How much does a video cost?

This is always the elephant in the room. And if you’re new to video production, the question can be a little awkward to bring up. Here at Stonecastle, videos start around $15,000. That covers our own award-winning creative development process, one day of filming, an editing and review phase, and a commercial-grade finishing process which includes color correction and sound mixing & design.

Most of our clients require at least two days of filming and a little more prep work, so the price generally lands closer to $20,000 for a 2-3 minute video.

As a creative production company that works with a number of non-profits we understand that every dollar matters, so we work hard to provide the absolute highest value for our clients’ investment. And this is where we think Stonecastle sets itself apart.

What do you get for your money?

• Creative development. When we start a project, we walk you through our own process of story discovery. We look deeply at the problem you’re facing and then design a storytelling approach that solves it. Where other production companies breeze past this step, we consider this an essential part of the process, and it’s a big reason why our videos are so successful.
• Better sleep at night. We joke about this, but it’s true. Clients come to Stonecastle because they need the job done right. Problems always come up, so you need a team that’s seen it all and knows how to work through roadblocks. At Stonecastle, we’ve filmed all over the world on everything from commercials to feature documentaries, and we pride ourselves on navigating our clients past the inevitable production pitfalls.
• Amazing production value. We’ve invested heavily in our filmmaking tools to ensure that every video we produce is the highest quality. And since we own our gear, we can guarantee this quality on every single production, from web videos to broadcast commercials.

And maybe the most important thing of all…

When you work with Stonecastle, you’re getting more than just a video. You’re getting a library of super high-quality video assets that can be catalogued, re-edited, and re-purposed for years to come.

We hold libraries of raw video files for all our clients which can be mixed and matched easily into additional content. Sometimes there’s no shooting at all; we can produce an entire video using only footage from their library. This comes in really handy when a non-profit wants an end-of-year video or a hospital needs to create a series of short social media videos around a certain topic.

These libraries are huge assets for our clients because can lean on us like they would an ad agency to catalog, store, and produce new content at a moment’s notice.

So what’s it worth?

You can certainly find someone to make your video for $5,000, but you should consider what that video is worth if it doesn’t do the job. Around Stonecastle we like to say that if it’s not worth watching, then it’s not worth making.

That’s not to say you need Stonecastle for all of your videos. There are times to pull out the iPhone and slap on that Instagram filter. Or hire a freelancer who does a good enough job.

We’re here for those times when quality matters and you need the video to hit the mark. For further reading: here’s how Siloam Health multiplied its investment on a fundraising film we made for them.