Contents
I. How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video: Considering the Factors
1. How Preproduction Affects the Cost of a Music Video
a. Designing the Set to Reduce the Music Video Cost
b. Music Video Production Cost Can’t Be Zero
II. How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video with a Skilled Cinematographer?
1. How Do You Choose Locations to Reduce the Cost of Making a Music Video?
2. Don’t Skimp on a Good Gaffer When Filming a Music Video
3. Focus Pullers’ Fees Do not Affect the Cost of a Music Video Greatly
III. How Much Does It Cost to Make a Music Video? Good Directors Won’t Answer This Question
1. You Need a Director, Even if Your Music Video Costs as Much as a Banana
a. What Roles in the Director’s Department Can Be Combined?
b. Calculating the Director’s Department Budget for a Music Video Shoot
c. What Other Music Video Production Costs Should Be Considered?
IV. How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video with YOPRST?
V. Take-Home Message
In our music video production company, artists frequently ask us how much it costs to shoot a music video. We honestly tell them we do not know yet, and this is not a joke. In response, there is a silent pause, followed by our managers’ lengthy explanation of how music videos are created. Only then will our potential customers realize that it is impossible to calculate the exact or even approximate cost of a music video without first writing a script, obtaining their approval, and finalizing all project details. How much does it cost to shoot a music video, then? Let’s attempt to answer.
How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video: Considering the Factors
Your script largely determines the cost of a music video. That’s why you should provide your video production company with references – i.e., music videos from other artists that you like. This allows you to better convey your idea to the production team and calculate music video production costs with greater precision. At YOPRST, we refer to this as “video communication.” After gathering references, you must determine the mood of the video. Here’s a hint: it should match the music or, in rare cases, serve as a counterpoint. The color palette is built around the chosen mood.
Your production team will then use the colors you have chosen to create a mood board, which is a list of colors that will appear in your music video. These colors should match and complement one another to create a harmonious image. Why create a mood board before shooting a video? The mood board is required so that all artistic departments have a framework for gathering props, costumes, location decorations, and other location work. If the colors in the image are not complementary, it will be repellent, and the video will receive fewer views, failing to promote your music to a larger audience.
The next critical step in preproduction is storyboarding. Storyboards are a collection of sketches or images that outline each scene, serving as a visual script for the production team. This helps plan music video camera angles, movements, and transitions, ensuring that everyone involved understands the director’s vision. At YOPRST, we believe that a detailed storyboard is essential for coordinating the director’s vision with the production crew’s abilities. It also allows for more accurate music video cost estimates because the complexity of each shot can be assessed ahead of time.
How Preproduction Affects the Cost of a Music Video
When we select references, we make extra work easier for ourselves and other specialists. As a result, we can provide a faster answer to the question, How much does it cost to make a music video? If the budget meets your requirements, the YOPRST team will proceed with the actual shooting. Using the references, we can also write a complete script for your music video or just a portion of it, depending on your goals and budget. Please keep in mind that the references do not eliminate the need for professional scriptwriting. If you have a limited budget, use references.
If you include references for every second of your music video script, it could be entirely made up of stills from other artists’ work. All we have to do now is cut and edit these segments into a video based on your script. This type of video is known as a cinematic or animatic. Such videos make it much easier to visualize your concepts and desires. As a result, you do not need to hire creators, whose hourly rates are typically higher, and can instead achieve your objectives through video editing services. This, in turn, lowers the music video production cost.
Consider how many locations and actors are required in the script when estimating the cost of a music video. We do not make any changes to the set if you choose a natural or outdoor location, such as a city center, abandoned factory, or forest, due to the high costs. Most of the time, the settings can be recreated in a pavilion. If you select an indoor location, such as an apartment or a house, we will remove any colors that do not meet the mood board requirements, add accessories, or replace drapery. In short, we will go above and beyond to create a set that matches the mood board.
Designing the Set to Reduce the Music Video Cost
The cost of preparing each shooting location for a music video varies with the project’s complexity and scale. Typically, a team of two people, led by a professional production designer, is required to prepare a location for a full shift. If budget constraints are an issue, one way to save a lot of money is to consolidate roles and prepare locations before the shoot. Although this method may lengthen the production timeline, it can significantly reduce the average music video cost, making it more affordable to create high-quality video content for musicians.
For a mid-level music video project, the professional production designer’s fee typically ranges between $600 and $1,100 per shift. Their knowledge is essential because they oversee the visual aspects, ensuring that each location reflects the desired aesthetic and mood. The production designer’s assistants, who support the art department, usually charge between $165 and $330 per shift. These assistants are in charge of a variety of tasks, including arranging props and ensuring that visual elements match the storyboard and mood board.
If you’re looking to shoot a music video for cheap, hiring helpers and laborers is a viable solution. Their pay is typically lower, ranging from $55 to $165 per shift, which reflects their more limited responsibilities. On smaller, creative, and non-commercial projects, negotiating lower rates or even asking team members to volunteer their time can be effective. When setting up a creative department for a medium- or big-budget music video project, even creative or passion projects, we recommend bringing in the following talent (the crossed-out roles can be omitted):
- Production designer
Set designerProps masterWardrobe designer- MUA
Music Video Production Cost Can’t Be Zero
Making a cheap and creative music video is a common practice among beginners and independent artists who do not have the funds to hire a professional team, especially since a production designer can earn up to $1,000 per shift. In such cases, you can reduce the cost of making a music video by approaching a smaller team of video production specialists who are building up their portfolio and by offering assistance with promotion in return. Most of the time, they will agree – especially if your project has exceptional creative value and is difficult to implement.
However, you will still be responsible for the costs of location, props, and costume design, as well as makeup, choreography, and other artistic aspects of your music video. To provide an estimate of art department costs, consider a project with two locations: one outside (marked as EXT in the script) and one inside (INT). How about scenes shot inside a car? They are marked as EXT/INT, blending both indoor and outdoor elements, much like Schrödinger’s cat. This notation clarifies that the scene takes place inside a car, preventing confusion during the production process.
Here’s another example. We are filming a music video outside, so we can not change the location significantly. Still, we will bring in the art department to scout and evaluate the set. Suppose the team, which includes a production designer, spends four hours making minor adjustments, such as removing trash cans, covering modern elements, or altering the scenery to reflect a specific era like the Soviet period or pre-war times. Even with such involvement, professional cleanup services will still be required to maintain the scene’s visual integrity.
How does all of this affect the music video production cost? The production designer will charge around $600; if they have assistants, we will need to add about $220 for each specialist to the total music video cost estimate. Furthermore, the art department is expected to spend an additional $250 on other materials. When calculating the cost of a small music video production project, we will not include the costs associated with renting additional equipment such as scaffolding, generators, and so on. In total, preparing two locations over the course of a shooting day could cost $1,200.
How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video with a Skilled Cinematographer?
With the art department expenses more or less clear, we can get a better idea of how much it costs to make music videos. Let us move on to the next critical step: determining the cost of hiring an experienced cinematographer. Why is it important? Simply put, the quality and visual appeal of your music video are directly related to the cinematographer’s abilities, the size of the cinematography team, and the equipment. Renting high-end equipment for a music video shoot is optional; however, you must find a true professional whose expertise will compensate for its absence.
If you do the opposite (i.e., splurge on an expensive camera like the Sony Venice and hire a newcomer), you will not get good results because an inexperienced cinematographer with an expensive camera and optics will be worse for the project than a professional with an iPhone. What do cinematographers do before filming a video? They visit the location, check for good angles, and assess the amount of light falling on the object. It is critical to determine how much additional light is required and whether everything can be shot using natural lighting, modifiers, and shading.
How Do You Choose Locations to Reduce the Cost of Making a Music Video?
Location scouts or managers make preliminary selections for project locations before submitting them for further review. A cinematographer then visits the locations, often attending dozens of sites in a single day, to select the ones that will elevate your visuals to the next level. Locations can be chosen differently depending on the available budget. For example, if a specific site does not produce good light and shadow patterns but the background is visually appealing, your production team may use additional lighting. This will inevitably increase the cost of making a music video.
The end result is usually worth it, but if you have a limited budget, you can instruct the cinematographer to only consider locations that do not require artificial lighting. If you want a plausible answer to the “How much does it cost to make a music video?” question, let’s assume your project needs additional lighting for an outdoor scene. We will do the math for a small 12×12 frame, a 4 kW ARRI M40 lamp, and a small 6 kW generator. If your budget allows, we recommend hiring the following specialists for your cinematography department (the crossed-out roles can be omitted):
- Director of photography
- Focus-puller (1AC)
Camera mechanic (2AC)- Gaffer
Lighting techniciansDigital imaging technician (DIT)- Behind the scene camera (BTS)
Don’t Skimp on a Good Gaffer When Filming a Music Video
A gaffer, or chief lighting technician, supervises other technicians on a set. Skilled gaffers typically charge around $300 per ten-hour shift. Other lighting technicians on your project make $110-165 per 12-hour shift, doing heavy work such as loading and unloading equipment, assisting the gaffer with other tasks, and leaving the set last. The cinematographer’s fee varies according to their status and experience on previous projects. Cinematographers in the film industry may earn less per shift than their colleagues in advertising.
This is because films are shot over 30-40 shifts in a row, so the per-shift fee is much lower; instead, earnings are derived from more shooting days. We can assume that a mid-level cinematographer with ten years of experience will charge $550 per shift for a small project, music video, or series. For shooting video ads or other commercial projects, the fee can easily rise to $1,100 per shift. All preparatory meetings and trips for all projects are typically charged at half the fee and such meetings can be plentiful so do not be surprised later.
Because your music video production cost estimate includes additional figures. The professionals working on your project are compensated not only for the actual shooting but also for the preparatory activities that occur during the preproduction stage. To ensure the best results, your team will hold several online and offline meetings to discuss locations, props, and other creative elements. The music video director’s responsibilities will extend well into the postproduction process, as video editing, color correction, grading, and cleanup all require his input.
Focus Pullers’ Fees Do not Affect the Cost of a Music Video Greatly
Almost every project necessitates focus control, as there are few music videos in which characters stand still, with some notable exceptions such as Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out), you can watch it on YouTube via link below, or Radiohead – No Surprises. To ensure that all of the shots in your music video are sharp and in focus, you should hire a dedicated professional known as a focus puller. Their fees are slightly lower than those of the cinematographer, averaging $330 per shift. As a result, your music video cost will not be significantly impacted.
Do not overlook the cost of renting lighting, shooting, rigging and other related equipment. You should expect to pay $220-330 per day for such equipment, bringing the total cinematography costs to around $1,500 per shift. Please keep in mind that these approximate music video production cost estimates do not account for overtime work. Such cases should be negotiated in advance. Frequently, the filming process takes longer than expected due to unforeseen situations, scheduling conflicts or poor planning, raising the overall cost of a music video.
Going over time is unavoidable when working with small video production teams that are just starting out in their careers. Experienced production companies usually anticipate such situations and make the necessary adjustments to the music video cost estimate presented to the client. While customers may initially be hesitant about such additional costs, in the long run, this benefits all parties involved: it is less expensive and more convenient to extend the filming process for a few hours while everyone is on set than to schedule another day of shooting to film missing scenes.
How Much Does It Cost to Make a Music Video? Good Directors Won’t Answer This Question
In one of our earlier blog posts, we’ve told you how to make a music video on a budget. Today we’re discussing the average music video cost and the factors that affect it. To obtain a realistic estimate, we need to account for the expenses associated with a few additional departments. In particular, this includes the cost of hiring an experienced director. He will be responsible for the project’s creative vision and bringing your script to life in a captivating and polished manner. Without a director, there is a risk that the music video will be emotionless.
Your music video plot should be interesting and not trivial, with an internal storyline that viewers can easily follow. The approach will differ depending on the genre, as different genres use distinct directorial techniques and patterns. For example, in the music video for rapper ICEON’s Michelle, which we shot in Warsaw last year, common elements include an expensive car, scantily clad women, and standard hand gestures. Simply nodding to the beat while leaning against a luxury car will suffice. Such patterns are controlled by the director.
For other genres, we recommend incorporating more creativity by thoroughly planning the script and visual elements before moving into production, even though this may eventually increase the music video production cost. A compelling script can help attract a larger audience and potentially cause the video to go viral, resulting in millions of views in a short period of time. With streaming services like YouTube paying around $1 per 10,000 views, a video like PSY’s “Gangnam Style” could have earned more than $520,000 in ad revenue alone.
You Need a Director, Even if Your Music Video Costs as Much as a Banana
Regardless of genre, the director’s department usually consists of the director, assistant director (1AD), location secretary, and clapper loaders. On a limited budget, the secretary’s role can be combined with that of the 1AD, who oversees the storyboard and ensures that all shots are captured as planned. This oversight is critical because there is a high risk of missing shots near the end of the shift. If a shot is forgotten, the team must reconvene, resulting in significant unanticipated expenses. Therefore, the 1AD plays a vital role in preventing such costly oversights.
The location secretary is in charge of compiling shooting reports and documenting who arrived when, which is necessary for calculating fees and, subsequently, the music video production cost. At the end of each day, all data on the filmed material is turned over to the production head for signature, signaling the end of the shooting day. The clapper loader performs the iconic task of clapping the clapperboard, which is required for sound and video synchronization. The clapper loader also records camera parameters, shot numbers, memory card numbers, camera indexes, and filter settings.
What Roles in the Director’s Department Can Be Combined?
If you’re still wondering about the cost of making a music video, we’ll soon provide an answer. When operating on a tight budget, this question becomes especially critical. To save money, the 1AD can serve as the clapper loader. In this case, the footage report is attached to the back of the clapperboard rather than the ColorChecker, and it is noted after every shot. The list also includes successful shots that the editor should prioritize, though a better shot may be selected during editing. The director’s department team serves as the central hub for all other departments.
The director establishes the visual tone and overall vision for the project. The production designer brings this vision to life with the environment, costumes, and accessories, while the cinematographer captures the entire execution to ensure that it looks great and accurately conveys the director’s vision. The director often commands the highest fee, and for good reason: they oversee the project from start to finish, navigating multiple stages and challenges that arise along the way. The director’s fee for music videos typically ranges between $550 and $1,100 per shift.
Fees can also be several hundred thousand dollars for the entire project. A music video is typically shot over several days; however, one to two shooting days are usually sufficient to produce quality content while keeping the music video production cost low. Assume the director requests $1,100 per shift. Their assistant usually earns about half the director’s salary. The location secretary usually earns between $220 and $330, while the clapper loader earns between $100 and $160. For small- and medium-budget projects, the ideal director’s department composition is as follows:
- Director
- First assistant director (1AD)
Second assistant director (2AD)Clapper loaderSecretary on set
Calculating the Director’s Department Budget for a Music Video Shoot
Let us figure out the total budget for the director’s department by adding up the fees for all participants. Suppose our team consists of the director, the first assistant director (who also serves as the clapper loader), and the secretary. This brings us to a tidy sum of $2,000 per shift. For some musicians, this may appear steep, akin to strings breaking, trombone curtains falling, and amplifiers exploding. However, compare this to movie actor fees – Leonardo DiCaprio confidently charges $30 million for a 30- to 40-day shoot.
To accurately calculate the cost of shooting a music video, we need to add one more figure: shooting and other equipment rental fees. We previously estimated the rental of lighting equipment for the cinematography department, so we will not repeat it here. It is important to note that the equipment budget should be calculated as a whole for all departments rather than just lighting. In a collaborative article with our cinematographers, we discussed how to choose a camera for shooting a video. Check it out to learn which camera is right for your purposes.
Following these recommendations, we will select the ARRI Alexa Mini camera for our imaginary project. Renting this camera, including accessories, memory cards, and a rig, costs around $330 per day. We will also include a lens set, such as the Cooke S4i, which costs $550 per day. Other equipment required includes stands, tripods, playback monitors, team radio communication, stabilizers, and a body rig. Overall, this can range from $550 to $1,100, depending on the specific options. For example, the Ronin R2 with ReadyRig GS costs $165 per shift.
What Other Music Video Production Costs Should Be Considered?
How much does it cost to shoot a music video? We are getting close to a final estimate, with only a few more factors to consider. These include catering for the entire crew and guests, which costs approximately $30 per person per day and includes a square meal, cookies, and coffee – the fuel that keeps the video production wheels turning. If your location is outdoors, you will also require mobile toilets, which cost approximately $170 with delivery. We recommend that you make these arrangements in advance, as the team’s comfort is critical.
Post-production begins with editing, which, in turn, starts with the documentation provided by the location secretary or 1AD. Then the editor, director, and musicians work together on refining the project. Once the rough cut is ready, the material is handed over for color correction and effects. How much does video editing cost? Depending on the complexity, editing a three-minute video will cost about $350, with an additional $350 for color correction and another $350 for effects and cleanup. This totals $1,050 for the entire post-production process.
How Much Does It Cost to Shoot a Music Video with YOPRST?
Let’s add up all the numbers to finally determine the average music video cost. We estimated the director’s department at $2,000, the cinematography department at $1,550, the art department at $1,200, equipment rental at $1,400, and catering and site services at $700. Additionally, we’ll include the rental of locations at $110 each and the rental of stock footage likely to be used in the video. This brings the total cost to approximately $7,000, but it’s better to aim the music video production cost of $5,500-8,750, considering potential unforeseen expenses.
These sums are substantial and only accessible to professional artists working with renowned world-class producers and big labels. But what about the cost of making a music video for beginners and independent musicians? At YOPRST, we also have a more budget-friendly offer that will help you shoot a cool and creative video at a reasonable price. Every artist can afford a quality music video without breaking the bank. Many musicians are unaware of or don’t want to know how a music video budget is formed, so we prepared a small table to illustrate this.
Take-Home Message
Making a truly professional music video necessitates a large budget and a full professional production team. If the script requires complex staging, stunts, or drones, the music video production cost will most likely exceed $11,000. Even with advances in neural network-generated videos, cinema remains an expensive form of art. We recommend not cutting corners and creating a detailed plan for the shoot. Alternatively, feel free to contact us for expert advice. Even if you do not hire us, our team will gladly answer any questions you may have.