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What’s the deal with subscription-based video production services?
The bigger question might be “where does bundled or subscription-based video services save money?” You may have seen various video production service companies offering subscription-based services to potential clients with a claim that it saves money when you group videos together. Then they go on to offer you a subscription at a monthly price that provides you with a series of videos or access to video content production over the course of a year.
Sounds great, right?
Of course, subscribe for a series of videos so you can fill a pipeline, sit back and relax sounds enticing. I caution you to evaluate what you will actually be getting and really question what causes the “grouping” or “bundling of services” to actually save you money. Grouping productions can, in fact, save you money in production but when that grouping isn’t done properly there is oftentimes no cost savings at all. When the savings are nowhere to be found I would start to question, “How sustainable is the bundled or subscription-based video services model?”
Let’s take a look at where you can find savings in grouping or “bundling” videos.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Strategy: One of the most important parts of a video is planning out the creative and the strategy to go with it. When bundling a service together I would hope that they are approaching their offering with a full creative strategy on how to approach the content they are being asked to produce. Ideally the creative strategy is not done on a per video basis but a campaign structure. If a company needs to develop the creative for twelve videos individually, the time investment will go up considerably resulting in a higher cost and no real savings. If the production company approaches their bundled video service as a campaign, the likeliness of the videos being developed together will be higher. The campaign strategy approach is going to save you time and, I’d argue, will be a much better investment than 12 disjointed concepts.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text]
The following concepts only really work if you can schedule your production into sequential shooting days. If you are scheduling your production days scattered over the course of a year, there potentially is no real cost savings.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text]Insurance: This is where you can easily save some dough when dealing with video production. Having production insurance is required in many places and smart to do in any situation. There are a number of coverages you can get when obtaining production insurance and they quickly add to the cost. Typically insurance coverage last about 14 days and when there is a lapse between production days that is beyond the term of coverage a brand new insurance cost will incur. The savings around this is when a production company holds what is called DICE insurance. The overly simplified explanation of DICE insurance is that a company has insurance that covers their productions year-round as long as the budgets for all their productions do not exceed a certain amount.
Insurance is probably the easiest way a company can save a client money by bundling their video services.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Equipment: Most production companies rely on vendors to supply their equipment. Not every shoot is the same and sometimes requires special gear. If you are just doing documentary style or corporate videos it may not be as important to have the kitchen sink at your disposal but if you want a high end super fancy video that feels like a movie or a slick super bowl commercial then you will likely need to a lot of gear. When it comes to equipment rentals many companies offer a 3-day week rental. What does that mean? If the equipment is rented for a week then the cost is only the equivalent of 3 days. If you shoot for one day in January, another in March, and two more in July your cost for equipment goes from 3 days to 4 days. Another trick, weekend rentals are oftentimes considered 1-day rentals, so if you are a company that is open on weekends, it might be worth considering depending on if the company you hire is open to it without charging a weekend premium rate to work.
Another thing to note is that large equipment rentals require insurance. Remember the deal with insurance, that also applies here.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Crew: You are likely not going to get the crew to work a 3 day week. I would advise against it, but the cost savings here usually comes from using a crew that is familiar with the project. Every time a project is started up again, no matter how experienced the crew, there is time that needs to happen to ramp back up into efficiency. Having a crew that works well together and also understands the vision and scope of the project will save time on set and we all know that time is money.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Locations: Locations are land closer to equipment rentals but there are a few additional costs you need to be aware of. Most of the time small corporate projects can skirt around this issue, but when it comes to higher-profile productions and especially in Los Angeles & New York and other major metropolitan areas, you need to deal with film permits. In Los Angeles, there is a fee to apply for a film permit. Typically you can bundle your locations but if your production goes beyond two weeks you will run into additional fees.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
BASIC LOCATION PERMIT FEES (Los Angeles)
| CURRENT RATE | PER | |
| Permit Application Fee
Up to 10 Locations |
$795.00 | Permit |
| Permit Rider Fee | $126.00 | Rider |
| Modified Permit Application Fee | $63.00 | Adjustment |
| Modified Permit Rider Fee | $31.00 | Adjustment |
| FilmLA Monitor Fee
Minimum Applies |
$37.00 | Hour |
| Still Photo Application Fee | $75.00 | Permit |
| Still Photo Rider Fee | $25.00 | Rider |
| Student Permit Fee
Complex Permissions |
$114.00 | Permit |
| Student Permit Fee
Simple Permissions |
$30.00 | Permit |
| Notification Fee
Base Radius |
$198.00 | Radius |
*From FilmLA website at https://www.filmla.com/for-filmmakers/faq/[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This is by no means an exhaustive list of savings but just a few areas where savings can be found when bundling production services. If a company is offering major flexibility with their bundled services and what they offer conflicts with some of the cost-saving tactics above, red flags should be raised. In a world where the trend is leaning toward bundled or subscription-based video services, there are a lot of services that may not be best suited for that pricing structure. It begs the question, “are they counting on you forgetting what you paid for in order to cover their profit gaps?”
This should be a great reason to talk with the production company you hire to do your videos so that you have a clear understanding of what to expect, the vision is communicated and a strategy is put in place before you begin.
Video costs money, but there are ways a production can be approached that can save money and fit into a smaller budget. Just know that with savings, compromises will usually need to be made.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Title Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash
Check back for the next article “Where Bundled/Subscription Production DOES NOT Save Money”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row thb_full_width=”true” bg_gradient_direction=”0″ thb_divider_position=”bottom” css=”.vc_custom_1621619640729{padding-top: 10vh !important;padding-bottom: 20vh !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}” el_class=”align-center” bg_gradient1=”#ffffff” bg_gradient2=”rgba(255,255,255,0.5)”][vc_column offset=”vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-9″ el_class=”text-center”][vc_column_text animation=”animation fade-in” css=”.vc_custom_1621620052803{padding-right: 15% !important;padding-left: 15% !important;}”]
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