Ah yes, the age old question. The short answer is: It depends on the number of hours that it takes to shoot and edit the video. As a general guideline, short product marketing videos can be as little as around $1500. Whereas; marketing, training, recruiting, tech support, and other videos businesses and organizations use on their website and in marketing materials typically ends up in the $2500 to $5000 range, again, depending on how long it takes to shoot and edit the video. There are other factors that can add to the cost of the video such as background music licensing, actors, voice over narration, locations, props, wardrobe, additional crew, and so on. The epic best of brand videos that some companies and organizations require can end up in the $10k to $50k range and beyond, depending upon the project’s needs. Most quotes for video can be sussed out pretty quickly over the phone or email.

Most videos can be produced in three weeks to three months depending on how long the final video is. Complex projects can take many months or longer to complete.

If you’re making videos for your company, you’ve at some point thought about how to obtain a piece of music for the video. A lot of companies tell me they want to avoid using “elevator music” which seems to be the general street term for stock music. A lot of stock music might have sounded like elevator music at some point in the past, but these days, the world of online stock music is incredibly vast. If there is a popular song or genre of music that you like, you can easily find a similar sounding piece of stock music. The advantage: Well…licensing popular music will cost a ton of money (think tens of thousands of dollars), whereas licensing the rights to use stock music with a similar style and sound is in the $20 to $50 dollar range.

On the lower cost end of the stock music spectrum is audiojungle.net with a vast selection of great stock music starting at just $19 for most pieces. On the high end are online music curators like premiumbeats.com and istockmusic.com, with prices starting around $40 to $50 for a single piece of music. Also on my radar for good stock music are the websites motionarray.com and pond5.com. While their selections are a little more limited, you can often find great stock music picks at a very reasonable price. If you find out you don’t like any of those online stock music purveyors, you can quickly search on “stock music” in Google and find tons of other useful websites.

Once you’ve found a good piece of stock music for your video, you can create an account, download it, and give it to your video editor. However, it is far easier to have your video editor download it for you, since video editors tend to already have accounts with lots of stock music websites. After that, the editor can add your chosen piece of stock music to the video. If you have the editor download the music for you, there is one caveat: They need to transfer the rights to use the music to you or your company. Since they downloaded the music through their own personal or company account, technically they own the rights until they transfer those rights to you. Transferring the rights to the music is accomplished pretty easily though. Simply have the editor or video company send you an invoice for their services listing the name of the stock music piece and the stock music website from which it was obtained. In that way, the editor or video company is transferring the rights to use the music to you and there will never be any question as to whether you have the right to use the music in your company’s video. It’s also advisable to read and understand the stock music website’s terms and conditions because some of them have stipulations on the way that their stock music can be used.

If you are making a video for your company, you can call a video production company, like us, to guide you through the whole process from start to finish. We’ll end up asking you several questions about your video so that we can suss out your needs and requirements for the video. After that, we’ll have a pretty good idea of the number of hours that it will take to shoot and edit the video, plus any other costs associated with producing the video. If you’d like to get your thoughts a little organized ahead of time, here’s an overview, called the “Creative Brief” of the questions that we’d usually ask about your video through the initial discovery process.

Creative Brief
Company Name / Client Contact Name / Phone Number / email address /physical address:
Project Name:

Background / Overview:
Tell me about your video. What Type of Video are you making? (Corporate Marketing Video, TV Commercial, Product Video, Tech Support Video, Presentation, Event Video, etc)
Where will the video be shown (web, tv, dvd, events, meetings, etc)? Be sure to include context for each.
Do you have any ideas for what you would like to see in the video or have you seen any other videos that are similar to what you are looking for? (Include links to video samples if possible)
Who is the video talking to (target market), and what is the one main thing we want to say?
Example: The target market for our product is women aged 40-65 who own a home. We want to highlight the advanced features of our product.
What is the objective of the video? What should the audience think, feel, or do after seeing the video?
Example: After seeing the video, we want people to call or go to our website link for additional information about the product.
What’s the single most important or compelling statement we can make to achieve the objective?
Example: Buying the product for your home will save the homeowner time and money.
What’s going on in the market and who are your competitors?
Do you have examples of printed collateral or other good examples of your brand and messaging that you could share with us? (Include links to web pages if necessary)

Good video doesn’t happen by accident. Discovering and knowing the answers to these questions, along with an ongoing collaborative conversation with our clients, gives us the ability to produce the video that will best serve your brand and identity.

Why, yes! Thank you for asking. Here are the Terms and Conditions:
Client footage or other materials are received, processed, and stored by Kirkland Video Production solely at Clients’ risk. All damages (including, without limitation, lost profits) are expressly assumed by the Client. Kirkland Video Production shall not be held liable or responsible for loss of footage due to equipment failure, theft, accidental damage, or Acts of God, or other unforeseen circumstances for any reason. Client is responsible for insurance of footage or other materials given to or left at Kirkland Video Production. Clients’ project will be deleted from Kirkland Video Production servers 30 days from delivery of the final project to the Client. Digital media storage for projects at Kirkland Video Production facilities is available after 30 days at additional cost.

Client warrants that all materials supplied to Kirkland Video Production by the Client do not in any way defame, violate, or infringe on copyright or any other rights of any other person, firm or corporation. Client is responsible for any copyright clearances, clearances for talent, locations, and production materials that are supplied to Kirkland Video Production by the Client for use in the creation of the project, including, but not limited to, stock footage, music, and photographs. Client agrees to indemnify and hold Kirkland Video Production, its officers, directors, agents, and employees harmless from any liability or damages for infringement of copyright arising from the use or duplication of material supplied by the customer.

Rates are based on regular working hours of 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Editing rates are charged on one hour minimum increments. For production, rates are based on 10-hour days, portal to portal. Overtime, at the Clients’ request, is charged at 1.5 times the hourly rate for the first two hours and double time after 12 hours. Half-day shoots that run over 5 hours, at the Clients’ request, will be billed for the full day rate. Items not provided by the Client including tape stock, meals, parking, expenses, travel, mileage (outside the greater Seattle metropolitan area), props, and extra equipment, requested by the Client, will be billed separately. Proper notice of cancellation of a scheduled event corresponding to the Clients’ video production project is required 24 hours in advance. Notice given later than 24 hours will be billed at full rate.

Payment terms are net 30 days for Clients that complete an approved credit application process. A service charge of 1.5% per month will be charged on late payments. Unless credit is approved, a 50% deposit is required to initiate the Client’s project and 50% is due upon Client’s acceptance of the completed project. All rates are subject to change without notice. Rush charge of $700 per week applies for projects with less than a three-week deadline. Other rush charges may apply.