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ROI

In many instances, the better question is "What will be my return on investment?" Before returning to this page to learn about cost, first click here to learn more about the ROI of motion media production.


IT DEPENDS

The Production phase of a project has about 50 major variables, so it's really impossible to tell you what your "concept" will cost to produce until it has been all the way through the Pre-Production process. This is why feature films so commonly run over budget and cost more than they need to. Some of our clients hire us to do all of the Pre-Production for a project in order to tell them how much it will cost to produce. In the film world, this is sloppily called "line production." Other clients take our recommended approach.

We recommend that you decide what role this production will play in your broad goals, budget a reasonable amount to spend based on that, and then have us complete Pre-Production so that the end product can be produced for your budget.


RULE OF THUMB

So, what's a "reasonable" budget? A long-standing "rule of thumb" for producing "videos" is that you should plan on spending around $1,000 per finished production minute. However, we have seen this rule of thumb in publications going way back. Even a popular book marketed to video makers published in 1996 states the rule of thumb at $1,000 to $2,000 per finished production minute. While it's true that production equipment has become less expensive, the price of labor has gone up and the largest cost in this business is labor. Audience expectations in terms of glossy image quality, picture resolution, cutting-edge graphics, quick cuts and other expensive factors have also increased. Most "national quality" 30-second TV spots familiar to your audience cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and many exceed $1 million. A low-budget 2-hour feature film costs around $85,000 per finished production minute. The Lord of the Rings trilogy cost almost $500,000 per finished production minute.

It is reasonable to plan on spending between $2,000 and $5,000 per finished production minute for video. (Keep in mind though that we are likely to recommend a shorter video than you currently have in mind.) The average project of our video production division has a low 5-figure total budget, so feel free to honestly share your goals and budget constraints. If we believe we can help you accomplish your goals for your investment, we will! And we have nothing but happy clients, so contact us about your project today.


ESTIMATING YOUR PROJECT

If you want an accurate estimate, contact us to talk through your goals with a project consultant. If you would like a more anonymous first step however, we encourage you to use our online interactive calculator to estimate your project. It will take about 10 minutes and will help you understand some of the complexities of motion media budgeting and help you arrive at a reasonable budget range. Click here to begin.

If you would like a more accurate estimate, please contact us for an estimate on your project.

For projects requiring investments of between $1,000 and $10,000, please click here for less expensive options.