How much does a corporate web or training video cost? 5 Factors that affect video production costs.

May 17, 2012 - PRLog -- Corporate Video production can cost as much or as little or as your budget allows.

You can borrow a flip camera, shoot some video and upload it to YouTube – all for free. Or you could hire James Cameron to write, produce and direct your video where you’d be looking at a budget just shy of  half a billion dollars when you include marketing costs and Hollywood accounting. Both options would result in a finished video but you’d probably need special glasses to watch the the more expensive option.

The good news for businesses looking to engage a corporate video production company is that many of the factors that affect the price of a video have been going down over the last few years. Some dramatically. Assuming you find a company that does great work (this is a critical first step by the way – if the company doesn’t do great work it’s not worth paying anything for) the first question to be answered is  ‘how much does a video cost?’ There is no simple answer to that question but here are 5 factors (ranked in order of importance to the overall quality of the video) that affect the price of a web, training or corpoarte video:

Corporate Video Production Experience. Doctors, mechanics, lawyers, videographers… whatever profession you care to mention, experience matters more than any other factor and, all things being equal, you do tend to get what you pay for. There are many, many moving parts in the creation of a video but at the end of the day you are paying for the expertise and experience of the key people responsible for your video.

1. Pre-production: There's a lot to do for a job like this, but I would think bidding two or three days at a median cost of $500.00 to $600.00 a day would be reasonable. You'll also need location scouting at about the same rate plus photographic materials and mileage/expenses. If you need permits and location fees, don't forget to add for that.

2. Shooting: Here your costs vary broadly, all the way from around $500.00 a day for a guy with an SP camera to the moon for a full crew. I would think you might be looking at $3000.00 to $6000.00 a day for shooting crew and equipment, and it's very easy for this to run up well into five figures. I would be surprised if you did not need a couple of police officers as well for safety concerns if you are shooting near a public street.

Your number of shoot days depends on the number of shots in your breakdown and the time between setups. I would guess that you need at least three or four days to shoot; you can do the math.

3. Post Editing: Perhaps three or four days of NLE for the cutting, probably more. Don't forget to add time for graphics which can be either simple or very complex. Rates are typically $1200.00 and up per day.

4. Post Audio: You'll need recording time for any VO and you'll pay fees for licensed music; I think I'm charging around $45.00 per cut, plus an hourly fee for music search. I'm sorry I don't remember what we're currently charging in Audio, but I think it's around $150.00/hour. If you wish to do sweetening, you'll pay around $150.00 and hour for that. Personally, I think virtually every job requires sweetening.

5. Markup: That's your profit and a cushion for correcting problems that inevitably come up. Typically around 15% to 22%.

Some producers furnish ballpark figures based on a cost per finished minute; while this method is only slightly more accurate than reading the entrails of a chicken, it can give you a starting place if the production company has enough history in the genre to establish a benchmark. Start at $500.00 for the low, low end and start climbing from there.

One more thing; it's not uncommon to be asked to do a job for some predetermined figure. Then the task is somehow allocating the resources to do the project.

I hope this helps; If you want more specific estimates, you'll have to share a lot more information.

If you need our help with your next project, contact us at http://www.busyboyproductions.com or email us at info@busyboyproductions.com