Each production we encounter is so vastly different from the previous one, some require fast cars, drones, actors, large crews, multiple additional production elements, and a lot of time to produce, and, some productions might just need one camera, thus we treat each production as its own unique and valued piece, and price accordingly. Please read the contents of this page for a better understanding of your video production investment.
1. YOU PAY FOR QUALITY
A Mercedes costs more than a bakkie because you’re paying for the upgraded features and workmanship. The Same goes for video production. And, just like cars, it’s sometimes hard to explain the difference in quality, but it’s easy to see and feel the difference through the investment and experience provided.
2. DIFFERENT VIDEOS HAVE DIFFERENT PRICES
No matter the brand, the fancy car with more features is more expensive than the economy car. This is the same for video production. The more features and the longer it takes to create the video product the more expensive the project, but the more money and resources we can invest back into the overall project. After all, you’re paying the crew by the hour, special or upgraded equipment, a bigger team and the specialty level of each crew member involved in order to bring about the best results that reflect on the budget, just like a fancy or economic car. In general, the length of your video and extra features will determine the cost of your video production. If you’re looking for a benchmark, some production houses use R10,000 per produced minute. But while that’s a nice-sounding guideline, it’s not completely accurate. A highly produced, multi-character, 3-minute video, with extra or pro features might cost way more than R20,000, or way, way more for commercials, compared to a simple 10-minute recording of a speech which should cost way, way less to produce. So it’s more complicated than that. Just like a fancy sports car will cost a lot more because of its special features than a much larger bakkie.
3. YOU PAY EXTRA FOR SPECIAL FEATURES
This is probably the clearest similarity. Video productions start out with an hourly or daily rate for the video crew and editing, just like the economy vehicle. But when you add extra features – like a turbo or a fancy audio system – the work and expertise goes up and thus the video production price has to increase.With all that in mind, the secret to understanding the cost of video production is understanding what kinds of features will actually add to the cost of your video.
4. Characters
How many people are we shooting? If you have one central character, one interview can only take so much time – and your video isn’t likely to be all that long and complex. Extra interviews usually make your video better, but they take more time – to shoot, to log, dump, to edit into the final product – and those hours add up.
5. Locations
How many places are we shooting? If it’s one-stop shopping, with one or two interviews in the same place as the rest of the video, you might be looking at a half-day shoot. But if the crew needs to go from place to place, you’re paying for both travel time and set-up time, not to mention a more complex video. Yes, your video production is likely to be much more interesting, but it’s also likely to be much more costly.
6. Extra Production Details
Extra graphics, animations, and other production tricks all make the final product better – and we love to do them – but remember, many of those techniques take extra editing time. And as you’ve learned, time (in the video production world) really is money.
7. Length of Video
Video length can be tricky, because a simple long video can be less expensive than a more complex short one – but if the production values are the same, the longer more complex productions will always be more expensive, and the shorter, less complex with less features video production will be less expensive.
8. CONCLUSION
Producing a video can be expensive. However, not all video is created equal. The important thing to remember is time, people, and gear, (those fancy extra features) tend to drive the cost of video production. If you want to produce a video with underwater footage, mountaintop vistas, and five different locations, it can be done – just be prepared to spend more. Likewise, maybe a few shorter, high-level videos on your landing pages are the perfect use of video for you. Lowering use of those resources helps to keep costs down.Ultimately, the cost of your video directly reflects the number of professionals, specialty equipment and additional logistics and elements that are needed to help execute your vision. If your story is best told using multiple cameras, an audio technician, and a field producer over multiple shoot dates, it will likely cost more. If the best way to tell your story can be captured with one camera during one half-day shoot, the budget will likely be less.At Sonnix, We invest time and money into making sure that your production receives the highest quality, with that being said, rest assured that we only work with professional crew and equipment so that you receive the best value, service, and experience. Sonnix Studios has implemented a unique variable quoting system based on your requirements. Whether it’s a Commercial, Premium, Standard, or Budget production, we will be able to tailor our pricing to accommodate your budget requirements.Remember, video production is an investment! Your investment.Our rates are competitive and if you receive a quotation from another production house better than ours, let us know and we can negotiate for the best value!
