What Should a Music Video Budget Be?

7 min readAug 20, 2013

The landscape of music production, marketing and sales has drastically changed many times in the last ten years. The relationship between music videos and the music industry has also been in flux. The amount of music being recorded and distributed is higher now than ever before, and more music videos are being made than ever before, though the budget range is extremely wide. Some bands pay for their music videos out of pocket, while bands signed with major record labels are often appropriated with a music video budget that is considered to be part of the marketing strategy for a given album or single.

Example music video budgets:

Macklemore “Wings”: $18,269 (2011)
Michael Jackson “Beat It”: $150,000 (1983)
Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson “Scream”: $10,000,000 (1995, adjusted for inflation)
Average studio music video budget: $200,000 — $500,000 (2010)

We see those numbers and we see what the final product ended up being, but without direct experience with film production budgets it can be challenging to know where the money goes. Many bands are wrestling with the question of how much money a music video will cost, and emerging filmmakers also struggle to know how much they should charge for their work.

Here is a breakdown of some general costs that are typical in film production (and specifically in music video production):

Estimated production costs:

Producer fee: $500 — $1250/day
Director fee: $500 — $1250/day
Camera operator: $500–1000/day
Camera equipment rental: $150 — $3500/day
Key grip + assistant + lighting gear: $1000 — $1750/day
Wardrobe: estimated $20 — $1000/day per character project
City permits: $25 — $1000/day (depending on the city, exact location, whether roads need to be closed, etc…)
Location fees and rentals: $250 — $2500+/day
Actors: $200 — $1200/day (each)
Extras: $50 — $200/day (each)

Estimated days of post-production required: 2–3 days

Editor fee: $500 — $1250/day
Redundant Hard disk archive: $200 — $400
Visual FX artist fee: $75 — $150/hour
Colorist fee: $100 — $200/hour

Additional costs:

Band member compensation
Development/Pre-production (scripts, storyboards, strategy, etc…)
Additional actors and extras
Marketing hours
Props/furniture rentals
Set construction
Production insurance
Catering (food)
Etc…

I’d like to share four specific music videos I have worked on in recent years, each of which is an example of a different budget range and level of production value. Please note that nothing is set in stone, and different markets and individuals will yield different levels of work at different price points, but this should give a general idea of what I have experienced.

Level 1: Shoestring Budget ($2,000 — $5,000)

At this level, my work usually fits the following characteristics:

One full day of shooting (or possibly two half-days)
One camera operator
Skeleton crew (one or two people)
Filmed on DSLR or mirrorless cameras
Few paid actors, if any
Many production roles will be combined (for example, the Director may also produce and edit; the Director of Photography will probably be responsible for all grip and gaffer work, etc…)
Permit fees are often avoided by carefully selecting production locations

“Overcome” by Alabaster is a music video in this budget range that I directed, filmed and edited. We filmed the entire thing in about 6 hours (including setup), all in the same location. We filmed the band first, then quickly filled the room with fog, threw up a 2K light, and brought in the dancers. I worked with the two dancers for a little less than an hour before we had to break down.

Level 2: Modest Budget ($5,000 — $10,000)

Here are some characteristics of this budget range:

Several days of shooting
Small crew (four or five people)
Filmed on higher-end video, DSLR or mirrorless cameras
Costumes are an option
Several paid actors can be involved
Minor visual effects are possible
City permits may be required for outdoor shoots on public streets

My music video for “Jekyll & Hyde” by Theoretics fits in this range. The band relied heavily on friends and favors, but still had to hire four or five paid actors to participate. We used a lot of interesting locations that each required a fee. We needed to close off a few sections of street to film several segments, so city permits (and correlation with local police) were necessary. Our production was small enough that we didn’t need big trucks or generators, so we were able to qualify for a less-expensive type of film permit with the cities involved; the same level of production insurance wasn’t required by the cities we filmed in since we were under $10,000 (that type of rule changes drastically from city to city, so call the film permit office before planning your shoot).

Level 3: Healthy Independent Budget ($20,000 — $50,000)

At this level, the production feels more like an independent film set, rather than a student film or enthusiast project. It’s not a full-blown film crew sort of feel, but it’s about as close as anyone independently financed generally gets. Here are some characteristics of this budget level:

Several days of production
Medium-sized crew
Filmed on RED, Alexa, or other higher-end digital cinema camera packages
Experienced, professional actors can be involved
Full production insurance is required in most cities
City permits are required in most cities
Visual effects can be a major element of the video

The music video I directed, filmed and edited for Adam Zwig, “Everybody Love” was within this budget range. Paying actors was a huge part of the budget (I think we had more than thirty actors involved, though not all made the final edit), and the theater setup with the band also had a large number of costs associated with it. This video features a few thousands dollars worth of invisible visual effects as well, where some aspect of the shot was changed after it was filmed, to meet the client’s evolving vision for the video.

Level 4: Commercial/Studio Budget ($50,000+)

Several days of production
Full professional film crew
Filmed on RED, Alexa, or other higher-end digital cinema camera packages
Experienced, professional actors can be involved
Full production insurance is required
City permits are required
Visual effects can be a central element of the video

At this level, everyone involved is a professional who is present to do one task. There can easily be fifty people involved in the crew (ranging from production assistants to hair and makeup artists to caterers to runners to DITs), and the post-production pipeline is similar to a feature film (a full crew involved in the editorial department and post-production process).

I edited “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Justin Bieber in 2011. I don’t know the exact budget, but my rough estimate is that it cost around $150,000, based on my experience with similar projects. SONY Pictures and Island Records were the two corporate entities who financed the project, and the set was run like a feature film with a $10–20M budget. It was filmed on two days in Los Angeles: Justin was filmed for a large part of one day, with the second day being focused on the dancers. The set and props were built in the week leading up to filming (I believe that the set was brought in and assembled on the day previous to shooting, but it may have taken two days), and most of the costumes were rented in Los Angeles. It was filmed in stereoscopic 3D at 5K on twin RED Epic cameras, and I edited it in 3D on a Final Cut Pro 7 setup using Cineform plugin tools to manage the 3D aspect of the editing process. The edit was rushed to coloring and conforming so that it could play as a pre-roll to the kids movie “Arthur Christmas” for its premiere.

Comparing Budget Tiers

Some of you may look at the difference between “Overcome” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and conclude that money is wasted at higher levels of production. While that may sometimes be true in some aspects, it’s important to recognize that the benefits of a large crew and a full professional toolset tend to manifest themselves in extremely important ways that may not be obvious to the casual viewer.

For example, the Justin Bieber video was thoroughly pre-visualized, with mood boards and color palettes compiled in advance so that they could be approved by the various levels of executives involved. There was plenty of time to do everything correctly and predictably, and there was very little risk of the final product turning out differently than expected.

Much of “Overcome” was improvised on set, and required a lot of improvisation and split-second decision-making to pull the shoot off. The dancers hadn’t rehearsed nor had any choreography prepared; I relied entirely on their ability to interpret my direction while I filmed them. We experimented a lot and weren’t entirely sure what the final product would look like while we were in production.

Essentially, the more money goes into a music video (or film), the higher the likelihood will be that the result looks professional. I have seen many bands film music videos for $500 with a first-time director who has very little film experience, and sometimes they turn out well. More commonly, the band has a very amateur-looking music video that becomes a liability to their brand and the authenticity of their image.

Music videos are expensive, but if the band is educated in terms of how much to spend and what to expect, they can carefully select a director who can help them achieve their goals within their price range.

Update: This excellent mini-documentary features all sorts of music video-related wisdom from some great directors whose work I have enjoyed and respected for years. If you ever plan to be involved in a music video in any way (director, editor, DP, camera operator, producer, band member, actor, etc…) you really need to watch this as soon as possible.

The Videographers Guide Ep. 1 — The Music Video from HBTV on Vimeo.

Originally published at http://garrettgibbons.com on September 1, 2011.