"What does a training video cost?" is a fair question, and the only straight answer is that it depends on the task, the site and how many videos you need. That's not much help when you're writing a budget request, so these are the things that move the price, roughly in the order they matter.

1. Pre-production

This is the part that makes a training video accurate, and the part most often left out of a budget. Someone has to sit with your expert, understand the task, read the existing procedure, work out what needs showing and write a script in plain language. Then it gets checked by your people before anyone films. Every quote should have a pre-production line. If it doesn't, the planning is either missing or hidden somewhere else.

2. Shoot days

Most of the cost follows the filming time. One procedure on one machine might be a few hours. A series of procedures across a plant, with different areas, permits and people, is a day or more. Several short procedures filmed in one planned day are far cheaper per video than the same procedures filmed on separate days.

3. Site access

Industrial and energy sites take more time to work on: inductions, permits, escorts, isolations and waiting for plant to be available. A crew that already holds the tickets and knows how sites work loses less of that time, but it's still part of the job and it belongs in the plan.

4. The edit

A straightforward procedure with captions is a quicker edit than one with graphics, animation, voiceover and on-screen steps. Animation is worth it where a camera can't show what's happening, inside a valve or a panel, but it's a separate piece of work.

5. Versions and languages

A full version for new starters, a short refresher, captions as standard, and sometimes subtitles in other languages. Each extra version is an edit rather than a new shoot, so it costs less than the first, but it isn't free.

6. Delivery

An MP4 and a caption file play in any learning system. If your LMS needs to record completion and quiz scores, that's a SCORM package built by an e-learning specialist, and it's a separate line. Ask your LMS administrator whether you need it before you ask for it.

7. Travel

Sites outside the local area add travel time and costs. Any travel should be set out in the quote up front, not discovered on the invoice.

How to get good value

Group procedures into planned shoot days rather than one at a time.
Have your expert and your engineer available on the day.
Start with a paid pilot: one procedure, one expert, to see how it works on your site.
Keep the project files, so an updated procedure is a small edit, not a new video.

We give you a written quote after a first conversation and we say early if the budget and the brief don't fit. See the training video package or get in touch.