Minnesota Online Video » peekproductions

What is the Cost to Produce an Online Video 2 – 3 minutes long?

Eric Putkonen — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:19:05 +0000

I see this question periodically posted on LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers, and other places people post questions. For some reason, people think that if the duration of the video is given…that is all the information that is needed for a price estimate. I am not selling by the length, like a hardware stores sells rope.

There are many variables that determine the real cost: how much footage needs to be shot, how many different sites will the footage be shot, how many people are in the video, do we need to buy additional stock footage, do we need to buy background music, do we need to look for voice-over talent, etc.

The largest variable and determinate of how much I will charge to produce a video is how much editing time will be involved. How many people and how many different sites will affect how much footage needs to be shot. How much footage needs to be shot affects how long it will take to edit the final video. Buying stock footage lessens the amount of filming and editing needed.

I disagree with the industry norm of charging by the length of the video. I don’t know how many sites I have looked at that says a 30 second video is X dollars, a 1 minutes is Y dollars, etc. Unfortunately, you don’t know what is happening…and that is you are paying much more because the video producer has to take the “worse case” scenario to judge the cost. In 30 seconds, I could be filming hours in multiple locations and multiple people. I will need so many hours to edit it all. You see where this is going…a much higher cost to you.

That is why when the question of cost is asked to the public on LinkedIn or something, the answer is that it depends. It could cost you $300 to $30,000…depending on what you are asking for. For example, the Cheesecake Factory did a 4 minute recruiting video once for $30,000 (Monster.com produced the video for them). That is just 4 minutes. However, I once produced a simple 2 minute client testimonial video for $300. The length of the video is not so much a determinator as how much editing time is needed.

Usually, that requires an in-depth discussion about the video project you have in mind…or I offer packages with preset levels of committed editing time and such.

Praxis Project Marketing Video

Eric Putkonen — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:04:35 +0000

This is a 4 minute 37 second video…longer than I would prefer, but we wanted to cover two people’s stories in some detail. This really is a video to get more people to become mentors…you get to hear the stories of two mentors. You hear what got these two to become mentors, how mentoring affects their mentees lives, and even some advice if you were to become a mentor and what is expected from mentors.

I think it gives a great overview in a personal way. This is a video Peek Productions produced (that is me), so what do you think about the video? Does it make you consider giving an hour or two a week to be a mentor to a disadvantaged youth?

Kastner Restoration Video Testimonial

Eric Putkonen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:36:17 +0000

This is the latest video by Peek Productions. It is 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. The first two minutes is the testimonial by a satisfied client of theirs. I interviewed her to get the story and then edited it together as you see below. I am very pleased on how it turned out. What do you think of it?

I would like to point out a couple things…possible things to do in any video you are planning or thinking about. We unobtrusively put his phone number in the center of the video…as we thought if people left the video early they would see the phone number on last time if they wanted it. This testimonial is a “case study” format…what happened…from beginning to tend. We tried to overcome a couple common objection in the video. We added a call to action, “call Gary now,” with an unique offer, “get a free pizza with your free estimate.” Lastly, when uploading it on YouTube (for example) we completley filled out the title, description, and keywords…so it will be indexed better by Google.

Vibrant Potential (Chiropractor) Testimonial Video

Eric Putkonen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:36:16 +0000

This is the newest addition to Peek Productions recent work. We filmed one past client for the testimonial. We interviewed her at Vibrant Potential’s office. Then we cut the overall footage down by 1/3 to the current video…which shows the best of the interview while having the flow of a story. The finished video was 2 minutes and 49 seconds.

I think this video turned out well. What do you think?

School Choir Trip Fund-raising Video

Eric Putkonen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:29:04 +0000

The Freestyle Choir at Burnsville High School has been invited to Carnegie Hall for this school year’s choir trip (2009-2010). They are in need of support to send these students for an opportunity of a lifetime. This is a video with Freestyle Alumni, a current member, and Bryan Fisher – Director of Freestyle at Burnsville High School.

This is video with a shorter life span and a website that may not exist later (it exists for the fund-raising of this trip), so a splash screen with a stronger call to action and a website address was not included. Instead, the website will have the stronger call to action…and the video is meant to get the alumni to reminisce and hear about this opportunity for this year’s kids. I will also use YouTube annotation to add a small pop-up for a wed address for how to donate.

What do you think about the video?