People ask me what a brand film costs. "It depends" is the polite answer. Here is the real one.
$15,000 is the middle of the road. Below it you start cutting things you will regret. Above it you pay for polish nobody notices. Most clients land here. So here is where the money actually goes.
Pre-production: about $2,500
The thinking part. Scripts, shot lists, scouting, planning, scheduling.
This is the first thing clients try to cut, and it is the worst thing to cut. The shoot is execution. Pre-production is design. Skip it and the shoot day falls apart. Every single time.
Production: about $7,500
The actual shoot day. Crew, gear, location, food, insurance. A standard day for me is four people: me directing and shooting, a camera assistant, and a sound person.
You do not need to know what camera I bring. You need to know it shoots a look you can charge for.
Need a second shoot day? It does not double the price. Pre-production and post are already paid for. A two-day shoot lands around $19,000 to $20,000.
Post-production: about $4,000
The edit, the colour, the sound, the music, the final files. Three to four weeks. One round of revisions is included. If you want a second round, that costs more, and I tell you before we start.
Music is the most common surprise. A great licensed track runs $400 to $800. Custom score starts at $1,200 and climbs from there. I will tell you which one your project actually needs.
Delivery: about $1,000
You walk away with three cuts. A long version for your homepage. A short version for social. A six-second version for paid ads. Plus captions, archive files, and a folder of B-roll you keep forever.
What is not in the price
- Travel outside Calgary
- Actors if you need them
- Animation or motion graphics
- Drone work
- A studio rental if we cannot shoot on location
If your project needs any of these, I tell you before you sign. I do not bury them in a contract and surprise you on the invoice.
The thing most people get wrong
Cheaper is not cheaper. A $5,000 film that nobody watches cost you five grand for nothing. A $15,000 film running on your homepage for three years gave you a piece of marketing that pays you back every week.
You also do not need to spend $40,000. A sharp $15,000 production beats a $40,000 production from a team that does not know your business. The budget is not the problem. The brief is.
If you are spending in this range, do not cut the planning. That is where the film actually gets made. Everything after is just execution.