5 easy tips for video producers to cut production costs

It’s the inevitable question. Any potential client you speak with will eventually ask, “how much will this cost?” It’s the question that tells prospects whether they can hire you at all. And while you want to give the most competitive quotes you can, it’s a bad business decision if those quotes don’t cover your actual costs.

Some video producers think that the easiest adjustment to match budgets to actuals is made to the quote when they bid for client work. But that’s not always true. Instead, these 5 easy tips can show you exactly how video producers cut production costs so they can price right and stay competitive.

These tips essentially hinge on the idea of a process. You can think of these 5 tips as 5 steps—and if you follow them, you’ll protect yourself from costs spiraling out of control.

Putting this plan in place is also good for your business because it keeps the deciding factors under your control. So, buckle up and get ready to follow these 5 steps to reduce production costs and maximized your revenue.

1: Take a good look at your budget and make some decisions

This is like a backwards glance over your shoulder to see where you are and how you got there. For starters, to get your budget under control, self-awareness is crucial to work your projects smarter moving forward.

Take the last 3-5 projects you produced and get ready to analyze how much you spent on each (and how your individual expenditures matched up against your allotted budget for each item). This analysis will help you determine whether your budget was realistic.

Here are the steps to look at your budgets versus your actuals in an effective way:

1. Pick out any areas where you went over budget.
2. Make notes on any factors (external or in your organization) that affected the budget. Some common culprits include staffing issues, unclear project plans and scope creep.
3. Pick out areas where you were at or under budget.
4. Compare across projects which categories tend to be at or under budget and which ones tend to go over budget. For those that go over, are some of the same factors to blame time and time again?

Where you see trends, make a plan for the next project to avoid that particular broken budget item. For example, if you’re running into unclear project plans one project after the other, add a project planning process to your client onboarding. Getting agreement on the big-picture plans and accountabilities could be the ticket to bring that chronic budget-breaker under your control.

Or, if you see areas that are simply costing more than you budgeted for (because you priced your expected investment on the low side of the market value), on these items you might just need to adjust your budget up to set realistic expectations.

2: Simplify your production packages

Your prospects won’t usually understand what pre- and post-production goes into different kinds of videos. Keeping your packages as simple and small as possible helps people understand what they’re getting.

Sure, large packages allow you to charge more. But when the offering gets complicated, tracking your profit becomes harder, and clients end up feeling more entitled to activities that they just assumed were in the hefty package bundle.

The most transparent approach is also the most cost-effective one. Use templates for each project package you offer like the one we have below. You’ll see how this will help you anticipate costs better (and your clients will anticipate the right deliverables).

Example template: 

• Include all the basics that are required for every single project, like audio recording, videographer, and crew. That’s your base package.
• List the popular services that are common but not needed on every project, like animation, voiceovers, and licensed music. Segment these out by project type, and then you can offer them as add-ons (each with a designated price).
• List premium add-ons that are not used often like scriptwriting and social sharing versions of videos. Segment them out by project, and price accordingly.

With this structure, you can offer your basic package for a competitive flat fee that gets people through the door. Then, based on clients’ unique needs, you can get clear direction and scope decided with each client who then knows exactly what to expect at delivery.

3: Limit last-minute changes—and put those limits in writing

It’s those last-minute changes like switched filming locations or altered scheduling that really throw a wrench in your project budgets. To minimize the number of these last-minute changes, create a detailed production plan that is shared with all stakeholders early on.

Here’s a simple way to put your production plan on paper:

• Break your plan into three parts: pre-production, production, and post-production. List out the line-item tasks and responsibilities for each part.
  • For example, pre-production will include things like scriptwriting (if applicable) and storyboarding.
  • Production will include your list of locations, call sheet, the shotlist and your schedule.
  • Post-production will include your editing and revision tasks and deadlines.

Your plan will help you stay on top of your project budget and goals. It also supports accountability from collaborators and promotes “buy-in” from your clients because, by sharing it, you get the needed assurance that everyone understands and is on board. That way, you can explain additional costs later if you have to make adjustments.

4: Take a good look at your pre-production

Pre-production activities make a bigger difference than you might think since they have the power to start projects off on the right foot. They can start a time-consuming and expensive spiral if they aren’t handled well.

To reduce the time spent on some of the most time-consuming pre-production activities, use the right apps or digital tools. They’re out there, it’s just a matter of finding them. For example:

• For meetings, not only can you do everything virtually on video conferencing platforms, but you can record all meetings and then upload the audio files to a tool like Sonix to have them transcribed.
• Next, store those transcripts in a central, sharable location like Google Drive. Everyone on the project can refer back to these instead of wasting time guessing when questions do come up.

Pro tip: Sonix has a Zapier integration, too, allowing you to create custom workflows so no one is actually uploading the audio files manually. You can also integrate Sonix with your production flow using their API. Zoom transcription: Sonix even lets you automatically transcribe meeting audio if you use Zoom for your virtual meetings. The files are ready in minutes for only $10 per audio hour. Not bad!

• Once you do have your transcripts, you also have the chance to review them yourself on Sonix before sharing. Anyone viewing the file later can leave notes and comments, too.

5: Take an equally good look at your post-production

Just like pre-production, post-production can drag on and hike up costs if you don’t have a plan spelled out. Ideally, your post-production process will bring all your work together under the bigger ideas and concepts shared early on.

You can use the right tools to save time and money here, too, especially today with all the killer software available out there. For example:

• Sonix, once again, can help you streamline and lower costs for transcription (thereby lowering the costs of video editing and subtitles): Automated transcription
• Hightail is a tool that can be used for feedback notes, thereby streamlining and speeding up the process of getting client and team feedback.
• Adobe Premiere is an incredible editing software to get footage edited super-fast.
• And Shutterstock is your go-to library for stock footage.

Whatever tools you use, just be sure the app stack you select fits your budget and meets your need.

Keep learning!

From the start to the end of every project, carve out a little time to take notes (even mental ones) on what you’re learning. Build this habit to become more aware of “black hole” budgets and processes.

By using these plans, templates and tools we shared here, you can see your pre-production, production, and post-production budgets fall right where they’re supposed to. Over time, you’ll see your budgets progressively become more predictable and optimized for a bigger return.