Why does video production cost so much?

Clients are all the same, basically.

So often, the question comes up with any video project ” how much does a video cost?” – this article is going to be our definitive answer to that question.

Let’s first start by getting something out of the way. Corporate clients looking for video production services most likely fall into two different groups. The first group is strictly looking for price. Simply put, the production of media they can use for marketing at the lowest price. The second company are the companies looking for professional talent as primary importance. Secondary to the video production quality, comes price. Our video production company is not Walmart. We are not the cheapest. We want our production skills to shine and it would be hard for anyone to find quality as good as ours in Dallas. Full service video production companies that produce high-quality media can charge a premium price because of the premium product. It’s simple economics. Supply and demand. Video production is difficult. Most of the really talented video production companies sell their services in Los Angeles and New York, not in Dallas Texas. With that said, all of the Dallas-based video production companies, also try to sell their services on the coasts because there are more clients looking for talent over price.

Video production companies are all the same, basically.

With all that talk about video clients being the same and basically in 2 different categories, Video Production Companies are that way too. The first group of video professionals are just trying to eat. They will take any media and work on it because they love it. These are the martyrs. There is another group that can tell you they can do a great job and charge lots of money for it because they can sell. These are the liars. Then there are the video production pros in Dallas that can walk the talk. They charge a lot for the productions and provide extremely good stuff. These are the hustlers.

What drives the price of video production?

High-quality productions, are like houses. In order for anyone to come up with an accurate price you have to answer a few fundamental questions.

1. Where is the house?
2. How big is the house?
3. What are the finishes inside of the house?

It’s the same with any video service company. You have to answer some more questions. How long is the video? How many people are going to be in the video? What kind of camera? How many locations? How many days is it gonna take to build it? All of these questions affect the end cost of a video. For example, training videos typically cost much more than a simple marketing video. The reason for this is there are many more final deliverable videos included in a training based series as opposed to a single marketing video. Of course, any national television commercial will easily cost $100k for a single production deliverable. Even in Dallas.

Please take into account that any company that provides videos as their agency service, is running a business.

Corporate, Productions, Pricing.

Please don’t base your expectations for a professional photography or video production fee on your experience of having paid for wedding films. They are much different. Wedding videos are shot like photo journalists take pictures of a child’s swim meet. They are there to capture the moment.

Please take into account that any company that provides videos as their agency service, is running a business. They have overhead. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Fort Worth, Austin, Singapore, Australia, the face of the moon, in order for professionals, to be professional the pricing needs to reflect the company’s ability to make money selling services. For some reason people who are involved in creative arts, are seen as people who can’t or aren’t running a business. This is partially the fault of the individual creative, as well as misunderstanding of the process on the clients part. Artsy people need to get their stuff together.

Full service video production works

There is a lot of work that goes into any video production. Full service, means that the production company can take the client idea from script writing through casting and filming and see the project through post production. This means they are delivering a finalized, completely edited project. A turnkey production. There are many, many steps to getting a video from the corporate marketing team’s idea room, and onto a screen. Each one of these steps takes time and multiple iterations. Many times this requires the cooperation and collaboration between many different highly skilled individual creatives.

Any video production typically has, copywriting, brainstorming, hand-drawn storyboarding, administrative duties, bookkeeping, accounting, event planning, travel arrangements, food catering, location scouting, photography, lighting, electricians, insurance, transportation and logistics, and then filming, directing, editing, music production and then delivery. The next time you go see a movie, pay attention to how many people are listed in the credits. Of course, if you are calling House of Sticks to take care of your video production needs in Dallas, you’re probably not calling about making a full-length feature film – we’re not gonna have an army of people involved on every project. But even the smallest of projects is going to require a little bit of everyone of the skills described above.

Video cost

So why does the video cost so much? Take into account all the things above and then add a profit margin. Not to mention the hundred thousands of dollars spent on cameras lenses and microphones.

If you have a video production project in mind or need help getting your idea from the script onto the screen, feel free to give us a call. We’re available to take any of your ideas and make them into the project would you like for them to be