Video
Corporate video production cost: what drives the price, line by line
Michele Caddeo ·
Most video production projects reviewed on Clutch cost under $10,000, while the average project comes to about $42,000, and agencies typically charge $100 to $149 an hour. The figure is made by shoot days, scripting, animation, music licences and the number of versions. Ask for each one as its own line, and you can compare two quotes.
You can get wildly different quotes for the same video. Here’s what makes the figure, line by line, and the lines to get in writing before you sign.
How much does a corporate video cost?
It depends on who makes it and what’s in it.
Video production on Clutch
Most projects are small, a few are very large
Under $10,000
what most video production projects reviewed on Clutch cost
$42,281
the average project, pulled up by the large ones
$100 to $149
the typical hourly rate of a video production agency
Source: Clutch’s video production pricing guide, a directory of agencies built on client reviews. The gap between the typical and the average project is the point: a few large productions with crews and actors pull the average up.
Why does one quote say $3,000 and another $30,000?
Because of what’s inside. These lines move the figure most.
The lines of a quote
Six things that make the price
Shoot days
The biggest lineEach one adds preparation before and hours of footage to review in the edit.
Script and storyboard
Sometimes missingWhen they’re not in the quote, writing them falls to you.
Animation
Seconds, not minutesA chart growing bar by bar or a map tracing a route is drawn and animated separately.
Voice
Licensed tooAn AI voice needs a commercial licence: on ElevenLabs it starts with the Starter plan, $6 a month.
Music
By channelThe licence depends on where the video runs. Broadcast TV usually needs more than online ads.
Versions
Each one is an editEvery extra format, from vertical for social to a loop for a trade fair stand.
Sources: ElevenLabs pricing, Epidemic Sound plans as an example of licences by channel.
Can expensive scenes be made with AI?
Yes, and it often pays. Instead of a shoot day you pay for generation attempts, and scenes impossible to film cost the same as the others.
When it pays and when it doesn’t is in the guide to AI commercial production.
Freelancer, production company or agency?
For a corporate video with an interview and shots of the factory, one person who writes, films and edits is usually enough. A crew is needed when there are actors, several locations on the same day or several people speaking together.
The two can work together. For Ecoprogetti’s corporate film I wrote the storyboard and dialogue and shot many of the scenes, and hired a production company for the rest of the filming and the edit.
What should the quote say?
Before you sign
Eight lines that make two quotes comparable
Shoot days
How many, where, and how many people in the crew.
Script and storyboard
Who writes them, and whether they’re included.
Voice and music
Whether they’re included, and which channels the music licence covers.
Versions and formats
Landscape, vertical, the trade fair loop.
Revisions
How many rounds of the edit are included, and the price of one more.
Tax and travel
Whether tax is included, and any travel, weekend or rush fees.
What stays yours
The footage and project files, and where you may use the video.
The delivery date
Counted from when you approve the script, not from the first call.
How do you spend less without looking amateur?
Decide early the things that are expensive to change later.
- Where the video will run, and so the formats. A landscape for the site and a vertical for social come from the same footage if you decide before filming.
- The script, approved before the shoot. A sentence changes in a minute; an edited scene doesn’t.
- The material you already have: photos, old videos, 3D drawings of your machines. Each one is a scene less to film.
If you want to see a real piece before committing to the whole video, start with the fixed-price prototype: €450, no VAT added, taken off the quote in full if we go ahead within 60 days. How I work on video is on the video page.
