How Much Does a Video Cost?
|
One of the first questions most people ask when they realise they need a piece of video content is ‘how much is it going to cost?”. The good news is; it doesn’t have to cost very much at all.
Seriously, pull out your phone, switch on the camera app and hit record! There you go; you just made a video and it cost you nothing. You might not want to use it to promote the launch of a new product from your company though. At least, not yet… It is true that not all video is equal, but there are a range of places and contexts you might come across effective, engaging video that’s not necessarily of the best technical quality; the shaky footage of a news event taken by a bystander; the YouTube fails videos, even the video you shot of your niece’s first birthday party; they all do the job they were intended for; they engage, entertain or provoke an emotional response. However, if you want to make a short promo to showcase your businesses products or services, you will probably need to invest a bit more time or money… Exactly how much money is difficult to predict without specific details;
But what about the actual cost? You rarely hear anyone in the industry talk openly about their rates as there are soooo many variables involved but, ballpark; if you hire a recent film or media graduate with a DSLR and some basic kit, you could expect to pay up to a couple of hundred pounds per day for their time shooting and, most likely these days, editing. That doesn’t sound like bad value, but you may encounter some drawbacks such as a lack of high end kit, small crew, lack of experience in storytelling (the basis of any film or video). These might not be a problem for that talking heads video, or the conference you need filmed, but you may need to bring more experience onboard for a product launch or a customer-facing promo. That’s the lower end of the scale. What about the higher? Well, I recently heard about a high-end car manufacturer which spent over £300K on a sub-30 second cinema ad. Just a car. In a street. With some lighting hired in. And a very expensive director… So, let’s concentrate on the other end of the scale again; if we break it down for a small production, filming live action/talking heads using people from the company, where you’ve written a brief (see our guide to Writing a Video Brief), want a short 1-2 min promo for your business/service/product, maybe some 2d motion graphics with your branding/titling. Here’s what you might reasonably expect to pay: Pre-Production: - 1-2 days planning/scripting - £500 Production: - 1 shoot day (inc director, DP, assistant, Kit) - £1500 Post-Production: - Edit, Music, Graphics, Colour grade, audio dub, export, delivery - £1500 So a total of around £3500 for that 1-2 minute promo might be about right. You could get it cheaper, but it might not match your expectations. You could definitely pay more for it, but you don’t necessarily need to spend that much for small pieces of content - especially if you need more than one per month. These days, to engage an audience and, crucially, to keep them engaged, you’ll need a constant flow of content, whether they’re an in-house audience or your customers and clients it’s more than likely going to be insufficient just to fire one video at them and assume it’ll be enough. This is where it can get expensive unless you’re producing some or all of your video content in-house. So let’s look at that. If you’re going to produce your own video in-house, you can drastically reduce the costs by cutting out the big expense of bringing in video crews for whole days at a time by establishing a small video crew of your own. You can work with what you’ve got; some days it might just be you shooting talking heads with your colleagues or customers, other days you might bring along an assistant or two, or even a colleague as a dedicated camera operator to do the filming while you direct. By handling the shooting yourself, you’ve already saved £thousands from your budget, but the next step is the edit and this is where you’ll come up against the other cost; your time. When you start editing, you’ll be progressing relatively slowly; getting to know the edit software, working out an efficient workflow with your footage, clicking everything with the mouse because you don’t know all the time-saving shortcut keys – even when you’re experienced and know what you’re doing all this takes time and, as only one aspect of your wider role, it’s likely to be time you can’t afford. A solution to this could be to outsource some or all of the editing to a professional who will be faster and more efficient and can achieve a higher-quality finish. This is the model that In-House video has developed over ten years, while training and supporting teams from organisations around the UK. We have taught marcoms professionals to plan, set up and shoot their own raw footage, then we have helped support them through the edit to high-quality end result that engages their audiences. So if any of the above rings a bell, get in touch with us to see how we can save you time and money! |