5 Ways to Make Money During Video Production

There’s an old saying in the video production business: “cheap, quick, and great – pick two.” Because you can’t have it all! If your video is quick and great, it’s not going to be cheap. If it’s cheap and great, it won’t be produced quickly. And if it’s cheap and quick? Well…you’re going to get what you paid for.
While saving money on your video marketing budget is certainly desirable, keep in mind that cheap, quick, and great don’t all go together. You’ve been warned – sometimes fixing the problems a cheap video campaign creates ends up costing more in the long run.
But are thee ways to save money on video? Absolutely. There are plenty of ways, actually, and a number of great companies that are more than willing to help lighten the load along each step of the way. The key is understanding how to reduce your expenses along each stage of the video production process, including pre-production, production, and post-production.

Saving Money on Pre-Production

Pre-production is the step of the video production process that happens before the cameras start rolling. It’s when you have to budget, plan, and propose. If you want to save money, this is when you start doing so.
1. Pick a budget

Remember what we said about cheap and quick versus cheap and great? You can either cut down on production time, or sacrifice quality for a quick deliverable. You can’t have everything.
Once you’ve decided on the quality of video you’re comfortable with, you should take the time to really map it out. Have you ever produced a video before? If not, go online and search for ways to keep a video budget under control. If you’re already familiar with budgeting, then start asking yourself qualifying questions, like:

• Does my project need a professional script?
• Should I work with an agency or freelance videographers?
• Do I want live-action or animation? If live-action,
• How many actors do I need for the project?
• How many sets do I want?
• How many locations will I probably need to shoot on?
• How much equipment will I have to rent?
• How many videos do I want to shoot at once? Will this be a video series?

While you may only have an idea at this point, all of this matters a great deal. You’re allowed to change around the budget as much as you want right now, because trying to do so later on will cost you big time.
2. Prepare Your Proposal

Once you’ve answered the high-level budgeting questions, you should focus in on the project proposal. Also known as a “production brief” in video lingo, this proposal should be a concise one-pager that describes your project’s scope sufficiently to justify each part of the budget. The production brief should answer basic “Five Ws” type questions, like:

• What’s the objective?
• What’s the goal?
• Who’s watching?
• What’s the key message?
• What is the video style?
• How long is it?
• How will you distribute?
• When is the deadline?
• What’s the budget?

Not only will you need a production brief to get approval before the project can take flight, you’ll need one just to start a conversation with outside producers and directors. Everyone has to be able to manage their expectations.
3. Be informed of your choices

Pre-production is also the time to find out exactly what your options are, especially when it comes to working with third party vendors. Stumbling upon a great “Oh, I could have used that!” product or service in the middle of post-production isn’t going to help anyone.
Fortunately, we’ve taken the time to gather together a short list of useful video production services. You may find some of them useful, and others useless. It all depends on the project you have in mind, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing team:

Your video production will be based on two documents – your production brief and your script. Needless to say, you could use some professional help preparing both. Conveniently enough, Scripted is a content writing service that began with scriptwriting services, and offers help with scripts at very competitive rates (compared to the EFA’s standard rates).

Fiverr is useful for a lot of things. When it comes to video production, it is a great resource for quick and cheap voiceovers, actor testimonials, and custom-made music for video production. Most of the time, you’ll be getting exactly what you paid for. But some Fiverr creatives have pretty stellar ratings and rave reviews.

What’s an infographic got to do with video production? Good question. If you’re making an animated explainer video, for example – an infographic can often help you preview the data and see whether it’s as compelling as you think it is with the added bonus of an affordable infographic that can also stand on its own. Why not throw two outs with one pitch? Many famous animated business videos are actually just a series of motion infographics.

VoiceBunny takes the guesswork out of voiceovers with a simple, user-friendly service that has amazing turnaround times. With access to over 10,000 voiceover professionals, there are few voiceover needs that Bunny Inc. can’t meet.

Saving Money on Production

Production is the stage of the process during which the shoot occurs. Ideally, this stage should take as little time as possible because it will slice and dice up your budget with each billable hour. (Are you sure you don’t want to stay in pre-production just a little longer?)
By now you should have chosen a style for the video. You should have also cast all actors, scouted all locations, and budgeted for the video crew’s every need. You should have a day-by-day breakdown, or shooting schedule, of exactly what will happen. Now’s the time to:
5. Communicate efficiently

Most of the time, you’ll be working with a team of people or an individual freelancer who will report to you remotely and in-person. You’ll probably have spent plenty of time communicating remotely during the pre-production process and working out the kinks, so it may be tempting to simply sit back and hit autopilot during production.
But keep in mind that face-to-face communication is priceless. Now’s the best time for you to ask any remaining questions, add in suggestions, and voice concerns. If you can, be in the room while the camera is rolling so that you can catch any problems before they reach post-production. Learn how to better communicate with creatives and agencies.