Video production cost estimator
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.
Where the money goes
Three buckets: pre-production (script, storyboard, casting, locations), production (crew, camera, lighting, sound, per day), and post (edit, colour, sound mix, graphics, per-platform versions). 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.
How to lower the number without lowering the result
- Batch: shoot several pieces in one day rather than three half-days.
- Decide versions up front. Adding 9:16 and 1:1 cuts later means a second edit pass.
- Use real people from your team instead of paid talent where the brief allows.
- Lock the script before the shoot. Reshoots are the most expensive line item nobody budgets.
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.
How much does a corporate video cost in Toronto?
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 outside the GTA, 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.
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.