Creating content costs less than ever. New technology has put the power of production studios in our mobile phones. We are all savvier than ever about how a film gets made. You have everything you need to create and share content right now. Even for professionally produced content these advances have fed a drastic reduction in the time and cost of creating a like-for-like piece of work over the last decade or so.
That having been said, in order to ‘cut through’ to our audience online we should be sharing more content than we ever have before — so it’s just as well it’s cheaper. Because of this there has been a significant move towards getting as much mileage as possible out of all the content that we create. ‘Content atomisation’ — taking the central piece of content and then reediting and repurposing it to maximise the mileage. The cost of each output has fallen, even if the cost of the overall project is often the same.
How much does video production cost?
This is one of the most common questions people ask. There are a few different ways of answering it but to save beating around the bush, the simplest answer is that an average Casual Films project for the 2019 financial year was $18k in the US and £15k in the UK/EU.
The key word there though is “project,” as often these can entail a number of different outputs and reedits. More usually we will create a series of films that cost more in the $/£60k–100k region. Some projects extend into the hundreds of thousands, but these tend to be many outputs in one. Animated video production costs can also differ from live action and so on.
Related: Find out about everything that goes into filming and make up our suite of video production services, on this page.
What’s the reason for the average film value?
At around $18k/£15k we start being able to add significant value to the project with our proprietary production process. Our pricing is defined by the amount of time that it takes to create each project. Different roles in the process cost differing amounts depending on their experience, expertise and impact on the project. At this budgetary level there is enough budget for two or three days of creative — to get a great idea — some producer time to make it all happen, a day or two to shoot it and then editing, sound design and some animation if necessary. They will be able to create something fairly sparkly, as long as they don't need to work around too many fixed costs — travel, talent, specialist equipment.
What’s the cheapest film we can make?
The lowest that we tend to start a project is around $/£8k, although if we have an existing relationship with you we can and do go a little lower. We tend to not compete for projects at the really low end because there are lots of smaller producers and freelancers out there who do a decent job at this level. We’re not able to add the same value we are when the projects have a little room for a bit more creative thought and sparkle.
As a rule, if this is your first question we’re probably not the right company for you. We compete on being able to create things happen for your business with video — optimising for return on investment rather than being as cheap as possible.
Related: Can you afford to work without video? We don’t think so. Find out why video content marketing is such a powerful tool, in this blog post.
Can you work to my budget?
The process of filmmaking is creative, so the budget becomes an additional constraint that creative thinking needs to work around — like the timeframe, branding or specific messaging. Because of this, it can be extremely flexible — it’s possible to fulfil the same objectives for significantly different investment levels. On the other hand, quality, in-depth thinking and delivery take time, and time costs money. If you need to shoot in a number of different locations or include significant amounts of complex animation these are hard costs which are challenging to work around.
Promoting your content
For years, there has been a disconnect between where marketing money gets spent and where the real potential lies. In studies, researchers have found that the quality of creative messaging is responsible for up to 75% of a campaign’s success. In spite of this, as much as 90% of the overall spend is often still focused on the media budget.
"75% of a campaign’s effectiveness is defined by the quality of the creative messaging." —Google
Traditional television marketing largely became so successful because of the strong metrics that were available to support it. One of the major challenges that online content has faced over the years is showing direct causation between money spent and the return on that investment.
But this isn’t necessarily about spending more money on marketing. Creating and executing a comprehensive and effective content strategy can be about redistributing the money you’re already investing. Why, for example, are you spending hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars on the production of TV commercials when the vast majority of your audience watch them for the first time as a small image on their Facebook feed, momentarily pausing before scrolling onwards, and paying very little attention to them?
We'd love to talk to you about this or anything in the production process. Drop us a line or send us an email: projects@casualfilms.com to book a call back with one of our producers.
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