Video Production Questions, Answered
What video production actually costs
Most production companies won’t put a number on a website. We understand why — every project is different, and a range invites the wrong comparison. But “it depends” is a useless answer to a fair question, so here’s the honest version.
Three starting points, because three kinds of work.
A videographer covering your event and a five-person commercial shoot are different jobs, priced differently.
The biggest difference is people
Every person on set adds capability, and cost. Here is how crew size maps to the work.
| Crew | Typical work | Starts at |
|---|---|---|
| One videographer | Event and conference coverage, a simple interview, quick social clips. Available light, one camera operator doing it all. | $1,500 |
| Two-person crew | Testimonials and lit interviews, training modules, multi-camera event highlights. One shoots, one handles lighting and sound. | $2,500 |
| Full crew (4+) | Commercials and brand films: scripts, talent, controlled lighting, a director. Pre-production is a big part of the job. | $8,000 |
Starting points, not quotes. Days on site, locations, gear and the number of finished pieces move every project up from here.
What moves a project from the low end to the high end comes down to five things. It’s the same five every time.
The crew the quality requires
Crew size is the single biggest lever, and it isn’t about having more hands on set. It’s about what the footage needs to look like.
A one-person crew shooting available light and a four-person crew with a gaffer, a grip, and a dedicated audio mixer produce visibly different work. You’ll see the difference on a conference room screen even if you can’t name what changed.
We scope the smallest crew that gets you the quality you’re after — not the largest one we can justify. And crew size is really the same conversation as the next one.
How much light we have to control
This is where most of the budget conversation actually happens, and it’s the part clients almost never anticipate.
Are we making midday feel like early morning? Are we shooting interviews at noon and need to soften the sun so it isn’t carving shadows across your CEO’s face? Both are solvable. Both take bigger units, more grip equipment, and more people to move and shape it.
Working with the light costs less than replacing it. If your schedule lets us shoot when the light is already doing what we want, that’s a real saving — and it’s the first thing we look for when we build a schedule.
How many days it takes to get everything
How many shoot days the content list actually requires. Number of locations, travel between them, and how much coverage you want all roll into this.
One well-planned day beats two loose ones almost every time, which is why we spend real effort on the shot list before anyone loads a truck. Adding a second day is never a small increase — it’s crew, gear, and travel all over again.
The gear the project calls for
Most projects don’t need a specific camera. Some do.
If you need RED or ARRI — because of a brand standard, a broadcast delivery spec, or a look you’re matching across existing footage — that’s a rental line, and specialty lenses are another. Gimbals, sliders, jibs, and drones each add equipment cost and usually an operator to run them.
We’ll tell you honestly when specialty gear will show up on screen and when it’s just going to show up on the invoice.
What you need at the end, and how much of it
The type and number of finished pieces. A brand film plus twelve social cutdowns pulled from the same interviews is very different work from a brand film alone. The shoot might be identical; the edit isn’t close.
Deliverables decided before the shoot cost a fraction of deliverables requested after it. If we know on the day that you want vertical social cuts, we frame for them and capture the coverage while the lights are already up. Asking six weeks later means working with whatever we happened to get — and occasionally it means shooting again.
Bring us the full list up front, even the maybes. It’s the cheapest thing you can do for your own budget.
Where commercial campaigns land
Commercial campaign ranges, not quotes. One production day at a single location sits at the bottom of the first band. A three-day multi-location shoot with a full lighting package and a dozen cutdowns can pass the top of the second.
The fastest way to an actual number
Tell us five things and we can usually quote within a business day:
- What the video is for, and who watches it
- Where it needs to be shot, and how many locations
- When you need it delivered
- What you need at the end — every deliverable, including the maybes
- What you’re working with for budget
That last one isn’t a trick. Knowing the number lets us tell you what’s achievable inside it, or say plainly that it isn’t — which saves us both a week.
Free quote, no obligation · We respond within one business day