Why do Good videos cost so much?
Yeah. Our videos are kind of pricey sometimes.
Your boss or an internet influencer has probably told you that you need to be using video in your marketing. They are right. But they forgot to tell you how expensive it is. It can be confusing why it costs so much when its just a guy with a camera and a computer most the time right? We get that (sometimes I wonder why it costs so much too and I am the guy who owns the media company), so lets break it down for you real quick.
Heres 3 reasons why producing videos is expensive:
Equipment:
Our typical day rate at Atlas is $1850/day for one of our team members to be on set shooting videos with a customer. That sounds like a lot right? It is. But we don’t charge an equipment rental fees for our basic equipment (like cameras, lenses, drones, microphones, etc). It gets used every shoot, so why make it a line item when it gets used every day? We aren’t gonna bill ya for the pants we wear (at least not as a line item 😁).
So we’ve got equipment baked into that day rate, which typically needs to be replaced every 2-3 years.
Lets run down those costs real quick (these are averages as prices change over time. but a good ballpark for whats in just 1 of our teams backpacks).
Camera - $2500
2x Lenses - $1000-$2000 each.
Microphones - $450 ish
Drone - $2000
Tripod - $50-$150
Filters, Cables, Batteries, Cleaning Clothes - $150 total
Laptop $2000-$2500
Total: $8000-$10,000 ish just for the basics.
So not only are we covering the payroll of a person working all day, we are also making sure we can budget for the future equipment purchases as our gear slowly ages.
Im sure I forgot things, but thats a quick little snippet on gear.
Overhead Costs:
The silent killer of profitablity in a lot freelance businesses is not properly understanding overhead costs. We aren’t perfect but every good business owner we know understand their costs so we make our best attempt at that. Which includes overhead.
Think things like software expenses (ours are about $1000/month), misc time spend sending emails, filing taxes, meeting with bookkeepers, team meetings, insurances, etc. That stuff adds up over time, and can overtake unsuspecting folks.
We don’t want that to happen, so that means if we want to stay in business (which we do, not just for our sake but also our customers) we have make sure we are billing accurately so we don’t get bit in the butt over the long haul.
All of that HAS to be apart of our final cost to the customer if we are to stay in business, thats how every business works. You won’t see at as line items on an estimate or a bill, but for us to provide a customer world class service we have to make sure we cover our bases.
So you as the customer won’t see it, but most companies that are quoting you a video project are probably including those overhead costs somewhere.
Warning: If the price on a quote is drastically lower then any other quotes you got, there is a good chance they aren’t covering all their costs. Which is great for you! That vendor might offer a great product and service and you can be super pleased, just anticipate price increases in the future or that vendor going out of business. (Trust me, we used to a lot more “affordable” and then I started learning our numbers and realized why I hadn’t paid myself for 6 months. We were under charging and I was subsiding our customers video projects).
Skilled Talent:
Last but certainly not least; talent. Video work is very dependent on the person doing the work. It takes, time and skill to produce a great video. In the age of video being everywhere, there is a lot of people trying to make a quick buck off of it. Good for them, as long as they are trying to offer a great product and service.
Choosing a talented vendor for video work will probably cost you more. Thats probably why its expensive, they have TALENTED team members that they pay well. So if that quote for a video comes back and its going to cost $10,000 for a few minute video? They probably know what they are doing. So its gonna cost ya.
Closing Thoughts
Video is expensive. Thats just the reality of it. Even the AI video tools are expensive. Its a tough reality to reckon with.
But! I would challenge you to not cheap out on an important video. We have all seen the crappy company videos, ya know the ones that probably would have been better off never being made? Lets avoid those.
Note: I am talking specifically about “production videos” the ones that have a long term purpose and will be used and reused for a few years, NOT social media. Social media is a totally different bear we will cover in a different post.
If you have any questions at all, give us a shout and we will tell you whether a video is even worth your hard earned dollars. We actually discourage some people and companies to invest in larger videos because its probably not gonna get the impact / ROI they want . We aren’t gonna sell you a video you don’t need. So lets talk.
Stay safe, stay farming!
- Clayton Lind, CEO & Owner
