How much does video editing cost?

It’s no secret that the editing of a project can span much longer than the time it takes to shoot it. What’s less well-known are the variables that affect that amount of time, and by the same token, the cost. After giving it some solid thought, our team has identified three main categories of variables that can drive a project’s post-production time and budget up or down: Scope, Style, and Turnaround. Within each of those are a range of considerations.

Check out our video for an overview of the 14 main budget drivers on video editing projects:

Before we dive in, here's a high-level view of how each of the variables impact a post-production project's budget:

Video editing budget drivers

Scope

• Less services ↓ | More services ↑
• You source assets ↓ | We source assets ↑
• Template motion graphics ↓ | Custom motion graphics ↑
• Less revision rounds ↓ | More revision rounds ↑
• Added cut downs and alternate aspect ratios ↑

Style

• More guidance ↓ | Less guidance ↑
• Scripted voiceover ↓ | Teleprompter footage ↔ | Unscripted interviews ↑
• Classic, straight cuts ↓ | Advanced editing tricks ↑
• Ratio between amount of raw footage and final video runtime is tricky ↑
• Videos with longer runtimes ↑

Turnaround

• More advanced notice ↓ | Less advanced notice ↑
• Flexible deadline ↓ | Tight, rigid deadline ↑
• Missed benchmarks without a deadline change ↑
• If the expectations about a project’s style or timeline shift ↑

Now, let's review each of the above variables in more depth so you can more clearly understand the implications of each and how they contribute to how much a video editing project will cost. By understanding these variables and communicating clearly with your post-production team, you can create a realistic budget that aligns with your project's needs and helps avoid unexpected costs.

SCOPE

Post-production involves more than just editing. Understanding the full range and nature of the services your project needs is the first step in creating an accurate budget.

Here are the main variables that come into play at this high-level view:

Range of Services

At Archaius, we’ve broken post-production down into six services. A project can include all or just a specific collection depending on its unique needs.

‍
• Consultation: Expert guidance on post-production capabilities at the start of (and throughout) a project. This can include reviewing and advising on pre-production materials like storyboards and shot lists, brainstorming solutions to mid-stream client requests, or looking for potential upsells and add-on edits for your clients.

‍
• Creative Editing: The process of bringing together footage, dialogue, music, and sound effects into a polished, watchable video. The editor is typically our primary team member on a project as they’re the one pushing the buttons to tie the other services together. Editing revisions are handled in this service, unless the project has been scoped as First Cut Only.

‍
• Visual Effects: This often takes the form of seamlessly blending graphics into captured footage — like green screen compositing or replacing screens on a device.

‍
• Motion Graphics: Typically more self-evident than Visual Effects, this is the art of adding animated or graphic design elements to video footage—like motion-tracked text or moving infographics.

‍
• Color Grading: Color correction and grading are typically required to match camera angles between one another, add nearly all the intended color to footage (like in the case of footage shot in LOG), or to add a unique, styled look. Color grading ensures viewers enjoy a seamless visual experience and aren’t distracted by shifting lighting or inconsistent cameras.

‍
• Audio Mixing: Unideal footage can often be salvaged by a savvy editor, but even a casual viewer can immediately spot bad audio. Audio mixing is the process of refining all the layers of sound to make sure they’re all heard at the right levels in relation to one another. At Archaius, we can also enhance your audio to improve a speaker’s voice quality, reduce white noise, and make sure your viewer is staying engaged in what your video’s message is saying, not distracted by how it was recorded.

Asset Sourcing

Nearly every project utilizes media other than captured footage and audio. Sourcing and approving elements like music, stock footage, voiceover artists, and graphics templates takes time. While providing all the assets does bring the overall cost of a project down, our team is happy to source song, stock footage, and voiceover artist options for you to consider. Keep in mind that sourced assets may have their own licensing fees as well.

Template vs Custom

Motion graphics can add a unique touch and elevate the professionalism of a video. But did you know that there are tons of pre-made templates available to start from? These templates often give our team a leg-up on integrating motion graphic elements and are a great, budget-conscious option. However, depending on your project’s needs, client’s requests, or overall vision, templates may not be the best solution. In any of those cases, we have the capability to custom-create motion graphics to perfectly complement any project — albeit at a higher rate than working from a template.

Revision Rounds

As a creative, subjective medium, collaborative video creation often involves some back-and-forth between the involved parties. From the production crew, agency, end-client, and our team, projects typically have multiple players and stakeholders. We typically recommend four revision rounds — two for the agency/production team and two for the client. However, reducing the number of rounds (or eliminating them entirely) can lower costs and expedite the timeline. When working with Archaius, you’ll be supplied with all working files and any assets added along the way, so if you have the time and the means, you’re able to reopen any project and pick up where we left off.

Deliverables

A project often can encompass more than a single deliverable. With more video content being consumed on phones and computers alike, the need for shorter cut-downs or vertical versions has become common. While each alternate variation may take less time than the original, it does indeed take some time, and therefore requires a budget. The type and number of deliverables a project has is an important detail to take into account when building out a post-production budget.

‍

STYLE

More than just aesthetics, the style elements of a project can impact a post-production budget fairly quickly. Stylistic decisions made in pre-production can often radiate so far as to dictate the workflow approach editors take while crafting a video’s narrative and building its overall structure. After all, executing the vision a client was sold on during pre-production ultimately falls on the responsibility of the post-production team.

Level of Guidance

Believe it or not, unlimited creative freedom can often come as daunting news to a post-production team. The art of video creation is highly subjective, and what may feel right to the editor could unknowingly be completely counter-productive to the end client’s goal for the video. The quickest and most cost-effective solution? Clear and thorough communication at the very start of a project. If the vision isn’t quite there and a project or client has a more “I’ll know it when I see it” approach, no problem. We’re happy to work through that back and forth, but the budget will reflect the added time it takes for us to uncover the ideal outcome together.

Narrative Style

If a project includes the spoken word as the story foundation, there are a few forms this can take. The quickest and most cost-effective iteration is a pre-recorded, scripted voiceover. This is the most efficient to work with in post-production as it naturally creates a video’s structure with minimal cutting. The mid-range option is a speaker delivering lines on-camera using a teleprompter. With this narrative type, we’re cutting around mistakes and stitching together the best takes. The most time and cost-intensive narrative is one created from unscripted interviews. With these projects, we listen carefully through each interview, test out different variations in soundbite ordering and delivery, and often carefully weave together disparate pieces to ensure the most accurate messaging possible. The rub is, unscripted interviews are the most effective in terms of persuading an audience’s emotional buy-in — a key component to many videos’ effectiveness. That being said, scripted voiceover and teleprompter projects certainly have their place in a brand’s roster of videos. If you’re looking for cost-savings on a project with unscripted interviews, we have a workflow where you can pick the soundbites we’ll use.

Visual Style

Regardless if a video has a spoken narrative, it certainly has a visual one. There’s an unending number of editing techniques and effects that can be employed on a project, they’re only limited by your imagination (and budget). Brand videos and social posts will often incorporate trending visual styles like rapid-fire glitch cutting, time manipulation, picture-in-picture, overlays, or advanced transitions to name a few. But don’t feel like you need to follow today’s viral look. Classic, straight cuts between shots still reign king as the most effective form of editing. If it fits the style of your project, lean on more timeless, conventional techniques and your project will likely be completed quicker and at a more cost-effective budget when avoiding unnecessary bells and whistles.

Total Runtime (TRT) of the Raw Footage

This one may seem straightforward: the more raw footage* provided on a project, the longer it takes our team to ingest and work through it, right? For the most part, yes, but there’s a can of worms waiting to be uncovered here. It is true, including a ton of raw footage will take a long time to sort through, and most of it will end up on the cutting room floor (upsell opportunities, anyone?). But provide too little, and there will likely be added costs for sourcing and licensing stock footage or motion graphics to fill out the video’s final runtime. So in a vacuum, less TRT means less processing time and cost devoted to that element of a project, but zoom out to the overall project, and the cost-savings may very well end up evening out elsewhere. Ultimately, the answer to the Goldilocks ratio of TRT to final video runtime can’t be perfectly defined. But combine long TRT with unscripted interviews and low project guidance and you’re looking at a pretty hefty price tag.

*Raw footage is often a mix of A-Roll (narrative content) and B-Roll (visual content). Each arguably takes the same amount of time to cull, sort, organize, and become familiar with.

Runtime Length

An easier equation than the topic of TRT, generally longer runtime videos cost more than shorter ones. This is an important element to consider when combined with other variables such as narrative style, visual style, and turnaround. In essence, the longer an intricate narrative and visually dynamic style need to be maintained throughout a video, the more pricey it will be. And if it’s due quickly and/or on short notice, that’s going to impact the budget quite a bit as well.

‍

TURNAROUND

Time is essential when it comes to properly planning for and executing projects. Loop our team into a project as early as possible to help minimize expedited fees, or worse yet, the dreaded “sorry we’re busy” email.

Advance Notice

A project that needs to be completed quickly can be stressful. A project that needs to be completed quickly that you didn’t know about until the day before is even more stressful. At the time this document was written, our team typically books out about 3 - 4 weeks in advance. The more advance notice we have about a project hitting our desks, the more likely we can take it on without expedited fees. An added bonus of notifying us early is the opportunity to leverage our Consulting abilities. We can help coordinate details with the production team in order to ensure a smooth process and a happy client.

Requested Speed

At Archaius, when the turnaround date is flexible, we typically only provide first cut turnaround estimations — not final completion dates. That’s mainly due to the fact that once we pass the ball to you or the end client for feedback, we have no control over the amount of time it takes to get a response. In other circumstances, our clients come to us with a prepared post-production timeline that includes draft dates and benchmarks for feedback. We’ll review the proposed timeline and based on the complexity of the project and our availability at the time, see how the budget is affected. Our standard first cut turnaround is influenced by nearly all the other variables on this document, but it most commonly falls within ~1 - 2 weeks from the time of media arrival.

Benchmarks

Once a post-production timeline has been set, straying from established benchmarks can affect the overall turnaround of the project. If the final due date is firm but other parties miss the dates to complete their responsibilities, expedited fees will likely be applied to the remaining phases of the project. Depending on how many revision rounds or services are affected (like color grading, audio mixing, and motion graphics), the expedited costs may start to jump up if the original scope expectations aren’t adjusted.

Expectation Shifts

Pre-production is the ideal time to align all teams and stakeholders around the core vision for a project. Tools such as storyboards and scripts help conceptualize details that guide production and post-production alike. If there are mid-project shifts based on either a client’s change of heart or unideal execution during production, post-production will likely need to reevaluate if the original budget can support the new circumstances. Stack this with a fixed final due date and costs can start to add up quickly as the rules of engagement change while the deadline remains the same.

‍

TAKEAWAY

Hopefully shedding light on the cost factors involved with post-production helps set you up for success in creating the budget for your next video project. Making sure you understand how factors such as scope, style, and turnaround expectations affect your post-production team is important to help you set realistic budgets and avoid potential overages. Communicating with your post-production team early will help align everyone in the process about what’s possible within the available budget before setting the client’s expectations and committing to a specific end product.
For more details on how to allocate budgets or to consult about your specific project’s needs, feel free to reach out!

‍

‍