We’ve worked with all kinds of budgets, from small corporate shoots for a couple thousand dollars to a television commercial well into six figures. Obviously, big budget projects are easier for the imagination but making small-budget projects work is a fun creative exercise as well.
SaaS and other digital products are easy. Motion graphics and animated product screens is the way to go. For physical products, animation doesn’t always work.
Most of our non-broadcast product commercials and explainers fall somewhere between $35,000 to $60,000. We use nice cinema cameras with actors and an interesting location. But what if the budget is $10K or less?
We can make those work…as long as everyone is clear on the expectations.
Here are a couple examples of product videos for $10,000 and less.
JanoLife Petal Product Introduction Video
JanoLife wanted to showcase its new product, Petal, an innovative health sensor for women. The initial concept was to show a woman going through her day wearing the device to show how comfortable it is while it continuously tracks her health.
Our initial estimate for this project was $25K. We envisioned a one-day shoot with a cinema camera and multiple locations. But as a startup, this budget was a stretch for the client.
To get this project under $10K, we cut it down to one location and just the morning. We used a smaller camera and the client provided us with the location (employee’s house).
What we like about the video: The video effectively gets the message across. In hindsight, we probably didn’t have to show the entire day, but the idea was to demonstrate the robustness of the device’s data collection capabilities.
What we didn’t like about the video: The opening scene of her waking up is uninspiring. We originally envisioned her silhouette against the golden rays of the morning sun beaming through large windows, but had to settle for her opening her eyes in a small bedroom. We considered using stock footage but it didn’t look right. Again, just another casualty of the budget.
Swarm Product Explainer Video
Swarm makes satellites, which is one of the coolest products we’ve ever shot. Similar to JanoLife, they were a startup without a large marketing budget. We kept the shoot to a sit-down talking head at their warehouse with some b-roll. We used stock for the rest of the video.
There was also an animation component to their video. With a higher budget, we would have incorporated advanced 3D graphics, but we kept it to 2D and “faked” some of the 3D feel.
What we like about the video: It’s good storytelling and conveys the overall coolness of the product. Swarm was eventually acquired by SpaceX – we like to think the video had some help in making that happen.
What we didn’t like about the video: Too much stock footage is off-putting. There were some aerial shots we could have made more interesting.
When working with a smaller budget, there are definitely some things we have to give up, but that doesn’t mean we can’t produce a successful video. After all, there are a ton of great movies that have been made for peanuts that went onto big things. It’s a different type of creativity.
Picturelab can help with any budgets. Contact us to start the chat at info@picturelab.com.