HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO MAKE MY VIDEO?
In my 25 years of making videos, this is probably the question I've been asked the most. And with so many variables involved, it's a little like asking how long is a piece of string, but I've come up with a way to explain how videos can be created to fit any budget. I am going to cover three different basic approaches.
Let's take a Branding/Promo/PR company video as an example, these are typically 2-3 minute videos that explain about, or position and promote a company, or a person, its/his/her philosophy, core values, passions, achievements, products or services, usually amplified with video testimonials, and ending with a call to action. These are most often used on the front page of a web site, or on YouTube, or linked to in emails, and they can also be used in social media.
They can be created in a number of different ways, all of which affect the budget.
The most expensive way would be to do live on-location shoots and using a spokesperson and/or voice-over. Videos done this way often cost thousands of dollars.
The first way to save money would be to instead utilize a green screen studio where you have full control over the backgrounds behind the speaker, as well as the recording environment. You can see examples of these at:
https://videosforanybudget.com/green-screen-videos/
Another way to cut costs would be to also utilize existing stock footage (already recorded copyright-free video), as well as having the company owner be the spokesperson, whether on camera, or as a voice over, or both. (my prices include no-charge access to a very large library of stock footage (780,000+ HD videos - typically $60-$79 each), images (100 million+ images- typically $0.50-$10 each) and music (125,000+ tracks- typically $24.95-$49.95 each).
And if someone from the company shot product videos, or process manufacturing videos, and testimonial videos on their phone utilizing a stabilizing gimbal (see one below for under $100), and had me do all the post-production work to edit and enhance it the costs would also go down considerably. The quality of phone videos these days is remarkable. Here's an example of such a gimbal:
Best Phone Gimbal Under $100 — MOZA Mini-MI Stabilizer
So, three primary ways to do such a video could be:
- As mentioned above, the most expensive way would be to do live on-location shoots using a spokesperson, such videos typically costing several thousand dollars.
- Using a combination of green screen shooting, stock footage, company owner as spokesperson, company phone-shot footage, and having a professional editor such as myself bringing it all together with titles, music, image overlays, animations etc. This can enable the making of such videos for sometimes hundreds, instead of thousands of dollars.
- The least expensive way of all would be for someone at the company to use one of the many online video creation services. These vary dramatically in features, flexibility and price, and are usually paid monthly or annually. These range from under $10 per month to $249 per month, depending on the features. Some are free, but in their free versions they are truly unusable for professional work. Apart from the online access cost, the other main cost is staff member time, the learning curve, and a typically much more limited and inflexible end result.
In my experience, b) provides the very best combination for small budget-conscious businesses for cost-effective quality results.
To facilitate the b) approach, instead of charging per video, which can soon add up to a lot when many videos are needed (as is the case these days if a company wants to be competitive), I have a per-hour option which works like this:
Base rate: $150 per hour, which can go down to as little as $75 per hour as seen below.
Sliding scale options:
$135 per hour for a 5 hour block paid in advance -$675
$125 per hour for a 10 hour block paid in advance -$1250
$100 per hour for a 25 hour block paid in advance -$2500
$75 per hour for a 50 hour block paid in advance -$3750
Included in these prices is no-charge access to more than a million Hi Def stock footage videos (typically $60-$79 each), more than 100 million images (typically $0.50-$10 each) and more than 125,000 music tracks (typically $24.95-$49.95 each). I typically provide green screen studio shooting, and all post-production editing. I can also do on-location shooting, but this can raise the price considerably.
Apart from style and content, the script and storyboard (number and type of scenes), and the amount of editing needed, plus other post-production work such as animated and other titles, image overlays, music and sound effects, are what would determine the final cost. Also how much work would need to be done to improve or enhance the footage shot by the company could also affect the cost.
Another pricing option, which some clients prefer, is to put me on a monthly retainer whereby they can get an even better price.
And yet another option is to choose a pre-built template at https://videosforanybudget.com/ and change out the content for yours. These range from $99 per video if you do-it-yourself, to $179 if we do it for you. This explains how this works: https://videosforanybudget.com/how-does-this-work/
Some of the other video types that companies can usually benefit from are product videos (that could also re-use a lot of the content from the Branding/Promo/PR company video), Facebook video ads, and cover videos, Instagram vertical videos, logo animations, and how-to training videos (the most-searched category on YouTube). You can see some examples here:
https://videosforanybudget.com/types-of-videos/
3D Logo animations are also often used in front of each video for branding. You can see some examples of these at:
https://videosforanybudget.com/logos-and-animations/
Hope this helps.
Tony