How We Keep Our Productions Affordable

It’s pretty much an open secret that video production is costly. You only have to look at the price of camera equipment to very quickly realise that this is a costly profession and because of that many businesses will feel they’re likely to be priced out of it before even exploring what can be done within their budget.

I would not hold it against the everyday business owner to assume that video production isn’t a viable for them - if I wasn’t in the industry, the likelihood is I would automatically think that it would cost an arm and a leg. Whilst this is the reality in some cases, I have always tried to ensure that costs are kept accessible to any type of business that wants to pursue video in order to enhance their brand. I want to give businesses the opportunity to have something that looks and feels premium, but is done within a budget that works for them.

So, how is that possible?

Small Crews

I’ve had the label ‘videographer’ for close to eight years now, which basically means I can make videos independently and have the ability to handle everything from pre-production to post including camera work, editing, lighting and sound. Because of this versatility, I don’t need to hire in camera crew, lighting engineers and sound recordists. Some production companies will only work with specialists in each field, which is understandable for big campaigns, but for the everyday business it is overkill and more often than not unnecessary.

By having a crew that is usually myself working independently or with the help of additional camera operator, it means there are no expensive costs on the actual day of shooting. For some businesses, the costs of the shoot days can attribute to more than two thirds of the entire production cost - this is something that I try very hard to avoid happening.

Equipment

Quite possibly our biggest saving is on equipment. Given that we own everything outright, there are no rental fees or finance payments to consider. We are very fortunate to have an equipment arsenal of a cinema camera (Sony FX6), mirrorless camera (Sony A7S3) and a photography camera (Sony A73), as well as fantastic lighting and audio capabilities. This means we can regularly offer clients multi-camera shoots at no extra cost as well as provide photography for a small increase in budget.

Efficiency

Shoot days can be long. Edit days can also be long. Waiting weeks, maybe months, on end to see your finished video is not an uncommon theme and as the old saying goes ‘time is money.’ Sometimes long shoot days are unavoidable, it depends entirely on what is being shot, but I’ve found some shoots that would take a full-day in the past can now be done in a matter of hours. I’ll put emphasis on the word some there because I don’t want to give a false impression that all shoots only take a few hours! In the case of a small business, let’s say a pizzeria, that wants a 60-second video to sit at the top of their website, that could easily be shot within three hours. On the other hand, if a business wanted something bigger featuring interviews and lots of B-Roll, that would likely fall into the 6-9 hour bracket.

Whatever the project, efficiency is key, more so in the editing suite than on the shoot days. Selecting the best bits from interviews and intertwining them into a narrative that makes sense is a skill that previously took a lot of time, but having now created so many videos, edits can usually be completed within no more than two days. This is just another way we can keep costs affordable and ensure you receive your content quickly.

There you have it! An insight into the three ways we are able to keep costs down and quality up at FOSTER Studios. As always, if you would like to know a little bit more about how we work and what we could do for your business, head over to our Contact page to give us a call or email.