If you’ve ever Googled “how much does video production cost” and gotten a non-answer, you’re not alone. Most agencies either dodge the question entirely or give you a range so wide it’s useless. This post is different. We’re going to give you real numbers, explain what drives cost up or down, and help you understand what you’re actually paying for when you hire a professional video production company in St. Louis.
The Short Answer: Most Projects Start Between $3,500 and $5,000
For a typical video project in St. Louis — a brand film, a social media content package, or a short commercial — you can expect to invest somewhere between $3,500 and $5,000 as a starting point. More complex projects involving multiple shoot days, larger crews, professional talent, or specialized equipment will go up from there.
That range isn’t arbitrary. It reflects the real cost of doing the job right: pre-production planning, professional gear, a skilled crew, and the editing work required to turn raw footage into something that actually moves the needle for your business.
How Video Production Pricing Actually Works
Unlike buying a product off a shelf, video production pricing is built around the specifics of your project. Two businesses can come in with the same general request — “we want a video for social media” — and end up with very different scopes, and very different costs.
Here’s how we structure pricing at True Creative:
Day Rate: $1,500 for 8–10 Hours of Coverage
Production days are billed at a day rate. At True Creative, that’s $1,500 for a full day of on-location shooting — typically 8 to 10 hours of coverage. This covers the time on set, the equipment we bring, and the expertise behind the camera.
A single shoot day can produce a significant amount of usable content depending on how efficiently pre-production is handled. For monthly social media retainer clients, one well-planned shoot day can fuel an entire month of content.
Editing Rate: $95 Per Hour
Once we’re off set, the work is far from over. Editing is where raw footage becomes a finished product — and it takes time to do it well. Color grading, audio mixing, music licensing, motion graphics, revisions — all of that is factored into our editing rate of $95 per hour.
A typical 60 to 90 second brand video might require anywhere from 8 to 20 hours of editing depending on complexity. That’s something a lot of clients don’t anticipate when they’re budgeting for a project.
What Pushes the Price Up
Every project is scoped individually during a discovery call, because no two are the same. Here are the factors that most commonly affect final cost:
- Additional shoot days — multi-day productions for larger campaigns or broadcast commercials
- Equipment needs — specialty lenses, drones, lighting rigs, or camera support systems
- Professional talent — on-camera talent, voiceover artists, or actors
- Pre-production work — scripting, storyboarding, location scouting, shot lists, and creative direction
- Crew size — a solo shooter costs less than a 3-person crew, but a 3-person crew delivers a different result
- Post-production complexity — animation, visual effects, or multi-platform delivery formats
What You’re Really Paying For
This is the part of the conversation that matters most — and it’s the part most clients don’t fully understand until they’ve been through the process once.
When you hire a professional video production company, you’re not just paying for someone to point a camera at your business for a few hours. You’re paying for:
Pre-production planning. Before a single frame is shot, there’s significant work happening behind the scenes. Creative strategy, shot lists, location scouts, scheduling, scripting — this is where the foundation of a great video is built. Rush this phase and the whole project suffers.
Professional gear and lighting. Cinema-quality cameras, lenses, gimbals, lighting setups, and audio equipment don’t come cheap — and they make an enormous difference in the final product. The difference between a video shot on a professional rig versus a smartphone isn’t just visual quality. It’s the credibility your brand projects to every person who watches it.
A skilled crew working together. A great shoot isn’t one person doing everything. It’s a team — a director, a camera operator, a gaffer, a producer — each focused on their role so nothing gets missed and the day runs efficiently.
Editing expertise. Knowing how to cut a video is one thing. Knowing how to tell a story through editing — pacing, music, color, structure — is something that takes years to develop. The edit is where good footage becomes great content.
“Can’t I Just Use My iPhone?”
Yes, you can. And for some things — casual Instagram Stories, behind-the-scenes moments, quick updates — a smartphone works fine.
But there’s a difference between content and branded content. If you’re running a broadcast commercial for a local dealership, shooting a brand film that represents your company for the next two years, or trying to stand out in a competitive St. Louis market, the production quality of your video directly reflects the quality of your business in the eyes of every potential customer who sees it.
There are plenty of agencies out there producing trendy, fast-cut content on iPhones. That’s a valid option for certain brands. It’s just not what we do at True Creative. Our clients — from local home service businesses to the St. Louis City Soccer Club — come to us because they want content that looks and feels professional, because that’s what their brand demands.
Why We Start with a Discovery Call
We don’t publish a price menu because video production doesn’t work that way. A 30-second social media clip and a broadcast TV commercial are both “videos” — but they’re completely different projects.
Before we quote any project, we get on a call to understand:
- What you’re trying to accomplish with the video
- Where it will live (social media, broadcast, website, events)
- Your timeline
- Any specific requirements around talent, locations, or deliverable formats
That conversation lets us scope the project accurately so there are no surprises on either end. It also gives us a chance to make sure we’re the right fit for what you need.
Not sure what the process looks like after you get a quote? Read our guide on what to expect when hiring a St. Louis video production company.
What a Typical St. Louis Video Project Looks Like
To give you a concrete sense of how this comes together, here’s a general example of what a single brand video project might include:
- Discovery call + pre-production planning: Creative brief, shot list, location scout
- 1 shoot day: 8–10 hours of on-location coverage, professional camera and lighting setup
- Editing: 10–15 hours for a 60–90 second finished video including color grade, audio mix, and one round of revisions
- Deliverables: Master file + platform-optimized versions for social media
At our rates, that puts a project like this in the $3,500–$5,000 range — which aligns with where most of our single-video projects land.
Larger campaigns — like a multi-week broadcast commercial package or a monthly social media retainer — are scoped and priced based on the full scope of work involved.
Ready to Talk About Your Project?
If you’re a St. Louis business thinking about video production, the best next step is a quick discovery call. We’ll learn about your goals, walk you through what a project would involve, and give you an accurate quote based on your specific needs — not a generic price list.
