How to Charge Video Production for an Event

Do you know how a video production company provides their services? 

First, think about a product launching ceremony arranged by a corporate industry. Every business professional are coming with a formal outfit. The venue looks so beautiful with eye-soothing lighting and nicely decorated staging. Delicious dishes are being served to the guests, nice background music, and the interactive presentation of the event host is making the event more refreshing.

At the same time, these wonderful moments of this special day are being captured by a video production team. However, only capturing the moments of an event is not their sole job. They do some other things to make an event successful. And, the pricing of any event can vary based on the requirements of the project. So, how do they decide the charge to provide your services? 

Event Video Production Costs: What Do You Need to Consider?

In a true sense, there are a few things to think about when setting a charge for creating an event video. At the same time, you have to understand what activities are involved in different steps of the event video production. This will definitely help you to determine the overall cost. 

Pre-production:

Planning is very important before making a video. It will affect how much money the client needs to spend based on their demand. In this step, you have to arrange a meeting with the client to understand their requirements to manage the event and discuss the overall cost with them. So, the pre-production step involves planning meetings, script writing, storyboarding (creating pictures or animations to show the sequence of events), choosing the location, discussing budget and needed equipment, selecting characters, and taking permission to shoot in certain areas. 

Production:

This is the stage of shooting the video of any event. Before the event, the production team including the crew arrives at the venue and sets everything up. The crew number depends on the size of the project. If the project is a live event or a big documentary, the crew number will be large. Equipment rentals such as sound systems, lighting, and other instruments need to be assembled. Moreover, you have to provide the location fee based on how long the event will be shot at this location. 

• Just remember: You must film the best quality video during the production phase. Because you can not fix the natural footage quality later. 

Post-production:

This is the last step where the collected footage or raw videos shape into a final product. It may take two to five days to complete the post-production step. So, after filming the video the most important thing is to make the video look good. At the same time, engaging more customers interested in taking services from your company. But how can you make the video more attractive to your client? You can edit the video using motion graphics, animation, transition, fixing mistakes, and adding music. Plus you can use some special effects and change the color of the footage to make the video more lively and cinematic. 

• Don't forget to purchase the music that you need to add to your video from a music licensing company to avoid legal problems. 

How Should You Set Your Prices?

You can set the prices based on the pricing model of the event. So, what types of pricing models do video production companies follow?

Hourly Rate: 

Charge an hourly rate for your time and your team's time. The typical hourly rate for a video production charge is up to $150. Although most video production companies do not prefer pricing on hourly rates, small business owners or low-income people want to pay the money on hourly rates. 

Day Rate: 

Set a fixed rate for a day's work (typically 8 hours). You can set the day rate around $1,500 and the half-day rate (4 hours) around $1,000.

Package Pricing: 

Offer predefined packages with a set number of filming hours and a specific edited video output. Most video productions charge between five to six thousand dollars and the entire production is completed within a week.

What Affects Your Price?

There are some additional factors that affect the price of an event. So, you must consider those factors to create videos of any type of event.

Your Experience:

More experienced videographers can command higher rates. Besides, if you select popular and experienced actors for your video, you have to pay more. 

Event Duration:

Longer events generally cost more. Producing a feature film or music video is more costly than social media clips, documentaries, or promotional videos because of their long duration of shooting. 

Number of Cameras:

Using multiple cameras increases the complexity and cost of videos. However, multiple cameras are needed to capture the video from different angles simultaneously. At the same time, multiple cameras provide multiple editing options. So, it improves the quality of the video and reduces the complexity while editing the raw videos during the post-production step. 

Editing Complexity:

The pricing can vary based on how much editing is required (simple cuts vs. complex motion graphics). The time needed to edit the video also depends on the length of the event, the client’s demand, and the use of software (more features containing software is more costly). Simple-cut videos need a few hours or days to complete the editing. 

Travel & Location:

Filming outside your city may incur additional costs like transportation, accommodation, more crew members, equipment needs, providing meals to the large production team, and other extra costs. 

Deliverables: 

Some customers prefer to receive their videos on DVDs and some prefer online platforms to get wider access. Ensure what deliverables your client prefers to receive the final videos. As the expenses of both resources are different, costs may vary according to their deliverable preference. 

Best Tips to Follow for Pricing Your Services

Most video production services are not suitable for low-income people. If you demand high prices to keep compatibility with the necessary factors, they will not take services from your company. However, you can follow some strategies to engage low to medium-income clients and maximize your profit. 

Calculate your minimum rate: 

You have to select the minimum rate based on your expenses and the profit margin that you want to earn from this video. In the case of an event video, you need to capture live videos from an event. So, you can select the minimum rate from $1,200. Based on the additional expenses like transportation cost, number of crew, experienced actors, or considering other costs, you can fix the rate up to $10,000. 

Research the market: 

See what other videographers charge in your area for similar events. Do thorough research by looking at their portfolios, and websites. And take reviews about their services to know more about their experiences in video production. Generally, local videographers cost less than high-end video production companies. After researching, fix the videography rate of your company. 

Offer package options: 

Cater to different budgets and needs and compare the pricing of other videographers based on the services included in each package. Then offer some discounts on your package to attract more customers. 

Be transparent: 

Clearly outline what's included in your pricing such as the number of crew members, equipment rentals, filming, editing, and any extra utility necessary to increase the value of your service. This is important to build trust with your clients. 

Get a signed contract: 

After knowing about the price and service details, if the clients sign the contract, it indicates their agreement with your pricing. This protects both of you and minimizes the risk of any misunderstanding about the pricing and services. 

To sum up

Making a high-quality video on a low to medium budget is quite difficult. Making a video without compromising the profit margin and providing maximum value to the customer is a matter of concern to most video production companies. But it's not impossible to earn maximum profit and ensure customer satisfaction if you follow the strategies that we have discussed in our small conversation.

If you find our discussion useful, please leave a comment, and don't forget to share the information with people seeking expert guidance on the cost of event video production.