How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video
Remove the confusion around video pricing. Learn the 4 biggest factors that will affect your video costs. Arm yourself with the right information before you speak to another videographer.
How much does video production cost? This is a question we get asked a lot. In this blog post, we will give you a general idea of the cost of video production.
Learn about the cost of video production and the various factors that go into pricing a video project.
Have you ever wondered how much it costs to make a video? If so, then today I’ll show you the four biggest factors that will define the cost of your next video marketing project. The 4 factors are quantity, production quality, locations and strategy.Now I’ll go into each of these factors in a bit more detail.
1. Quantity: How Many Videos Do You Want to Make
The first factor that will determine the cost of your next video project is quantity. How many videos do you want to make?
Here’s the reason. With every video project, there are minimum overhead costs.. These are actual hard costs such as hiring equipment, camera operators, sound technicians, studio spaces and so on. For more complex projects, you might even need to hire actors, make-up artists and voice over artists.
Many of these will typically have their own day rates. Regardless of how many videos you make during that time.
For example, a typical camera operator’s day rate is in the region of $1000 to $2000. That’s regardless of whether you use their footage to make just one video or 10 videos.
That’s why as a general rule, the more videos you film in a single day, the more cost effective it will be. So always plan ahead with strategy, research and scripting. This will allow you to film more videos in one session. Giving you a bigger bang for your buck.
2. Production Quality: How highly produced do you want your videos to be?
The second factor is production quality. How highly produced do you want your video to be? There are two parts to it. One is filming. The other is editing.
Here are a few factors to consider for filming. Do you want to film using just one camera angle? Or do you need a multi camera setup? More camera angles means increased costs of hiring camera operators and equipment. The same goes for other production equipment such as props, lighting, mics, sound recorders and so on.
Another filming factor to consider is b-roll. As in, do you want to film cutaways scenes that show your working environment? Or do you just want a talking head video with some stock footage added? Filming cutaways requires the video team to spend more time with you on set, whereas selecting and adding stock footage will increase time spent in editing. So make sure you know why you’re choosing one over the other or a mix of both.
Post production on the other hand is all about editing and motion graphics. On the editing side, there’s trimming, colour correction, colour grading, music and sound design to consider. On the motion graphics side, there’s title animations, lower thirds, visual effects, logo animations and screen animations to consider.
Needless to say, the more complex your video is, the more it’s going to cost.
3. Locations: How Many Locations Do You Need Filming?
The third factor that will affect the cost of your next video project is locations. Do you want to film in just one or in multiple locations?
Adding more locations will mean adding the time taken to travel between them. It will also increase transportation costs, set up time, and finally pack down time after filming is finished.
The further apart the locations are, the more time you lose in transit. Time that could have been spent filming instead.
That’s why, it’s advisable to not film more than two locations in a single day of filming. This also forces you to focus more on the content and strategy rather than just on the visuals. Because ultimately, it’s the strategy that will drive real world results.
4. Video Strategy: How Much Strategic Support Do You Need?
Which takes us nicely to the fourth and final video cost factor. And that is the amount of strategic support you’ll need.
Here are some things to consider. Do you have your own video marketing strategy? If so, do you know which videos to make first?
Will you be doing your own audience research? What about your messaging? Do you know how to hook viewers within seconds and keep them engaged throughout? Or do you need help with script structures and development?
And finally, how are you going to put your videos in front of your target audiences? Do you have a distribution plan? Are you going to use paid advertising or organic or both? How are you going to track KPIs to know what’s working and what’s not.
And are you going to implement it all by your self? Or do you need someone to do it for you?
All of this should be known long before hiring a videographer. For any video to be successful in this age of information overload, you need strategy to drive meaningful results.
That’s why it saddens me to see so many companies spend 10s of thousands of dollars on making videos that look great . But they lose their effectiveness soon after the initial buzz of making a video has worn off.
By having a strategy, you’ll make sure this won’t happen to you. So keep that in mind. Making a video is only half the battle. But the real result driver is going to be the strategy behind it.
Conclusion
So to quickly summarise, the 4 biggest factors that will determine the cost of your next video project are the number of videos you make, the complexity of each video, the number of locations you film in and the level of strategy support you need.
But ultimately, your videographer should be able to show you ROI. In other words, how will their video strategy help you achieve your business goals? This will show you how much you can actually afford to spend on the video project. Rather than having to come up with some random number.
If you want our help in finding this, then click the link provided and we can take it from there. Otherwise thank you for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.
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