Most teams start by making reels themselves. Someone on the team opens an editor, records the screen and posts. That can work. The question is how many good reels it produces per week, and what else that person stops doing.
The short answer
- Make them in-house if someone on your team enjoys it, has the time, and you only need a few reels a month.
- Use Chisel if you want reels every day without taking a person off product, sales or support.
What one good reel takes
A 20 to 25 second explainer looks simple. Here's the work behind one we'd ship:
- Topic: pick one idea a stranger would care about.
- Hook: write several opening lines and pick the one that lands in under three seconds.
- Script: about 50 to 60 words that say what the tool is by second seven.
- Voice: record it or generate it, then fix the pacing.
- Visuals: capture the right screens and change the frame every few seconds.
- Captions: every word on screen, timed to the voice.
- Brand: logo, colours, end card.
- Caption and post: the text under the reel, with one clear ask.
Done carefully, that's a few hours per reel for someone who knows how, and longer while they're learning. Thirty reels a month is a part-time job.
Side by side
| In-house | Chisel | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash cost | Editing software and stock assets | $199 for 30 reels, $450 for 75 |
| Time cost | A few hours per reel, per person | Approving scripts |
| Consistency | Drops when the team gets busy | 5 reels a day until the package is done |
| Hooks | Whatever comes to mind | Scored before we build |
| Skills needed | Scripting, editing, captioning, design | None on your side |
| Control | Total | You approve every script before we build |
Where in-house wins
Nobody knows your product like your team. In-house reels can react to news the same day, and a founder talking about what they built has a voice no studio can copy. If you have that person and the time, keep doing it.
Where Chisel wins
Volume and consistency. Short-form rewards posting often, and in-house video is usually the first thing dropped in a busy week. Chisel gives you a steady supply, written from your docs and checked against them, so the person who knows the product only has to approve scripts.
The mix most teams land on
Founder or team videos for the personal posts. Chisel reels for the steady explaining: one per feature, use case, objection and release. Read how to explain your SaaS product in thirty seconds if you want to try the format yourself first. It's the same structure we use.