Video production cost calculator
Shoot days, crew size, pre-production depth, motion graphics and versions. An honest range for planning, not a quote.
Built from commonly cited Toronto-market day-rate ranges for crew, editing and graphics. Planning ranges only, not Four Cents Media rates. Travel, licensed music, insurance and rush turnaround are excluded.
How the estimate is built
Three buckets, each with its own range, added together. Pre-production covers script, storyboard, casting and locations, and runs from $500 to $1,500 for a light plan, $1,500 to $4,000 for a standard one, and $4,000 to $10,000 for a full treatment with locations and art. Production is a crew day rate multiplied by shoot days: $900 to $1,800 for a solo shooter, $2,500 to $5,000 for a two-to-three-person crew, $5,000 to $10,000 for four to six, and $10,000 to $22,000 for a full crew. Post is $800 to $2,500 of editing per shoot day, plus $350 to $900 for every delivered version beyond the first, plus motion graphics at $600 to $2,000 for titles and lower-thirds or $2,500 to $9,000 for animation. Paid talent adds $600 to $3,000 a day and paid locations or a studio $400 to $2,500 a day. All figures are commonly cited planning ranges in CAD, rounded, and none of them are our rates.
How to read the output
The four lines under the total show which bucket is driving it. If production dominates, the lever is crew size or fewer shoot days. If post dominates, it is usually the version count: each extra aspect ratio or cut-down is a real edit pass, not a crop. If pre-production dominates, ask whether the treatment needs to be that deep for where the video will run. A social cut with a solo shooter and a brand film with a six-person crew can differ by an order of magnitude on the same day count, and the split tells you why.
A worked example, illustrative
One shoot day, small crew, standard pre-production, light motion graphics, three delivered versions, no paid talent or locations. Pre-production $1,500 to $4,000. Production $2,500 to $5,000. Post: $800 to $2,500 of editing plus two extra versions at $350 to $900 each, so $1,500 to $4,300, plus graphics $600 to $2,000. Total roughly $6,100 to $15,300. Add a second shoot day and the production and editing lines double while pre-production does not, which is why batching several pieces into one day is the cheapest change you can make.
How to lower the number without lowering the result
- Batch: shoot several pieces in one day rather than three half-days. Pre-production is paid once either way.
- Decide versions up front. Adding 9:16 and 1:1 cuts later means a second edit pass at a higher rate than planning them in.
- Use real people from your team instead of paid talent where the brief allows. For interviews and explainers it is often better as well as cheaper.
- Lock the script before the shoot. Reshoots are the most expensive line item nobody budgets.
- Match crew to the job. A solo shooter is right for interviews, events and social-first content; lighting complexity, multiple cameras or sound-critical dialogue justify a crew because it saves a reshoot.
What the estimate leaves out
Licensed music, travel, drone permits, insurance riders, rush turnaround, translation and accessibility versions, and revisions beyond the rounds agreed. In a quote from us those are listed as explicit lines, not discovered later.
Creator video is priced differently
If the video is for a social ad account and does not need a crew, the comparison is not this estimator but a creator content package: a creator films in their own space to an approved hook, and you receive finished assets in several ratios at a fixed price. Our published packages start at $1,250 for six assets. UGC versus influencer marketing explains when creator video is the right buy and when a produced piece is.
What a quote from us includes
A fixed price for a defined scope: deliverables, durations, shoot days, revision rounds and a delivery date. Anything outside the scope is quoted before it happens, in writing. To get comparable quotes from anyone, give every supplier the same explicit deliverables and shoot-day expectations to price against; how to brief a video agency has the template.
How much does a corporate video cost?
It depends on crew size, shoot days and post. A single-day small-crew shoot with standard pre-production and light graphics commonly lands in the mid four figures to low five figures in CAD; multi-day, full-crew brand films go well beyond that. Use the estimator for a range and a brief for a number.
Is a solo videographer good enough?
For interviews, event coverage and social-first content, often yes. For anything with lighting complexity, multiple cameras, or sound-critical dialogue, a small crew pays for itself in fewer reshoots.
What is not in the estimate?
Licensed music, travel, drone permits, insurance riders, rush turnaround, and translation or accessibility versions. We list these explicitly in quotes.
How long does production take?
A social cut can go brief-to-delivery in two weeks. A brand film with casting and locations is usually six to ten weeks. Revision rounds are the most common source of delay, so we agree on them in the plan.
Why is the range so wide?
Because the form cannot see the brief. Two projects both called a brand video can differ enormously on pre-production depth, talent, locations and how many deliverables come out of the same footage. The split under the total shows which choice is moving the number, and a brief turns the range into a price.
Numbers are a start. A brief is better.
Send us the job and we will come back with a fixed quote and a plan, not a range.