This is the number one question that we are asked. Understandably 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.
However video pricing is not a precise art because each individual project has 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 production company.
Once you are armed with some detailed knowledge of your aims you can provide your chosen video production company with the information they will need in order to provide a much more accurate budget estimation. This budget is in no way final and does not include details such as travel and media costs, but it is a good indication of how much the final project will cost. The more detail we have about the project, the more accurate the initial budget can be made. The primary consideration is that the devil is in the detail.
Generally you will need to establish how much you are willing to pay for any given video production. Approaching a video company and reuqesting how much it will be to, say, 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.
Do not however judge budgets based on running times. A basic no frills video of 10 minutes duration can cost much less than a complicated graphics laden promo 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 your budget and requirements.
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.