How much does a conservation video cost in Canada?
WorkCabin
0 Comments
“We’re too small! We can’t afford it.”
Not going to lie. It’s a comment heard every month in marketing for small environmental nonprofits in Canada.
The it is digital content creation, whether that be photography or videography.
Price and budgets are two of the most common issues when doing outreach or having conversations with potential customers. At WorkCabin Creative the focus has always been to strive to provide value.
We don’t try to convince those organizations who only want to “hire” someone if they will shoot a video for $29.95 cash under the table, or worse, only do it if it’s free.
Nope. We don’t believe that helps any economy.
Value is the difference between price and value that is often not well understood. So, here we go: Price is what you pay, value is what you get for each and every dollar you spend. That includes any little extras you receive, customer service, personal attention to details, and the fit as it pertains to a working relationship. Value can be something as simple as taking pride and responsibility in everything that is done as a team, or never scoffing at any task by saying that’s “not my job.” Value can be a business that works with its clients and always has the mentality that the business is its business. And treats it with that same care.
How much does a tourism video cost?
Ah yes! The wild card question!
First, a video doesn’t cost thousands of dollars. OK, caveat: it might. But that is usually reserved for videos that have extensive needs. That’s because these videos usually entail countless locations to be featured, numerous days of filming, aerial filming, and a host of other requirements which probably means meals expenses too. No doubt, the operation involves a film crew. Yes, that means a big film crew. That means one person probably gets paid to do nothing else but hold a microphone boom all day. And so on. So you can imagine how the dollars and salaries start to add up.
Don’t sweat it, if you’re a small conservation nonprofit. The above usually doesn’t apply to you.
In these cases, a video usually can be shot in a few hours, and another few hours to do the post production work. Even aerial photo and video work is possible. All it takes is efficient planning so that flights maximize a short amount of time in the sky capturing video and photos. The reality here is that you’re more likely looking at a range of a few hundred dollars to $1000.
Don’t fear disclosing your budget range
Your best course of action (before you dismiss doing video altogether) is to have a discussion about what kind of budget range you have for a video or professional photography. Most videographers don’t seek to know your budget range so we can privately say Hahahaha! and gobble up every last cent of those dollars. Knowing your budget range means we can work with you to get the work done and hopefully save you some dollars.
Everyone who is small can appreciate what it means to come in under budget. That includes a small business like WorkCabin Creative.
For us, we have the word creative in our name for a reason. For one recent project, filmmaker Gregg McLachlan lived off the grid for a week to shoot footage for a conservation organization. We got creative with a barter on accommodations and travel that resulted in big savings for the client, and still enabled us to shoot the footage affordably.
So the takeaway is this…..
Don’t jump to conclusions or have pre-conceived ideas about pricing for tourism videos. Talk it through. Talk about your needs. Talk about your budget. Think about a true collaborative effort that can make it happen. Change your thinking from “We can’t!” to thinking “To make this happen, we need to be able to do this….” That’s what goes through our minds every time a potential customer says “We can’t afford it!”
And try to stop thinking about those epic five-minute videos that some huge organizations pay $8,000 to $10,000 for by hiring big city film crews. Of course, those kinds of videos are way over the top for smaller nature organizations. What you can get filmed for your organization is probably much much cheaper.
- How Long Should A Job Resume Be? - August 22, 2024
- Job Interviews: Crafting Your Response to “Where Do You Want to Be in Five Years?” - June 15, 2024
- How Contract Jobs Pave the Way to Full-Time Positions in Conservation - April 26, 2024
