We consider three things before giving you a price for your corporate video.
Time. How much time do we spend planning, writing, filming, creating special effects and editing. More time, more people, more money. More return on investment from the finished product.
Talent. We’re good. We’re very good. Fact of life: talented and experienced people cost more. But you do get a better product.
Tools. We can film with an iPhone or with a full camera crew. How do you want to look in your video? Do you want people to understand what you are saying? Do you want intricate graphics that bounce all over the screen? Having the right tools matter.
Cost is important – we get that.
Particularly now with so many options – from low-cost do-it-yourself video blogs to polished corporate overviews.
Firstly – what return do you want for investing in a corporate video? Do you want to increase credibility, build your brand, attract new customers or recruit new staff? What you put in will reflect on what you get out. If you are a professional company, you need something that mirrors that. Trying to recruit top talent with a video shot on an iPhone will not help your credibility.
So based our guidelines – here’s how the price for video services is determined.
- Amateur: If you want to make a blog, do it yourself. It’s free.
- Semi-pro: Think wedding video. Filmed by someone who likes using a camera. Could be extremely talented, might just be average. Wide variation in quality and content – you get what you pay for.Approx. £500-£2000 for a 2 minute video.
- Professional: Quality is good, but if you want help with content, forget it. Solid, unexceptional. No frills. Experienced crew, basic editing. From £2000 for a 2 minute video.
- Premium: A wow video that generates buzz, wins awards and makes you look great. Captures exactly what you wanted to say. Great storyboarding, clever filming, amazing post-production tricks. Sky-high production values. Watch Tallboy’s showreel to get the idea. 3 minute video – from £7500.
Less than a decade ago, the equipment needed to make a video was prohibitively expensive and complicated. Now you may even have basic editing software on your home computer and any of your children studying for their IT GCSE will know how to create a film.
But we should think of Jamie Oliver to inject a note of caution. His easy-to-follow bish-bash-bosh Naked Chef cookbooks inspired a whole generation to go into the kitchen. And some of us now can cook really well. And others follow the recipe and still end up with something that resembles a Jackson Pollock painting rather than a plate of food. (And tastes like one too!).
And so it’s the same with video. Just like a soufflé, you may have all the ingredients – camera, editing tools, graphic software – but the skill is in putting it together. If you don’t have the right talent or time, there’s a danger that just like your soufflé, your video will end up as a mess!