Video production is an interesting animal. There’s so many levels of expertise and professionalism. Everyone is carrying a 4K camera on their phone. We are all bombarded with video imagery constantly from social media, digital marketing and television. We all film with our phones and post stories to share. So what differentiates home-grown video execution with a phone to hiring a professional company for a commercial or image video?

One minute of produced content can range from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands and more. What is it that creates such huge variables in cost? It’s all about time, materials and expertise!

The professional efforts and teamwork that go into a national spot are similar to the talent-intensive effort to create a feature film! And in fact, a 30 second spot can be even more challenging in that you have to deliver an effective, impactful experience or message in less than a minute!

There’s so many factors that drive cost. But it all starts with good ideas and solid creative!
For a regional or national company the process of landing on the right creative can take weeks if not months. It is imperative to invest in the “right idea” to drive a product or promote a service.
That can often start with data-driven research, creative brainstorming and focus group testing.
It is the time, the process, and attention to detail that drives the cost of professional video production. The old cliche “a picture is worth a thousand words” can be revised to say the “right picture is worth thousands of dollars.” The real value of any high-quality video or commercial begins with the investment in the right IDEA! The right idea often involves experienced creative people who make a good living developing and executing creative ideas.

Once landed on the right creative, then the analogy of a construction process is very applicable. Think of the creative stage as similar to the work of an architect / designer. At Outpost Worldwide we use the following steps to produce an effective video or commercial regardless of budget. First is DISCOVERY. What is the goal? What do you want the impact to be? Who is the audience? What is the general budget?

Once DISCOVERY or the purpose is determined then we dive into CREATIVE. Write a treatment or script. Determine the look and feel. Once creative is locked in then we go into PRE-PRODUCTION. This includes working out details such as locations, casting, crewing, props, storyboards, and much more. This stage is essential to a successful outcome! You are developing the blueprint for a quality production.

Now the fun begins! It’s time to turn on the lights, camera and make the video! This is the PRODUCTION phase. On a higher budget project such as a national spot this phase involves an indepth team and a lot of labor and hard work! High end production involves an army of experts in specific categories such as lighting, camera department, art department, project management (producers), tech support, makeup, wardrobe, actors and more! It is not unusual to have 20 to 30 and more people involved in the production phase of a national or high end regional spot production.

Finally, it’s time to edit! POST PRODUCTION is where all the hard work is finessed and compiled and tweaked and timed to deliver a really engaging message! Specifics of post production include prepping and logging media, story cutting, motion graphics and titling, potentially special effects and color grading. Color grading is where you electronically manipulate the look of the content to be warm or cool, monochromatic or neon bright. The expertise of editing and color grading is a very high end technical art! There’s a saying in the business, “fix it in post”. Not always, but it is in post where you make your content great!

And finally after weeks if not months of work throughout the production process it is time to deliver the end product on a digital file. So in a nutshell, the vast range of costs of production is all about the amount of time and expertise that goes into every phase of a professional production! At Outpost Worldwide we LOVE the process and collaboration to deliver good stuff!
Let’s Roll.

Michael Wunsch
Outpost Executive Producer and Founding Partner