Story Telling Estimate

Let’s do this . . .

It was nice meeting with you all a few weeks ago. I really look forward to working with both of you, and I’m honored you all would consider me. I love telling stories, and I really like the ideas you all have to inspire newlyweds to get to know their spouses in a deeper way.

Production is scalable. . .

This is what I tell all of my clients. Costs depend on the number of crew required, gear rentals, number of shoot days, and post production (editing, color grade, audio mixing, and music licensing). I’ve included three bodies of work that visually show the differences in story telling.

One man band

Here is a story I did for Habitat for Humanity. I served as the director/cinematographer due to budget constraints. Projects like this fall into the three to five thousand dollar range.

The approach is simply to do an on camera interview with the subject to capture the story in their own words. This, in turn, drives what the b-roll for the story should be. These productions typically shoot in one to two days.

Small crew

The project below, Proper Coffee, relied on a director/cinematographer plus two crew members: an Assistant Camera person and a gaffer to help with lighting. These projects can run between five and twelve thousand dollars. Due to more preproduction work, these budgets can climb quickly. If the story calls for a preinterview and then a script, more time and personnel are involved and costs increase.

Midsized Crew

This project, To give is to Receive, required a larger crew and a more detailed treatment. This means more time for lighting and more specialized b-roll. The director will hire a highly skilled cinematographer. This doesn’t necessarily mean the video will look “slick”, but can be more stylized. There are at least five crew involved. This also requires more time in preproduction for planning and refining the story. These projects can run twelve to twenty thousand dollars.

conclusion

Based on what we talked about in our initial meeting, I think what we want to produce falls into the five thousand dollar range. This would allows me to hire an assistant and light interior scenes appropriately. Lighting is one of the cinematic techniques that separates my work from others in town.

This would include shooting in two locations. I think we could get it all done in one day to keep costs down. However, I can give a more thorough estimate after getting more details in place.

Please reach out with any questions. I look forward to working with you all.