Guides
9 things to check in videography services
Nine checks that separate a real videography quote from a shoot day, covering deliverables, post production load, crew status, licensing and usage rights.
What to take away
- A videography quote is a deliverable set plus a production shape. The shoot day is one line of it, not the whole purchase.
- Nine checks cover the whole buydeliverables, runtime, aspect ratios, post depth, shoot length, crew, revisions, turnaround and rights.
- Ask what each shoot hour costs to finish. That number explains most of the price gap between two quotes for videography services.
- Anything you publish about a service is an advertising claim, so the entry package has to be one a client can actually buy.
- Music, stock, travel and raw footage belong outside the package price, named and priced separately.
Nine checks, in the order they change the price
Run these nine checks against any quote, including your own. Each one moves the price, and each one is answerable in a sentence.
Aspect ratio coverage
Ratio
- 16:9
- YouTube, Vimeo, websites
- 9:16
- TikTok, Reels, Shorts
- 4:5
- Instagram feed post
Covers
- 16:9
- 9:16
- 4:5
Deliverable formats by name
Format
- H.264 MP4
- Web and social
- ProRes 422 HQ
- Archive and re-edit
- SRT or VTT
- Separate caption sidecar
Use
- H.264 MP4
- ProRes 422 HQ
- SRT or VTT
Nine checks that move the price
- Deliverable sethow many finished files
- Runtime of each deliverable
- Aspect ratios and versions
- Finishing depthgrade, sound, graphics
- Shoot length and locations
- Crew size and classification
- Revision rounds
- Turnaround window
- The deliverable set.How many finished files, and what is each one for? One master cut is not the same purchase as a master plus three cutdowns. Ask for formats by name: an H.264 MP4 for web and social, a ProRes 422 HQ master for archive and re-edit, captions as a separate .srt or .vtt sidecar.
- Runtime of each deliverable.Thirty seconds and three minutes are different jobs at the same shoot. Name the lengths in the quote. YouTube bumper ads cap at 6 seconds, paid social usually runs 15 or 30, and a website hero runs 60 to 90. Ask for the runtime in the quote, not in the kickoff call.
- Aspect ratios and versions.Which pieces are shot vertical on the day, and which get reframed in the edit? 16:9 covers YouTube, Vimeo and most websites. 9:16 covers TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and 4:5 fills an Instagram feed post. Reframing costs edit hours that a quote written as social versions hides.
- Finishing depth.Assembly only, or grade, sound design, motion graphics and subtitling? This is the largest single swing in post cost. A color grade in DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere Pro typically adds a day in most markets. Burned-in captions and sidecar caption files price differently, so name which one you are buying.
- Shoot length and locations.Half a day at one address is a different production from a full day across three, even when the finished runtime matches. A standard quote assumes a 10-hour day; overtime after that typically bills at 1.5 times the hourly rate. Travel between locations is time the client pays for.
- Crew size and classification.Who is on set, in what role, and are they employees or independent contractors? The IRS and your state labor agency set classification, not preference, so confirm it with a qualified accountant or attorney before you quote a rate built on it. A director of photography, gaffer, sound mixer and assistant are separate line items.
- Revision rounds.How many are included, what counts as a round, and what does the next one cost? Two rounds is the common standard for a branded film. Extra rounds typically bill at $75 to $150 an hour for an editor in most US markets. Unbounded revisions turn a profitable job into a loss.
- Turnaround window.Delivery date for the first cut, for notes, and for the final file. A short branded film usually takes 10 to 15 business days from shoot to first cut in most markets. A rush date is a priced line item, not a favor, and rush surcharges typically run 25% to 50%.
- Rights, licensing and usage.Where may the client run the video, for how long, and in what territory? A 12-month, US-only social license costs less than a perpetual worldwide buyout, which typically adds 25% to 100% to the production fee. Music carries two separate rights, often held by different parties: the composition and the master recording.
Checks one through four are the deliverable set. Five through eight are the production shape. Nine is the part clients forget and later argue about.
The deliverable set is the product
Write every service in terms of what the client receives, not what you will do.
A weak description says "half-day shoot and edit". A usable one says: one master cut at a stated runtime, one vertical version composed on the day, captions as a sidecar file, two revision rounds, delivery in a stated format by a stated date.
The second version prices itself. It also survives contact with a client's colleague who was not on the call, which the first one never does.
Sort your menu by post load
Service families differ mostly in one property: how much finishing work each shoot hour generates. Sort the menu by that and the business becomes legible.
Service families by post load
Family
- Event coverage
- Low to moderate
- Interview and testimonial
- Moderate
- Brand and promotional film
- High
- Recurring social content
- Moderate, spread thin
- Product and demonstration
- High per finished minute
- Livestream and hybrid events
- Very low
- Documentary and long form
- Very high
Post load
- Event coverage
- Low
- Interview and testimonial
- High
- Brand and promotional film
- Low
- Recurring social content
- Very high
- Product and demonstration
- High
- Livestream and hybrid events
- Moderate
- Documentary and long form
- None
Repeatability
- Event coverage
- Interview and testimonial
- Brand and promotional film
- Recurring social content
- Product and demonstration
- Livestream and hybrid events
- Documentary and long form
| Family | Post load per shoot hour | Repeatability | What it demands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event coverage | Low to moderate | Low | Endurance, power, media, fast turnaround |
| Interview and testimonial | Moderate | High | Audio, lighting, question craft |
| Brand and promotional film | High | Low | Scripting, direction, grade, sound design |
| Recurring social content | Moderate, spread thin | Very high | Batching, templates, a fast approval path |
| Product and demonstration | High per finished minute | High | Lighting control, patience, motion graphics |
| Training and internal comms | Moderate | High | Structure, captions, versioning, long runtimes |
| Livestream and hybrid events | Very low | Moderate | Redundancy, connectivity, rehearsal |
| Real estate walkthrough | Low to moderate | Very high | Gimbal work, template edits, fast turnaround |
| Documentary and long form | Very high | None | Story skill, and a patient client |
A company living on high post-load families needs editing capacity and higher prices. A company living on livestream and event work needs redundancy and stamina. Doing both is what makes small production companies feel permanently behind.
What not to bundle
Three things belong outside the package price, named and priced separately.
Price these outside the package
- Music and stock licensing
- Travel beyond a stated radius
- Raw footage transfer
Music and stock cost what the client's use costs, not what your work costs. Subscription libraries such as Artlist, Musicbed and Epidemic Sound typically run $15 to $50 a month per seat, and Getty Images or Shutterstock price stock by clip and license.
A track can carry more than one right, held by different parties, with separate licensing paths. Treat it as a pass-through with terms, and take anything commercially significant to a qualified attorney.
Travel beyond a stated radius, because it consumes a day without producing material.
Raw footage transfer, because it is a rights and scope decision with real cost in media and time, and clients ask for it far more often than they use it.
The crew each family implies
Different families need different people, and it is worth knowing before you sell one.
Typical US day rates
- $800–2,500Director of photography
- $500–1,200Camera operator
- $500–900Gaffer or sound mixer
- $200–400Production assistant
Event and livestream work needs someone calm about redundancy and cabling. Interview work needs someone whose audio is reliable. Brand film needs direction, which is a different skill from operating. Recurring content needs an editor who can work fast to a template without getting bored.
Day rates in most US markets typically run $800 to $2,500 for a director of photography, or $500 to $1,200 for a camera operator. A gaffer or location sound mixer typically bills $500 to $900, and a production assistant $200 to $400. Kit fees of $100 to $300 a day for sound or lighting packages sit on top.
IATSE covers most film and television crew, and SAG-AFTRA covers on-camera talent.
This occupation spans setting up, operating, monitoring, maintaining and troubleshooting audio and video equipment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics description of broadcast, sound and video technicians notes schedules and environments vary widely by production.
That variation is a staffing constraint: an event schedule and an office-hours edit schedule are not the same working life, and one person rarely wants both.
Costing each family separately
Aggregate profitability hides everything. Track cost and contribution by service family, not across the business, and you will usually find that one family quietly funds another.
Cost each family separately
- Track cost by service family
- Split income and expenses in the books
- Anchor labor against external wage data
- Add burden and non-productive time
- Find which family funds another
Your books have to support that split. The IRS guidance on what records a business should keep describes a system that clearly shows income and expenses with supporting documents behind sales, purchases and payroll. Per-family costing is a layer you build on top of it.
Labor is the dominant cost in every family. Anchor the wage half of it against something external, such as the wage estimates published by occupation and metropolitan area, before you add burden and non-productive time.
Publishing the menu
A published package is an advertising claim. The FTC's advertising guidance for small businesses sets the standard that claims be truthful, not misleading and supportable, with material connections behind endorsements disclosed.
An advertised entry package must be available on real work. Its conditions belong beside it, not in a follow-up email. Testimonials attached to it need to reflect honest experience.
A menu built to make the middle option look reasonable, with an entry tier nobody may buy, fails that standard and annoys the clients who ask for it.
Narrow the menu deliberately
A company offering everything cannot standardize its kit, its training, its templates or its pricing. Every project is a first project.
Narrowing does three things at once: the same setup repeats so the shoot gets faster, the same edit shape repeats so post gets faster, and your marketing describes something specific enough to be remembered.
Choose the narrow set from evidence rather than preference. Look at which families you deliver well, which produce repeat clients, and which produce the fewest revision rounds.
That last one is the most predictive and the least discussed, and your local market position shapes the choice, the subject of starting a video business and reading its market.
Common questions
How many packages should I offer?
Three is usually enough for one family, and more than one family at three tiers each is already a complicated menu. If you cannot say the whole menu out loud in a minute, a client cannot hold it in their head.
Should packages be published with prices?
There is no universal answer. Publishing filters inquiries and costs you the negotiations that would have gone up; not publishing means more calls, more of them unqualified. What matters is that anything published is true and obtainable.
What do I do with a client who wants something off-menu?
Quote it as a project rather than bending a package. Packages exist because repetition makes them cheap to deliver, and a bent package has the price of a standard job with the cost of a custom one.
Is a retainer a package?
It is a commitment shape rather than a deliverable set, so it needs both: a monthly ceiling on deliverables, a rule for unused capacity, and a defined approval path. Without those it becomes unlimited work for a fixed fee.
