"How much does a video cost?" is the first question almost every brand asks us, and it's also the hardest one to answer honestly with a single number. The real answer depends on a handful of specific variables — and once you know what they are, you can compare quotes properly instead of just picking whichever number looks smallest.
Clients often assume a two-day shoot costs roughly double a one-day shoot. In practice, the bigger swings in a quote come from crew size, number of locations, whether talent or actors are booked, and how many final deliverables are needed — not the raw number of hours on set. A tightly planned half-day shoot with a clear deliverables list can cost more than a loosely planned full day with no post-production plan.
Across the quotes we build, the variables that move the number most are, roughly in order: crew size and specialization (DP, gaffer, sound, motion designer), number of locations and any permits required, talent or actor fees, the volume of final deliverables and platform cutdowns, and the complexity of post-production — color grading, sound design, and motion graphics add real hours that a simple cut doesn't.
These are directional, not quotes — every project still needs a proper scope call — but they're the ranges we see hold up across the industry this year: a single social-first video (one location, no talent fees) typically lands in the low-to-mid four figures USD. A brand campaign video with a small crew, light motion graphics, and a handful of cutdowns sits in the mid four figures to low five figures. A multi-location or multi-day campaign with talent, custom motion design, and a full platform deliverable set moves into the five-figure range.
Crew day rates, studio and location rental, and post-production hours all cost meaningfully less in Istanbul than in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, or most major US cities — while the camera packages, editing tools, and delivery standards are identical to what a Western European or American studio would use. For international brands, especially in healthcare and lifestyle categories where we do a lot of our work, that gap doesn't mean a lower-quality product. It means the same budget funds a wider deliverable set: more cutdowns, an extra location, or a second language version, instead of the same single hero video.
Before you compare numbers from different studios, get clear answers to a few questions: is this a fixed project fee or a day rate plus extras? What's included in "post-production" — how many revision rounds, how many final cuts, what aspect ratios? Who owns usage rights, and for how long? A lower headline number that excludes cutdowns, revisions, or usage rights isn't actually cheaper once you price in what you'll need to add later.
The fastest way to a real number is a short scope call: what the video needs to do, where it will run, and how many deliverables you actually need from the shoot. That's a very different conversation from "how much for a video," and it's the one that gets you a quote you can actually plan a budget around. If you're weighing a few studios against each other, our guide to vetting a production partner covers the process questions worth asking alongside the price.
If you have a project in mind, get in touch and we'll scope it properly before you get a number.