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Use our Video Production Cost Estimator & Calculator Tool below to get an estimate of the budget you'll need to accomplish your video idea.

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How to Estimate & Calculate your Video Production Budget

In the current digital age with high-speed mobile internet connections and the explosion of social media content, videos are being used in all aspects of business communication. The first step to taking advantage of the incredible power of combining video marketing services and video production for business communication and promotional applications is to create a workable and reasonable budget for your video production projects.

Before you even approach a professional video production house for an estimate on their services, it is wise to have a budget in hand that details the goals, scope, and expenses your project will take to complete the project. Determine the volume of business your video production efforts will generate and the potential return on your investment (ROI). Video production companies will often have minimum requirements but are usually willing to work with you to come up a workable compromise.

What Will You Need from a Video Production Company?

Coming up with a concept and direction for your video content will help to determine the specific elements you will need a video production company to provide. Aspects that will affect your video production budget include:

• Need and number of actors
• Location rental
• Shooting schedule
• Crew size
• Visual/special effects

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Sparkhouse offers a convenient video production budget calculator that helps you break down your needs and provide an accurate estimate for our professional video production services.

To get a clear picture of exactly what a video production budget consists of, it is best to break down estimated costs into three categories - pre-production, production, and post-production.

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Pre-Production Budget Considerations

Pre-production planning builds the foundation of a successful video production project and will drive the effectiveness of your budget.

Concept

If you have created a fully formed concept for your video content, you could save money by not having to pay a professional digital marketer to do it for you. While it would add to the overall budget, hiring a company to formulate the concepts and direction of the project could save time and money in the long run.

Actors

Using actors and/or extras can be costly, depending on your needs and the nature of your source for talent. Hiring actors will lead to incidental expenses like hair, costuming, and makeup, as well as transportation and craft services. Product videos, interviews, and video testimonials are effective digital marketing videos that do not require the need to hire actors.

Locations

There is a lot that goes into securing proper locations to shoot video content, and a lot of it costly. Rental fees, permits, and cleaning services can add significant costs to your budget. You may even need to hire a location scout to find the ideal location.

Depending on the nature of the content, rental properties found on Airbnb and PeerSpace.com, the larger and more extravagant the property, the more expensive it will be to rent it, even for a short amount of time.

Videos for digital marketing and internal communication applications can be shot on location at your business. Product videos can be shot in a studio or a properly formatted room in-house.

Wardrobe, Props

Typical videos used for promotional and marketing are shot with talent dressed in traditional business attire. Adding other characters, themes, or actions will require thought and expense to make all talent realistic and character-appropriate.

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Production

Once the cameras are set and begin rolling, it is important to know exactly what and who you need to capture the footage you need for your video project. Costs can get out of hand if you do not have total control of production expenses.

Number of Shooting Days

How many hours of shooting over how many days will determine total expenses for actors, crew, location, and rental equipment. Most professional productions take 10-12 hours to shoot.  Factors that determine how many days it will take to shoot your video include:

• Schedules of actors or talent
• Distance between location shoots
• Number of shots or scenes needed to be filmed at each location
• The complexity of shots or scenes

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Production Crew

Interviews and testimonials should only need a small crew of 3-4 people, while a more elaborate shoot with a lot of moving parts may require dozens of technicians and stagehands.

Additional Production Costs

Depending on the production specifics, you may need to build in budget items for additional equipment for special needs such as:

• Super slow-mo scenes
• Moving shots
• Aerial shots
• Special effects shots
• Crane shots

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Post-Production

For many productions, once the shooting is done the work is just beginning. Post-production costs can add to your budget with the use of special effects, motion graphics, animation, and music.

Editing

Editing is a time-consuming and painstaking process to get the final product exactly the way you want it. A general rule of thumb for video editing is that it will likely take a good deal longer to complete than you think it will. The amount of footage that needs to be looked at and the target length are major factors in how much editing time will be needed to complete the project.

Animation, Special Effects

The use of special effects, animation, and animated motion graphics can bring your concept to life in ways live-action videos cannot. These post-production techniques are impactful and engaging to audiences but take the time that can add large chunks of expense to your overall video production budget.

Music, Sound Effects

Adding music and sound effects to your video will also increase both the quality of the production and your budget. You can save on usage fees by using royalty-free music that can be affordably sourced through online catalogs. Licensing fees for popular music can run into thousands depending on the artist.

Deliverables

Creating multiple versions of the same video for testing and audience targeting purposes can increase post-production time and costs.

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Video Production is an Important Business Asset

Producing professional video content for marketing and internal communications applications is an essential business asset in today's digital age. Careful planning and budgeting will help keep costs down and allow you to see a greater return on your digital marketing investment.

The video production cost estimator available at Sparkhouse will show you what you can expect and help to keep your project on budget throughout the entire process.