AI has definitely democratized video production, but how significant is the impact, especially to budgets?
Let’s compare Generative AI to traditional video production costs for live-action commercials.
AI Video Budget Breakdown
There are obviously variables to any creative production, but to simplify, here are a few numbers (rounded up):
Google AI Ultra, which includes VEO and Flow: $250 per month.
Adobe Creative Cloud (if you prefer to edit on Premiere): $70 per month.
Music Licensing (this can of course be done with AI but let’s use stock for this one): $50 for web usage.
Labor (we will assume some work will be done manually and not simply fed into AI. This may include ideation, writing initial prompts, post-production, etc): $500 (5 hours at $100 per hour).
Again, we are simplifying the process and making more than a few assumptions, but in general, a 60-second GenAI commercial would cost under a thousand dollars. The final cost may fluctuate depending on the number of revisions, how many videos produced each month, and other factors, but $1000 is a good budget. And it’ll most likely be under than over.
Here’s an example of an AI-generated video we did for about $300:
Traditional Video Production Budgets
You don’t need to be an experienced production pro to know that traditional videos are expensive. Depending on locations, actors, usage, and just overall production value, a live action commercial can cost anywhere from just a few thousand dollars to several million.
Here are a few examples of Picturelab’s live-action productions and their budgets:
Swarm: $8000
This video had one location, no actors, some motion graphics and stock footage.
Brazen: $25,000
This spot was shot in one long day on a sound stage with one non-union actor. The main challenge was the lighting – to get the colors to work, we had to use all the lights in our arsenal. The production also required extensive set dressing.
Gong: $50,000
This explainer video was shot in one day with a Steadicam, a SAG actor, several background actors and we rented an entire co-op space.
Nvidia Launch Video: $75,000
The significant factor here was the multiple locations including a boxing ring, a roller coaster, and even inside a plane in the air. We also had to shoot this over several days.
Gong Super Bowl Commercial: $100,000
The production required extra set preparation to pull of the forced perspective gag. We used a high-end cinema camera and rented an entire co-op space for the shoot. We hired a SAG actor for this spot which aired during the big game in 2021.
AI Video Productions Have Budget Consistency
As you can see above, the production costs of these videos varied widely. If we were to produce the above videos with AI, the cost would have been the same for each of them. Locations, the number of actors, the set dressing and props…none of that would be factors in the production budget with Generative AI.
AI is not perfect. We most likely wouldn’t have been able to get the right performances, actions or look with AI…at least not without multiple generations. It’s still a developing technology, but one that is still in its infancy.
In time, with some exceptions, AI will dominate video production, especially with creative video productions like in the examples above.
To learn more about how Picturelab AI can create your next commercial, contact us at info@picturelab.com.