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Build an Estimate: Video Production

7 min read

Table of Contents

Who this is for: Managers  |  Vertical: Video Production

📋 Two separate tools for video jobs

This article covers the Estimate tab — pricing and budgeting a video production job. Once the job is won and you move into production, use the Production Management series (#76, #77, #78) to manage your shot list, schedule your shoot day, and track live production.

💼 What makes this vertical different

Video production estimates have twelve cost sections covering every category of a production budget — crew, gear, talent, locations, post, licensing, and delivery. Each section is a collapsible accordion. Tap the section header to expand or collapse it; collapsed sections show their subtotal in the header so you can see the budget at a glance. Markup is set per phase — Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production each have their own rate.

Step 1 — Create the job and open the Estimate tab #

Tap + from the home screen, select Video Production as the vertical, fill in the job name and client details in the Details tab, and tap Save. Then tap the Estimate tab.

The SmartScope strip at the top gives you four tools: Video Tools (crew rate calculator, kit builder, per-diem), Livestream (livestream-specific scoping), Shot List (links to production planning), and Add-Ons. Use these tools to calculate and insert scope before or while you build the estimate manually.

Pre-Production #

Expand Pre-Production to price your pre-production crew and tasks. Toggle on the crew roles you’re billing for pre-production — director, producer, coordinator, and others. Below the crew toggles, a Tasks section lets you add pre-production task lines; tap Add Custom Task to add any task not covered by the default roles. Tap Pre-Pro Time Estimator → to open the time estimator — it sizes pre-production hours by project type and scope and pre-fills the section. The Pre-Production Subtotal shows when the section has entries.

Production #

Expand Production to price your shoot day crew. A master toggle enables or disables the entire production section. Toggle on the crew positions you’re staffing for the shoot — camera, sound, lighting, grip, and others. Tap Add Position to add custom roles not in the defaults. Tap Shoot Day Estimator → to calculate shoot day costs by hours, crew size, and day rate. The Production Subtotal shows when crew is entered.

Producer Fee #

The Producer Fee section is for your coordination and management fee on top of the production costs. Toggle Enable Producer Fee to activate it. Choose the fee mode:

  • Additive — the fee is added on top of the job price
  • Inclusive — the fee is built into the markup target

Toggle Use Flat Amount to enter a fixed dollar fee, or leave it off and enter a Fee Percent (defaults to 15%). Add an Internal note to document how the fee was calculated — this note stays internal and doesn’t appear on the client PDF.

Post-Production #

Expand Post-Production to price your edit and delivery crew. Toggle on the post roles — editor, colorist, sound designer, motion graphics — and add custom task lines for anything specific to this project using Add Custom Task. Tap Revision & Review Budget → to open the revision budget calculator — it prices revision rounds based on edit complexity and round count. The Post-Production Subtotal shows when entries are present.

Deliverables #

The Deliverables section defines what the client receives. Each deliverable row has two states: Included (bundled in the project price) or Add-On (billed separately). Toggle a deliverable to Add-On to reveal an add-on price field. The section footer confirms the rule: “Included deliverables are bundled in your price. Add-On deliverables are billed separately.” Use add-ons for formats the client can optionally upgrade to — vertical cuts, raw footage, additional versions.

Equipment Fee #

The Equipment Fee section is for gear you own and charge back to the client at a day rate. Add gear three ways: Add Item Manually, Add from Equipment Library (your saved gear items), or Insert from Kit (a saved camera package or lighting setup). Each item bills at day rate × days × quantity. The Equipment Fee Subtotal updates live. Save frequently used gear packages as Kits in Video Tools to insert them in one tap.

Rental Fee #

The Rental Fee section is for third-party gear rentals — camera packages, grip trucks, lenses, audio packages you’re renting and billing through. Tap Add Rental to add each rental item. Enter your cost; markup is applied in Pricing Controls. The Rental Fee Subtotal shows your pass-through cost before markup.

Outside Talent #

The Outside Talent section is for hired specialists you’re bringing in — colorists, motion graphics artists, voiceover talent, composers, musicians. Tap Add Outside Talent for each person. Your markup on their rate is your coordination fee. The Talent Subtotal shows the total talent cost before markup.

Location & Permits #

The Location & Permits section covers location rental fees, film permits, location releases, and parking. Tap Add Location / Permit to add each item. Tap Travel & Per Diem → to open the travel calculator — it structures crew travel costs and per diem allowances and inserts them as permit line items.

Post-Production Costs #

The Post-Production Costs section covers hard costs incurred during post — color suite rental, cloud storage fees, software licenses, stock music licensing. Tap Add Post Cost to add each item. Tap Calculate Storage Cost → to open the storage calculator, which prices cloud and local storage based on footage volume and duration. The Post Costs Subtotal shows when entries are present.

Usage License #

The Usage License section handles rights licensing — broadcast rights, web exclusivity, territory restrictions, or buyouts. Tap Calculate Storage Cost → or the licensing calculator button to open the licensing tool, which structures the license by media type, territory, and duration and inserts the fee as a permit line item.

Delivery & Tax #

The Delivery & Tax section handles final delivery costs and sales tax. Add delivery fees — hard drive shipping, upload fees, or digital delivery costs — and set the sales tax rate for this job if applicable.

Livestream (conditional) #

The Livestream section appears when a livestream component is scoped using the Livestream SmartScope tool. It contains the livestream crew, equipment, and platform cost rows generated by the calculator. If this job has no livestream component, this section stays empty and doesn’t appear in the estimate.

Pricing Controls — per-phase markup #

The Video Production estimate has a unique markup structure: each of the three primary phases has its own markup rate. In the Pricing Controls section you’ll see separate markup fields for Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. The footer confirms: “Phase markups stack on top of your direct costs.” Set each rate to reflect the margin you need from each phase — post often carries a different margin than the shoot day.

Overhead Allocation, Job Discount, Sales Tax, and Commission work the same as the standard estimate builder. See Add Costs, Allocation, and Markup to Your Estimate for a full walkthrough of these controls.

Estimate Summary #

The Estimate Summary for Video Production shows a phase breakdown table with four columns — Phase, Job Cost, Markup, and Client — for Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production separately. Below the breakdown, the summary shows your total Client Price, discount if applied, net profit, and net margin. This phase-level visibility lets you see where the margin is coming from and whether any phase is underpriced.

Preview and export #

Tap the document icon (orange, top-right toolbar) to open the Video Production export options. The VP export gives you format choices before generating the PDF — for example, whether to show section totals or full line-item detail. Choose your output format, then preview and share the PDF from there.

💡 Estimating vs. production management: The Estimate tab is for pricing the job before it’s won. Once the client approves, use Production Management to build your shot list, schedule the day, assign scenes, and track live production. The two tools are intentionally separate — estimating is a sales activity, production is an operations activity.

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