This Is How Maker Studios Scales Video Production For The YouTube Generation

As one of the earliest multichannel networks on YouTube, Maker Studios has built a pretty big business out of putting talent first. Founded four years ago by some of the biggest YouTubers of the time, the company was designed to provide its creators the tools to collaborate with one another and create really compelling videos.

The founders began working together and built a community in which they could leverage each other’s skills to improve their content. That collaboration turned into a big business, with a very diverse and growing group of creators that are part of its network. Unlike some vertically focused multichannel networks on YouTube, Maker has everything from gaming to comedy to music and women’s lifestyle channels.

“This company really is rooted in talent,” COO Courtney Holt told me. “It was a talent-first company; it remains a talent-first company. Our goal is to work very collaboratively with the talent and provide the services they need.”

With that in mind, the company designed a production space that was built to scale — that is, for creators to be able to very quickly set up, shoot, and edit high-quality videos in a short period of time. With that space, it’s able to not only increase the number of videos that can be shot, but also the average quality of each.

It does that by keeping things lean and agile. All of its sets are built to be built and torn down in just a few hours, which enables it to have multiple productions shot over a few days. It also stores and catalogs all its set pieces so that it’s easy for them to be re-used whenever they’re needed. And of course, it’s got makeup, wardrobe and post-production.

Watch the video above to learn more about how Maker has evolved, and how it is working with creators to step up their productions. And check out the rest of our series on all the new digital media companies that have emerged in Los Angeles over the last few years: