So… How Much Is This Going to Cost?

If you have ever asked a production company how much a video costs and gotten some version of “it depends,” I know that answer is incredibly annoying, especially when you are just trying to figure out whether you are about to spend $2,000 or sell a kidney, but unfortunately this is one of those times where “it depends” is actually the truth.

The problem is that “a video” can mean almost anything.

A two camera interview in your office where we are filming one person for half a day is a completely different production from a campaign with talent, multiple locations, product styling, photography, a hero film, vertical edits and twelve other deliverables someone will inevitably remember they need approximately forty eight hours before launch.

Both technically involve cameras. That is about where the similarities end.

The first question is not “How long is the video?”

People sometimes assume a thirty second commercial should cost less than a five minute interview because it is shorter, but runtime tells you surprisingly little about how complicated something is to make.

A thirty second piece might require weeks of planning, casting, locations, styling, lighting, multiple scenes and a very specific edit, while a five minute interview could happen in one controlled room with a small crew and a relatively simple post production process.

So when I am estimating a project, I am thinking less about how many minutes the final video is and more about what has to happen to create those minutes.

Who needs to be there? How many locations are we working with? Are we building the concept or are you bringing one to us? Are there interviews? Products? Talent? Photography? How much needs to happen after the shoot?

That is where the budget actually starts taking shape.

Bigger is not automatically better

Not every production needs twelve people standing around a monitor pretending they are in Hollywood.

Sometimes a small crew is exactly what the project needs, especially if we are working inside a real business where taking over the entire building would be more disruptive than helpful.

Other productions genuinely need more hands because there are multiple cameras, lighting changes, talent, products, audio, styling or several things happening at once, and trying to save money by having one person do six jobs at the same time can eventually become the expensive option when something important gets missed.

The goal is not to make the production as big as possible. It is to make it the right size.

Then there is the part everyone forgets: what happens after we film?

The shoot is the visible part, so naturally that is what people think they are paying for, but a lot of production happens after everyone goes home.

There can be story editing, music, audio cleanup, color, graphics, captions, revisions, different aspect ratios, shorter versions and exports for different platforms, and depending on the project, post production can take considerably longer than the shoot itself.

This is also why it helps to know your deliverables before we film.

If you need a website film, three vertical edits, photography and a paid ad, I want to know that while the cameras are still in the room, not when the project is almost finished and somebody asks whether we can “just make it vertical.”

Sometimes we can. Sometimes the answer involves a very unfortunate crop.

So what should you actually tell us about your budget?

If you already have a number, tell us.

A budget is not an invitation for a production company to mysteriously find a way to spend every dollar you mention; it is information that helps us design something realistic.

If you have $5,000, I would rather know that at the beginning and build the best possible $5,000 production than spend a week developing an idea that was always going to cost $20,000.

Sometimes knowing the budget also helps us realize you do not actually need everything you thought you did. Maybe we combine setups, simplify the concept, prioritize the hero piece or capture supporting content while everything is already set up.

The better question is usually not “How much does video cost?”

It is “What can we make with this budget that will actually be useful?”

That is where I would rather start.