Ways to Lower Video Production Costs

It’s costly to have a custom video produced, but there are ways to reduce expenses. With a little bit of planning, you can keep to your budget. In this article, we’ll review some suggestions and strategies to lower your video production costs.

Optimal video quality is achieved with a combination of two cameras. One should be a close up on the speaker, while the other should show a wide-angle view of the scene and be mounted with a slide recording, preferably in ‘picture in picture’ mode. The average cost of recording and processing eight hours of footage in this format in major American cities ranges from $3000 to $5000 USD.

There are a number of exceptions to this estimate. The first is if a hotel has its own video team and part of your contract to use the venue is to use it. The second is if video producers are unionized in the hosting city. In these cases, prices can be 2 to 5 times higher and are difficult to negotiate. However, if you’re hosting a larger multi-day conference – think more than 2 days – you can probably get a small discount.
In our experience, as long as virtual passes are sold before the conference along with regular tickets, the revenue generated is more than enough to cover the cost of shooting. That said, if you’d still rather reduce the cost of video production, there are a few options.

The first is to simply shoot with one camera, which cuts your costs by approximately 70%. The second is to shoot only a slides recording with audio, which can save you between 30% to 50%. The third option is to do the post-processing abroad; contractors from eastern Europe, Asia, or South America can offer rates 2 to 5 times lower than their American counterparts (Upwork is a good platform to find reliable talent). Since video editing makes up the vast majority of the costs of video production, sending raw footage overseas can cut costs by 35% to 60%, although it can take longer. Depending on how urgent it is to get your video content out there, the tradeoff may be worth it.

ConferenceCast can offer any combination of the above options. Based on our experience, the most common course of action is to shoot raw material independently and then send that footage to us for post-processing and the creation of the final video. See previous examples here.

One last thing. Just like your revenue stream, the work doesn’t stop after the event is over. Think about how you can capitalize on the momentum of the event to build your audience. How can you keep them engaged?

About ConferenceCast

ConferenceCast.tv is a marketplace for video content from business and industry conferences. We provide an ultimate platform that allows users to watch world-leading conferences on-demand and enables conference organizers to grow their reach exponentially.

Learn more here.