Like most creative services, the range of cost for video production can vary, depending on a multitude of factors. Unfortunately, there is no straight answer regarding how much you’ll spend on professional video production.
Anyone can film a video on their phone, right? Well, not all video content is created equally. While many organizations do choose to produce content in-house, whether with a handheld device or a full in-house production team, there are circumstances in which outsourcing video production has great value. And in answering the question, “how much does it cost to produce professional video content?”, the answer is a reframing of the question—what is the value of professional services under the circumstances?
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As with any video production, the first consideration in making a decision on whether to outsource is the nature and goal of the project. For example, a startup looking to produce a product explainer video for use on their homepage, and perhaps on their crowdfunding page, certainly has an interest in saving on costs, but has an even greater interest in producing a video that will achieve its goal and inspire action by its audience. That startup is making its first impression, which is critical.
Taking the same example, startups commonly have limited budgets. However, the difference between hiring a freelance, “one-man band” videographer and an experienced production crew might be only a few thousand dollars, which is a lot of money to anyone, but not a lot of money in the context of a business. In the context of business, a few thousand dollars is nothing relative to the ever-green value of a high quality video promoting its brand and product.
If that same startup seeks to launch an extremely high volume content marketing campaign, the cost of outsourcing video production may not outweigh the value. Conversely, this analysis of value shifts for an organization with greater financial resources.
As a real-life example, we recently worked with TaxDrop on their crowdfunding campaign video. To bring the greatest value possible to their project, we compromised on resources and used some creative cost-saving techniques, while the TaxDrop team compromised on their budget, and the result is a video that helped them meet their fundraising goal quickly and got their brand off to a great start.
Okay, so now we’re focused on value rather than cost, but still, cost is a critical factor for all of our partners and not to be ignored. The cost of working with ASL Productions can range anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000 or more. While that’s a wide price gap, the takeaway is that our production team is extremely agile and can produce a valuable video on almost any budget, but as mentioned earlier, budgetary restrictions come with compromise, and several variables are at play when determining budget.
Video length, style, number of shoot days, location, actors, creative input, project timeline and a host of other variables can be manipulated to achieve a budget, and depending on the type of production, ASL Productions has the experience to know where compromises affect the end-goal. However, two things ASL will never compromise are quality and customer service. From TaxDrop to Salesforce and NBC Universal, every one of our partners receives the same level of attention and quality.
Generally, for multi-camera productions that require one day of shooting and less than one week of post-production, ASL tries to keep the budget from dropping below $5,000. Being results-oriented, we want to ensure that a video production will actually achieve its goal, so we are careful to educate our partners on different levels of value, and make a recommendation that satisfies both their budget and goals. If we sincerely believe that we cannot satisfy both of those criteria, we will not take on the project.
To achieve smaller budgets, we often work on retainer for partners that know they have a certain volume of video production work over a particular period. Also, there are projects for which a “one-man” band videographer actually makes sense, and we handle those as well, at costs as low as $1,000 per day.
Before you begin working with a production service such as ASL Productions you should ask yourself about your goal in creating video content, then determine the value of video content in reaching that goal. If you think that outsourcing video production is in your interests, or if you merely want to explore the idea of doing so, reach out to us at ASL any time. At ASL Productions, we are always here to answer your questions and act as a consultative resource. If we do end up collaborating, we know that you’ll love your content! Even more importantly, we know you’ll find great value in our service.
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