-day and, therefore, may be able to offer up ideas that the client hadn’t considered. But that will happen only if the video producers are engaged in the process.

Unfortunately, tools like Frame.io can make the editor less like a collaborator and more like an order taker. And yes, ultimately the editor works for the client and should absolutely deliver what the client wants. But the client should also give the editor an opportunity to discuss why certain editing choices were made.

When clients and editors sat in a room together for a creative review, this back-and-forth was always present. The client could stop the video, ask questions, and the editor could respond, offering an opinion as to why he/her approached the material in a certain way. Three things could happen as a result:

1. The client might agree, realizing that the editor adding something new that the client hadn’t considered.

2. The client might disagree and the editor would make changes.

3. The client and the editor might discuss other options and a compromise would be reached.

Online collaboration tools are fantastic and they’ve opened up opportunities for editors that they wouldn’t ordinarily have. However, it’s important that everyone feel engaged and invested in the creative direction of any video project. And that will only happen when clients and editors make it a point to carve out time for a creative review to watch an approval cut together and discuss.