What AI video production costs — and why
Not a price list — an explanation of what you are actually paying for, so you can judge any quote you receive.
Gram Bangla Eid spot — no location, no cast, no shoot dayWhere conventional production spends money
On a typical commercial shoot, the footage itself is a minority of the budget. The money goes to:
- Crew — director, DP, gaffer, sound, assistants
- Talent — casting, day rates, usage buyouts
- Location — scouting, fees, permits
- Equipment — camera, lighting, grip
- Logistics — transport, catering, insurance
- Post — edit, sound, grade
A shoot day is expensive not because filming is hard but because roughly twenty people and a truck have to be in one place at one time.
What AI production removes
Nearly all of the middle of that list. No crew to book, no location to permit, no equipment to hire, no catering, no insurance, no day rates.
That is a genuine structural saving rather than a discount, which is why the difference tends to be large rather than marginal.
and a truck must be in one place at one time.
What it does not remove
This is the part that gets oversold.
- Writing. Still takes as long as it ever did.
- Storyboarding and direction. Someone still decides what every shot looks like.
- Generation time. Good shots take many attempts. This is real labour, just invisible from outside.
- Post-production. Edit, sound, grade — unchanged.
- Revisions. Cheaper than reshooting, not free.
What actually drives the price
- Runtime. More shots, more generation, more edit.
- How settled the script is. A clear brief costs less than one discovered halfway through.
- Character consistency requirements. A single spot is far simpler than a series that must match across episodes.
- Number of deliverables. One master versus eight variants in two aspect ratios.
- Revision rounds. Agree a number up front and it stays predictable.
Two honest warnings
Cheap is not the point. If a quote is cheap because nobody is writing a script, you will get exactly that. The savings should come from removed logistics, not removed craft.
Ask what you're licensing. Usage rights vary a lot between producers. Check whether you receive full commercial rights on delivery, whether there is a time limit, and what the producer retains. Ambiguity here is worth more to resolve than a small difference in price.
How to compare quotes sensibly
Ask any producer: what do I own on delivery, how many revision rounds are included, will I see a script before anything is generated, and what happens if the concept isn't working. The answers tell you more than the number does.