Production is one of the few B2B services where the price is rarely on the website. The reason is structural — every project is bespoke, the inputs vary, the city changes the math. The cost, however, is not actually mysterious. Below is ours, in public, with the line items, in 2026 NYC dollars.
For external benchmarks: the Assignment Desk 2026 rate report (16,000+ assignments) places the median NYC DP day at $1,525 with a high of $2,640. Mid-market brand films land between $8,000 and $30,000 finished according to Levitate Media's 2025 survey, with anything past $30,000 entering scripted-narrative territory. Our numbers below sit comfortably inside both bands.
Content Day — from $5,000
One photographer, one cinematographer, one producer, one full edit pass. Up to 10 hours on location. Web-ready crops included. The line items, roughly:
- Director / Producer — 10 hours pre-pro + day + 2 hours post review.
- Lead photographer + camera kit + retouching budget.
- DP + cinema kit (Sony FX6, 24–70 GM II + 85 GM, gimbal, monitor).
- Lighting & grip kit (Aputure 600d, two LS 300x, softboxes, stands, flags).
- Audio kit (Sennheiser MKH 416 boom + Lectrosonics lav + MixPre 6 II).
- Media management, LTO archive, Frame.io review.
- Edit pass — color, sound, one round of revisions, deliverables in web/social/broadcast crops.
What is not included at this tier and almost always quoted separately: hair and makeup ($800–$1,200 / day in NYC), a second cinematographer for parallel B-roll, and a music license for any final cut. The first two are wise additions if any of the talent is camera-shy. The third is non-negotiable on anything that will be published.
Brand & Recruiting Film — $15k to $60k
The range tracks how scripted the film is, how many locations, and whether we are shooting on cinema glass or hybrid. Most of our brand-film work lands between $25k and $35k finished. The line items grow:
- Director ($2,000–$3,500 / day, two days minimum on a scripted shoot).
- DP ($1,800–$2,500 / day, day rate per the Assignment Desk benchmark).
- 1st AC, gaffer, key grip, sound mixer, hair / makeup.
- Cinema package — typically a Sony FX6 + Sigma Cine primes, or an ARRI Alexa Mini LF for the higher tier ($2,200–$5,500 / day).
- Color grading (10–18 hours in DaVinci Resolve, typically billed at $150–$200 / hour).
- Music license ($300–$3,000 — Musicbed and Artlist for stock, custom composition for the high end).
- Producer fee, insurance, location permits if required.
An honest tell on a brand-film quote: ask whether the color grade is included or extra. If a vendor is quoting $20,000 for a finished brand film and the grade is extra, it is not a finished brand film.
Quarterly Retainer — from $30k / quarter
One Content Day per quarter, plus a small monthly retainer for cuts, color, and quick-turn edits. The retainer is what turns photo and video from a project into a system. Most of our retained clients spend roughly $120,000 to $180,000 per year on a fully-serviced cadence — call it the cost of two senior marketers, except the output is a year of refreshed website, social, careers, and sales assets.
- Content Day per quarter (4 / year).
- Monthly editor on retainer for cuts, captions, and emergency recuts.
- Quarterly creative review with the producer and DP.
- Asset management (DAM) on Frame.io with role-based permissions.
“We have never had a retained client come back the following year and ask to switch to one-off projects. The math goes the other way.”
What it actually costs to do this badly
The cheapest production we are ever asked to clean up costs us, on average, $14,000 in re-shoots and post salvage. The reasons are always the same: cards wiped before backup, audio recorded only to camera, no master color science, no LUT export, and a scope that did not include enough talent to refresh the homepage. The rule of thumb is simple: do it once, with a producer in the room.
End of essay · J—005
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