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How to Quote a Video Production

How to Quote a Video Production

May 29, 2016

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Sound and Vision Media

How do we arrive at a Video Quote…

We are often asked by a prospective client,

”How much does a five minute video cost to produce?”

How to Quote a Video Production:

This is similar to asking, “How much does a car cost?” or “How much does a house cost?”  There isn’t a single price for a car or house since many different factors go into determining the price. A video is no different.  But the client will want to know how much it’s going to cost to know if video production is financially possible. This requires generating a quote. We’ll usually begin by asking them a series of questions in order to determine exactly how they visualize their final video and get a baseline for their expectations. These questions could include:

  • Who is the audience for the video?How to Quote a Video Production - Video Quote - Sound & Vision Media Green Screen Studio

  • Will a script be provided?

  • Will video shooting be involved and are there any pre-existing assets such as video footage, photos, and graphics that can be used?

  • If shooting is involved, will it be on location or at our green screen studio?

  • Will there be actors or spokespersons on camera?

  • Will there be voice-over narration?

Often times a client can provide an example of a similar video to what they are looking to produce. This will give us a good idea of their expectations and creative style.

After obtaining this information, the next step is to produce the quote. There are generally two different types of quotes that we do at Sound & Vision Media. The Flat Rate Quote and the Line Item Quote.

Flat Rate Video Quote:

Sometimes the client may not understand the technical aspects to video production so we simply list all of the services we are going to provide, which may include:

  • concept and scriptingHow to Quote a Video Production - Video Quote - Sound & Vision Media Green Screen Studio

  • pre-production

  • video shooting

  • actors

  • equipment recommendations
  • make-up artist

  • video editing/graphics

  • voice-over talent

  • audio recording/editing

  • music from our licensed library

  • export to the format of the clients choice

We then summarize the cost with one total dollar amount that will cover all of the services listed. This makes the quote easier to read and understand and appeals to clients who are more concerned with the bottom line. This style of quote lends itself to better discounts as we can often bundle services together for a reduced cost.

Line Item Quote:

Some prospective clients have to take proposals from at least three vendors as company policy. They closely scrutinize the quotes and are looking to compare “apples to apples”. In this case we produce a quote that spells out the costs line item by line item. Each service will have its own price, each piece of equipment will be listed with the daily rental fee associated with it, and the day rate for each crew member is provided. This allows the client to see each cost on its own and compare and contrast it with other quotes. A line item quote can be more difficult to discount since each item has a fixed cost associated with it, but gives the client the opportunity to see exactly what the costs are.

Contingencies:

As a German general once said, “no plan survives contact with the enemy”. Similarly, video quotes often need to be adjusted and changed once production begins. For this reason, it’s important to include a contingency clause. This will cover you if additional services are required that aren’t included in the original video quote such as, shipping fees, digital media archiving, or even extended shooting or editing time because of client requests. Since these costs may not have been anticipated, you want to make sure that the client is aware that additional costs may be incurred. We prefer this method to including a flat rate contingency fee as the flat rate fee can often appear as an unnecessary expense at best and quote padding at worst.

The most important thing is to make sure that the client understands and is comfortable with all of the information on the video quote. The more comfortable they are with the information, the more likely they are to accept the quote. Choosing the right type of quote is an important first step to landing the job.

Bob Pappalardo – U.S. Pavement Services

Sound and Vision Media Boston is an Award winning, full service, video production company.

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