How much does a video production cost?
This is the number one question that we are asked. With many video productions the answer is nothing at all! That's right, absolutely nothing. The rationality behind this is that if we are doing our job properly you will *make* money as a result of the video! Understandably however when a company needs approval from manaagement and accounts to go ahead with a video production they need to have a firm idea of the costs involved in the initial production.
However video pricing is not a precise art because each individual project contains its own details and nuances that have a huge effect on budgetary requirements. As a result we would urge you to read our Production Process PDF document. This will help you to establish answers to some key questions before approaching a video production company.
Once you are armed with some detailed knowledge of your aims you will be able to provide your chosen video production company with the information that they will need. You should also make sure that after having done your research that you have a ceiling budget for your project. It is never productive for a production company to be required to second guess your budget, and doing so only harms the production in the long run.
Do not concern yourself with details such as the number of days to film etc, as these will be worked out by the production company based upon project requirements and budgets. The more detail that we have about the project, the more accurate the initial budget can be made.
For example, approaching a video company and reuqesting how much it will be to produce a training video will be counter productive in that it is a very vague project outline. If on the other hand you can say that you have X amount of budget to produce a training DVD to show employees the safety procedures for using a fork lift truck, and will require an initial run of 100 copies, then the production company will be well armed to be able to say what they can do for you.
As a general guide for most companies expect to pay between £1000-£3000 for basic low budget videos up to 5 minutes in duration, £3000-£6000 for medium budget videos up to 10 minutes duration, and anything above that for more complex productions.
However, it is not wise to judge budgets based on running times. A basic no frills video of 10 minutes duration can cost much less than a complicated graphics laden promotional video of only 1 minute in length.
Do your research, know what you are prepared to pay, and stick to it. The production company can then tailor the package to suit your budget and requirements.
Do I need high definition?
This depends entirely on how your video will be displayed. For the internet high definition is not required, although it is still an option. For displaying videos at company conferences via a projector high definition would be highly desirable. In todays production environments it is becoming more cost effective to shoot video in high definition regardless of the viewing circumstances and then tailor the final video to the clients requirements. Thus even if your final output will mainly be on a standard definition DVD you will still have a high definition master to show at company events on a projector.
