It pays to have a quality video to market your products or services. Hiring a professional video editing company to take care of everything in the production of your corporate video really costs a lot. There are a variety of packages in a corporate video production which are usually priced from $5,000 up to $15,000, but it can be as high as around $100,000 depending on the duration of the video, special effects used, shooting locations, hired talents, production team fee, and the likes.
Since videos are very vital in the promotion of your company, there are still ways on how to lower their production cost while safeguarding your brand. There are a lot of ways to cut down the video production cost, and as someone with extensive experience in many professional video production projects, I can speak of the best ways on how to do it without sacrificing quality.
1. Research and Plan Well
In my long video production experience, I always give importance to careful and thorough planning armed with the right amount of research.
So before entering into the actual process of producing your corporate video, you must first create a concrete plan, and in devising your plan, you must always have your end goal. Of course, you want your brand to stand out among all the other brands in the market, so for you to be able to do that, here are the things to consider.
To do List
- Identify the real purpose of your video
- know your audience
- Develop your content
- set the length of your video
- Make your script
After setting the direction of your project, you also need to plan and allocate a budget for other important details in the production of your video, which includes the things listed below.
- Set or Shooting Location
- Production team
- Actors
- Video Style
2. Make a Project Proposal
Have your beautiful and promising plans for your video production approved by preparing a project proposal, also known as a ‘Production Brief’. Your production brief should outline the production plan for your corporate video with the corresponding budget allocation for each part of the project. I suggest that the production brief must include the following:
- Business Goals
- Objectives of the Project
- Focus and Content of the Video
- Target Audience
- Video and Visual Style
- Length
- Timelines
- Budget
Once your project proposal for the corporate video is approved by your bosses, then your project will have lesser chances of being edited and revised when they review the video for the first time. And based on my experience, bosses immediately give a satisfying ‘Yes!’ whenever they see a well-planned, well-made, and cost-effective production brief.
3. Find a Perfect Fit but Affordable Location
Just like what I often say to my clients, ‘Creativity is the key!’ Instead of shooting in off-site locations or different studios which are way too expensive, sometimes, shooting your videos in your own place can be the best way to lower your production cost. Depending on your plans and allocated budget, you and your production team simply need to be innovative, flexible, imaginative, and resourceful in turning your space into a picture-perfect location fit for your dream video project.
Your location greatly affects the overall appeal of your video. So you must always have a special eye for what will look best without spending too much on setting up. When I decide on the perfect space, I consider the points listed below.
- The size of the room must be big enough to fit the cast and production team.
- The background noise of the place must not affect the content of the video.
- Proper lighting adds drama to the story.
- The furniture and setup of the interior must match the overall picture of the story.
- The place must look perfect when taking a still photo.
4. Hire a Collaborative Video Production Team
There are a lot of production teams offering their services to different companies and institutions, but in choosing which one to hire, I always consider these three things:
- Can work on a high-quality video
- Communicates excellently and collaborates effectively with the client
- Can negotiate a low-cost production without sacrificing the quality
Seeking for revised bids from two to three video production companies can also be an effective option before deciding which team to hire. Just always make sure that your dream project goal is achieved at a reasonable amount without sacrificing the quality. Trust me, there are excellent production companies that can work with your budget, because I already had the chance to work with some of them, and the video produced satisfied my standards.
5. Discover and Form your Own Talents
In the different videos I produced, I never hired highly-paid actors, instead, I maximized the talented employees of the companies I worked with. And since you’re working on a budget, it would be helpful if you can find talented fellows in your company who are comfortable in front of the camera to be part of the cast for the video.
However, if there are no potential talents among your fellow employees, hiring an amateur but talented actor can be considered. There are a lot of amateur actors who can be as good as professional actors and will effectively collaborate with the production team. You just have to be wise and choosy in hiring one. With this, you can achieve your project goals without going over your budget.
6. Make Your Video Short and Straight to the Point
As the video being produced gets longer, the more expensive the production cost becomes. So the key is to make it short but make sure it’s straight to the point. As the marketing experts say, ‘Impress the audience of your brand for the first 15 seconds of your video and you’re good to go’. This way, you can hit two birds with one stone — promote your brand or company and save a lot in your production cost.
7. Maximize the Video Editing Time
My friends, who are also video editors, and I all have the same experience when it comes to the post-production process. The video editing process most of the time lasts for weeks, that’s because we need to see every single detail of all the video footages to get only the best for the corporate video project. Hence, when the video project is sent to you for viewing, the editing of revisions takes further editing time.
Remember, reduced editing time saves more of your budget. So, better sit with the editors during the video editing process to avoid multiple revisions on your project. Doing this doesn’t just save your time and money, but provides a learning experience as well because being with the editors during the editing process is a fun experience.
8. Collaborate and Simplify Your Visuals
I often tell my clients who are working on a budget to simplify their preferred visuals in the video. Working on complicated visuals requires longer production time — and that’s not cost-efficient. When in fact, there are a lot of ways to deliver effective video content without such visuals. Here’s my simple but guaranteed suggestion: Simplifying the visuals in your video can save you a lot of additional work. So, it’s always best to discuss with your video production crew how exactly they can go about it. Surely, they have a lot of brilliant ideas on the kind of techniques they’ll use to produce your high-quality corporate video without going out of your budget.
Final Thoughts
I’ve worked with a lot of companies that are working on a strict budget in producing a corporate video, but that doesn’t mean that the quality should be sacrificed. Why? Simple. A video of poor quality can cause disaster in your company’s brand, and it would have been better if no video was produced at all.
Here’s my advice. Good planning, production quality, and interesting storytelling can keep your audience connected with your video from start to finish, so it’s very important to keep it short and ensure the visuals and contents are well-thought of and well-developed. Be extra creative in choosing your location as well as your talent. And of course, try to find the best video editing company, with an excellent and collaborative production team, that can really help you make your dream corporate video project a reality at a very reasonable cost.
