A Manager's Guide to Commissioning a Corporate Video - setting your budget for producing a corporate video and keeping within it.

A Manager's Guide to Commissioning a Corporate Video

Step 3 - Setting your Budget

The cost of producing a corporate video can range from as little as £700 to over £70, 000 depending on the specification and therefore if you contact a production company and ask how much a corporate video will cost they are not likely to be able to give you a figure. The cost is dependent on many variables. Before they give you any idea of cost, they are likely to start asking you a lot of questions in order to have something to work on. If you are not prepared for this it can be quite daunting. However, if you have written a Brief before contacting production companies you should be able to give them enough details to enable them to provide you with at least an estimated cost.

How to establish a realistic budget

A guide for establishing your budget for your corporate video would be to consider the value that having your own corporate video would add to your company, your services or products. However, you may feel that this is difficult to ascertain if you have not produced a corporate video before and you may still feel the need for more guidance.

The budget allocated for your corporate video will often depend on the company budget allocated to marketing and therefore you may know exactly what you can afford to spend on your corporate video.

It may save time if, on approaching a production company, you can tell them the allocated budget for the programme. If they know from the onset how much you are able to invest in the project, they will often work around that figure and advise you on how best to meet your objectives whilst remaining within your budget.

Some companies provide online video quotations without obligation. Using such facilities can be helpful if you need a guide to setting a realistic budget and in making choices about the options available when producing a corporate video such as your music requirements, voice-overs, presenter, actors etc.

Keeping within your budget

Once you have decided on a budget you may need to consider carefully the factors affecting the price in order to keep within your budget. Some of these factors are listed below:

• the number of locations - in order to impress a prospective customer you may want to film most of the programme on your main site but also show a number of other sites. However, you may need to take into consideration that the more locations there are, the more expensive the production of your corporate video is likely to be.
  
  
• a voice-over or presenter - this will relate to the purpose of your video. There is little point in having spoken narration if your video is for your exhibition stand as it is unlikely to be heard, but on the other hand if your video is for sending out to prospective customers you may want a presenter or voice -over. You may consider it essential to have a well-known presenter or voice-over in order to present your message but if you merely require a talented voice-over or artist regardless of celebrity status this will keep the cost down considerably.
  
  
• actors - it can be an advantage to have actors in front of the camera rather than members of the staff who may be camera-shy. However, you may need to have skilled members of your workforce demonstrating techniques. It really is a case of prioritizing your requirements in order that you do not compromise the quality of your corporate video in order to save money.
  
  
• titles, graphics and animations - if your video is for exhibition use you are likely to need more in the way of titles and graphics in order to enhance the vision often taking the place of a voice-over or presenter as the impact of your message needs to be visually-based. However, if you are having a presenter or voice-over you may be able to keep the costs down when it comes to titles and animations.
  
  
• duration - this will be dependent on the purpose of your corporate video but there is often little need for a long corporate video which will cost more. If your production is too long the audience are likely to lose interest, whereas a shorter programme which clearly presents the message without losing impact is more likely to meet your objectives whilst remaining within your budget.
  
  
• music - do you need a well-known pieces of music that will incur substantial copyright fees, a piece of music written specifically for your production (again taking a large part of your budget) or will a piece of library music fulfill your objectives whilst at the same time staying well within your financial limits. This is an area in which you do not have to compromise on quality to ensure the overall cost of the production remains within your budget.

Beware - do not compromise the quality!

Although you may want to keep within the limitations of your budget and may find it necessary to consider above points carefully, there are areas of the production of your corporate video in which you should not compromise. A key area in which you should not compromise is the "script".

The script is the most important document produced by the production company as it provides the core upon which the whole production process is based. It will be used throughout the whole production being the most important source of reference.

The most widely used form of script for corporate video is the 'two-column script' one column containing the visual elements of the video and the other column for the audio content and dialogue. This clearly shows how the programme will be developed.

A script can also be of great importance to you as it provides you with a point of quality control. You will be able to refer to it to ensure you are getting the corporate video that you have commissioned.

Occasionally a production company may suggest that a script is not necessary for the production of a corporate video and merely supply you with the narration. The lack of structure resulting from working without a script can add considerably to the production and editing time and therefore can actually cost you more in the long term.

Once you have a Brief and know what your Budget is you need to choose a production company to produce your corporate video. This can be a rather daunting task and so we have put together some tips for choosing a video production company.


Next: Step 4 - Choosing a Production Company