Video Production and Corporate Video Costs
Corporate video costs and corporate videos can wield tremendous influence over buying decisions, with a recent ComScore survey finding that video makes customers 64% more likely to buy a product after having watched a video about a product or brand. Clearly, a professional video can potentially have a strong return on investment.
The first question that usually springs to mind in the decision of whether to make a professional video is, “How much will it cost?” It’s a fair question, but the answer depends on many factors. For example, the cost of having a subject matter expert speak to a camera differs from the cost of a “storytelling” video. No matter how simple your project, many ingredients go into the finished product. Ultimately, you want to spend your production dollars carefully, and have as much of your corporate video costs show up in the final product as possible. Here are 6 factors affecting corporate video costs.
1. Pre-Production Costs
Pre-production is a decision-making time, but money is spent here also. For example, you may hire a scriptwriter. Depending on where you want to shoot the video, you may have to reserve and put a deposit down on a location. If you need actors, you’ll have to determine how many you need, as well as the costs of auditioning and hiring them. If you’re working with a production company, find out if their corporate video production rates include pre-production costs like scriptwriting and hiring actors.
2. Production Costs
Production is the making of your video: the creation of footage and sound that go into the finished product. Influences on corporate video production rates during the production phase include the cost of the camera and associated equipment. The right camera, lenses, tripod, slider, or other equipment is essential to having professional production quality and can run to $1,000 per day or more. You also need the correct lighting, because every camera’s sensors are different. Fortunately, lighting rental is far less than camera rental.
3. Post-Production Costs
The basic rule of thumb is $1000-$2000 per finished minute for a standard corporate project. There are minimums and variations of course but this is a good place to start.. For very simple “talking head” videos without scenes, that number might be lower, however. Costs for post-production depend on how creative you have to get with your footage and sound, whether you’re including animation, and other considerations. And this is all assuming that you captured high quality video and audio based on a good script or treatment with good actors or on camera stakeholders. Having to re-shoot anything can drive corporate video production rates much higher.
4. Cast and Crew Costs
Remember, even if you only need a number of “extras” to populate the backgrounds of your scenes, if you get actors to fill these roles, they have to be paid. Always consider these costs during pre-production to better gauge what your corporate video costs will be. The crew operating the equipment is equally important. Some shoots require dedicated audio technicians, grips and gaffers. Others can be produced by small one and two person crews.
6. Location Costs
If you’re shooting in a corporate office or environment, this won’t be much of an issue. If you’re shooting anywhere else, however, you have to include transportation, set-up, and take-down costs when calculating your budget. Obviously, there are many places you’ll have to obtain permission from before shooting video there, and this, too should be taken care of as early in pre-production as possible. Finally, remote locations may require that different lighting packages and generators to accomodate the production requirements. These all add up
Conclusion
Video production rates vary depending on how complex your project is, and budget discussions should take place early in the talks with any production company you consider working with. We invite you to contact us at Foundation Digital Media to discuss corporate video costs. Located in Washington, DC, we offer an extensive menu of services including video production, editing and aerial videography. We’d be more than happy to answer your questions.
