Short answer: a promotional film for a company starts at 1,500 PLN with me, and a single vertical reel for social media at 400 PLN. The price depends on three things: how many days the shoot takes, how many people are on set, and how long the edit is. Equipment matters least - the cost is time.
What makes up the price of a film
| Stage | What happens | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Briefing and script | what the film has to sell, who it speaks to, what must appear in it | a few hours to a day |
| Shooting day | arrival, lighting setup, filming, pick-ups | usually 1 day |
| Editing | selecting footage, cutting, colour, sound, captions | 2-5 working days |
| Revisions | one round of notes is the norm | 1 day |
A single shooting day usually means 3-6 days of work in total. That is why a "film for 500 PLN" means, in practice, footage shot on a phone and stitched together in an hour - which is sometimes enough, but you need to know what you are buying.
What pushes the price up
- A second shooting day or several locations.
- Actors, a voice-over, licensed music.
- Animation and graphics - captions, charts, a logo in motion.
- Drone footage.
- Several edit versions - one for the website, one for Instagram, one as a 15-second ad.
The last point is also the biggest saving: one shooting day that yields the main film plus five short forms costs far less than six separate productions. That is why I always ask where the material is going before we set up the camera.
Reels and short forms
Vertical video for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook plays by its own rules: the first two seconds decide everything, captions are compulsory (most people watch without sound), and the material lives for a few days. So reels are not made "while we are at it" - either they are made deliberately, or there is no point.
A single reel from 400 PLN, but most often they are made as a package from one shooting day - and then the cost per piece drops sharply.
What I do not include in the price, and say so up front
- Advertising budget - production is not distribution. A film with no promotion budget will be watched by your family.
- Actors and location rental, if the script calls for them.
- Multiple language versions - captions in a second language are separate work.
How to prepare so you do not overpay
- Write in one sentence what the film has to achieve. "We want to show what production looks like from the inside" is concrete. "We want an image film" is not yet a brief.
- Gather the people who are to appear, and give them notice. The biggest delays come from someone who "cannot make it today after all".
- Tidy the frame. Seriously. An hour of tidying the workshop saves two hours of retouching.
- Say where the film will go - website, YouTube, advertising, a trade fair. That determines the format and the length.
Want a concrete quote? Write or call and describe in a few sentences what you want made. I will send back a quote and a proposal for how to get the most material out of a single shooting day. I handle video production from script to final edit - one person at every stage, so nothing gets lost in translation.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take? From briefing to finished film, usually 2-3 weeks, of which the shoot is one day.
Do I need a script? No. It is enough that you know what you want to show - I prepare the script together with you.
Is footage from a phone good enough? For covering current events, often yes. For material that has to sit on your home page for two years, rarely.
What do I get at the end? The finished file in the agreed formats, plus versions cropped for the channels you will publish it on.