Video Production Costs in Boise: What You’re Really Paying For (and How to Save)
Ask ten videographers what a video costs, and you’ll probably get ten different answers. Weirdly though, I bet they’re all in the same ballpark. Sure, you’ll have the kid right out of college that needs to fill their portfolio (cheap). Or the person that won some award and now thinks they’re Martin Scorsese (expensive). But most of us established content creators here in the Treasure Valley will be in the same ballpark.
We talk. We talk to each other, we talk to clients. We know what the going rate is for video production in Boise and carefully decide where we want to land in our pricing. High, low, in the middle?
The other day I reached out to a colleague to cover a shoot for me and asked his pricing. We had the same full day rate and he was $50 cheaper than me on his half day rate.
Here’s some comfort for you, dear potential client: if you’re in Boise, you’re already ahead. Video production here is significantly more affordable than in bigger markets like LA, Seattle, or New York—sometimes half the price.
Even better: once you understand what actually drives video costs, you can do things on your end that make your project cheaper, without sacrificing quality. Let’s break down the factors that drive cost, the typical Boise videographer rates, and why most of us won’t give you a cookie-cutter number up front.
What You’re Actually Paying for in Video Production
When you get your first estimate from a videographer you’re going to see a lot of… stuff. The cameras being used, lights, drones, gimbals, audio. This is all just window dressing.
What you’re actually paying for is time.
I’ve always loved the pricing comparison between videographers and mechanics. You get that bill from the mechanic and you see that big number under “labor.” It’s the same thing in video. Like a mechanic there may be a few “parts” you have to pay for, usually travel. But it’s the mechanic’s time spent working on your vehicle that is your main spend.
Time to plan.
Time to show up with gear dialed in and ready.
Time to set up, shoot, and make adjustments when things don’t go perfectly (because they never do).
And most importantly, time in the edit — where raw footage gets turned into something polished, watchable, and effective.
All the extra line items you might see in a proposal — the fancy lenses, the lighting kit, the gimbal, the drone — they’re just ways of justifying what is really an hourly rate. The more moving parts your project requires, the more time it takes to pull off. The more time it takes, the higher the cost.
I’ve quoted clients $5,000 for a one-minute video, and I’ve quoted clients $1,000 for a three-minute video. It’s not the final product you’re paying for — it’s the time it takes to get there.
Example: I took my RV to Arizona last year and when I arrived I could hear a noticeable rattle in my engine. $2,500 later the rattle was gone. The cause? A small $30 part deep in the engine. The part was cheap, but the time it took the mechanic to get to it was the real cost.
Same goes for video. If you understand that time is the main driver of cost, you can actually save money on your video by helping your videographer save time.
Typical Video Production Rates in Boise
Ok with that in mind, let’s look at some numbers. It’s important to remember every videographer has their own pricing model. It’s also important to remember I am writing this in August of 2025 and just like everything else, these numbers are on the rise and based on the growth of our industry will get higher year over year. But with that being said here are realistic ballpark ranges for video production in Boise:
Half-day shoot (up to 4 hours): $800–$1,000
Full-day shoot (up to 8 hours): $1,500–$2,500
Editing: $150–$500 per finished minute
Real estate video packages: $400–$1,200 (can include drone and photos)
Drone photography/videography add-on: $150–$400
👉 Keep in mind: these numbers are averages. A corporate recruiting film with scripted interviews, animation, and a week of editing will naturally fall on the higher end. A simple event recap reel or single-camera shoot might be on the lower end.
Why Videographers Charge Day Rates (Even If You Only Need an Hour)
One of the most common questions I get is: “But I only need you for an hour… why are you charging me for a half-day?”
Here’s the reality: that “one hour” on site is never just one hour. By the time I’ve prepped gear, driven to your location, unloaded, set up lights and audio, filmed, packed it all back up, driven home, offloaded footage, and put everything away, it’s a full chunk of my day.
That’s why most videographers in Boise (myself included) set half-day (up to 4 hours) and full-day (up to 8 hours) rates.
And circling back to hourly rates: I value my time at $200 per hour. That rate comes from three big factors:
Equipment (“window dressing”)
Cinema cameras, drones, lighting, stabilization, crisp audio — all this gear costs money to own, maintain, and operate.
Yes, a cell phone can technically shoot video. But professional tools plus professional skill produce consistency, polish, and reliability.
Expertise
I’ve been doing this full-time for 14 years. Experience matters more than equipment.
A seasoned videographer can make simple tools look great, while expensive cameras in inexperienced hands don’t guarantee results.
Simple economics
Charge too much and clients pass. Charge too little and you’re overbooked and burned out.
The real balance is finding a sustainable rate that keeps a full 40-hour workweek without undervaluing time.
So when you see a day rate, you’re not paying for “just an hour.” You’re paying for the entire process: prep, travel, set-up, breakdown, and post-shoot handling — plus the expertise and equipment to make that “hour” look and sound amazing.
The Biggest Time Cost: Editing
If there’s one part of video production that surprises people on cost, it’s editing. Shooting is the visible part — lights, cameras, gear out on location. But editing is where the real hours pile up.
And editing isn’t just “cutting clips together.” Here’s what actually goes on behind the scenes:
Organizing and backing up footage. After every shoot, I have to offload hours of video from multiple cameras, label everything, and back it all up to multiple drives. That way nothing gets lost. It’s not glamorous, but it’s critical — losing a client’s footage is not an option.
Syncing cameras and audio. If we filmed with two cameras and a separate microphone (pretty standard for interviews), those all have to be lined up perfectly so lips match the sound. Even a tiny drift in sync can ruin a video.
Building a story out of raw clips. If we shot for six hours, that’s six hours of footage I have to watch, sort, and trim down to maybe two or three minutes that actually matter. This is where most of the time gets spent — figuring out what not to use. And it’s not just about cutting clips — it’s my job to make you look and sound good. That means taking out ums, awkward pauses, false starts, or stumbles, and stitching everything together so it feels natural — like you delivered it all perfectly in one clean take.
Adding music, titles, and graphics. Music alone can change the entire feel of a video, but picking the right track takes time. Then there’s lower thirds (name titles), logos, captions, or other on-screen graphics that polish the final cut. And music isn’t free — it has to be licensed properly. Using a random track you found online can actually get your video flagged or taken down, so part of what you’re paying for is access to properly licensed music that keeps your content safe to use anywhere.
Color correcting and grading. Cameras don’t capture things exactly how your eyes see them. I have to balance the colors so skin tones look natural, shadows aren’t too dark, skies aren’t blown out. For certain projects, I’ll “grade” the footage to give it a cinematic look, which takes even more finesse.
Audio mixing. Raw audio almost never sounds good straight out of the mic. I have to clean it up, remove background noise, adjust levels, and make sure it sounds consistent from shot to shot. Bad audio can sink an otherwise great video.
Exporting multiple versions. Delivering a final video isn’t as simple as pressing “export” once. Different platforms (YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, your website) all have different requirements. Sometimes this is just resizing, but often it means reformatting the entire edit to fit a vertical profile. A wide, cinematic shot that looks amazing on YouTube might not even make sense cropped to a vertical Instagram Reel. That can mean rearranging the sequence, adjusting graphics, and making sure nothing important gets cut off. So while you may only see “one video” on the proposal, behind the scenes it often means creating several versions tailored to where your audience will watch it.
A client recently asked me to “just pick out the best clips” from a shoot and send them over. Seems simple, right? But to find the “best,” I still had to watch everything, organize it, mark it up, and prep it. That’s essentially the bulk of an edit — just without finishing it. What they thought was a 10-minute task was really hours of work.
This is why editing is often the single biggest cost in video production. It’s invisible until you see how many moving parts are happening off-camera.
And here’s the kicker: editing isn’t just technical, it’s creative. Honestly, it’s easier to learn how to use a camera than it is to tell a story in the edit. Anyone can buy gear. But shaping raw footage into something that flows, keeps attention, and makes viewers feel something — that’s the real art.
So when you see that editing cost, know this: it’s not just “pushing buttons on a laptop.” It’s the heavy lifting that turns hours of raw video into something polished, watchable, and effective for your business.
Other Factors That Drive Videographer Pricing
Two big ones:
Crew
Most of the time I shoot solo. But if your project needs multiple cameras, advanced lighting setups, or heavy logistics, I’ll need to bring in additional crew. Each extra person adds to the budget.
Travel
Travel can easily double the cost of a project. I was once offered a shoot in Klamath Falls, Oregon, but the travel costs alone would have been higher than the video itself. Hiring local saves you thousands.
How You Can Save Money on Video Production
Now that we’ve talked about what drives costs up, let’s flip it around. There are a few simple things you can do as a client that will save your videographer time — and save you money.
1. Hire Local (Even If We Love to Travel)
I’ll be the first to admit — I love traveling for shoots. But here’s the truth: travel adds cost, sometimes a lot of it. Flights, hotels, gas, and food stack up quickly, and you’re paying for the time I spend just getting to and from the location.
I was recently offered a shoot in Klamath Falls, Oregon, but the travel costs alone would have been higher than the actual cost of the video. That’s why hiring local is almost always cheaper. If you’re based in Boise and you hire a Boise videographer, you’re already ahead.
2. Use Half-Day and Full-Day Rates Efficiently
Most videographers, myself included, structure pricing around half-day (up to 4 hours) and full-day (up to 8 hours) rates. Here’s why it matters: the hourly rate on a full day is almost always cheaper than on a half day.
For example, I charge $800 for a half day and $1,200 for a full day. That means two separate half-day shoots cost $1,600 — but if those shoots could be combined into a single full day, the same work might only cost $1200.
I’ve had clients schedule two interviews on different days, which forces me to charge two half days. But if they could coordinate schedules and do both interviews back-to-back at the same location, they’d only pay for one half day at $800. That’s an $800 savings for the exact same end product.
3. Max Out Your Shoot Time
Let’s say you only need an hour of filming, so you book me for a half day. That still leaves three hours on the clock. Why not use that time to capture extra content? Short social clips, a library of b-roll, behind-the-scenes shots — things that will be valuable later.
Yes, there’s an additional cost to edit all that extra footage, but your cost per video will drop dramatically. Instead of paying $800 for one finished piece, you could end up with five or six for not much more.
4. Know What You Want (Before We Start Shooting)
This one might be the biggest money-saver. The clearer you are before production starts, the less you’ll spend on revisions later.
I include one round of revisions in my edits. After that, additional revisions are $200 each. If you’re still figuring out your vision after I send the first draft — swapping in different voiceovers, testing ideas you’re not sure about — that adds up quickly.
The best way to save money is to lock in your goals early, communicate them clearly, and trust your videographer to execute. The more focused the plan, the less time wasted in post.
5. Bundling and Retainers
The single most cost-effective way to save money on video production is to think long-term. Videography is an unpredictable business. I could be drowning in work one month — like August, when everyone scrambles to spend their budgets before the snow hits — and then doing almost nothing the next. January is notoriously slow. Budgets are just getting approved, everything is covered in ice, and nobody’s booking shoots. I’ve even started taking my RV down to Arizona in January because, honestly, it’s not even worth being here.
All that being said, videographers value consistent, steady work with loyal clients more than anything. We’ll often give big per-video discounts if we can count on consistent cash flow. That’s where retainers come in.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Example 1: Brand Content
One-off project: You hire me to film a single brand video. A half-day shoot plus editing might cost around $2,000. That’s your price for one polished deliverable.
Monthly retainer: Instead, you sign up for a package of two videos and four short-form clips each month for $3,000. On paper, that’s more upfront. But spread across six deliverables, your average cost per video is closer to $500 instead of $2,000.
Example 2: Real Estate
One-off project: You book me to shoot a single listing. A half-day shoot with drone footage costs $800, and editing a polished video typically adds another $400–$600, depending on complexity. So one listing video comes in around $1,200–$1,400. If you need four listings that month, that’s $4,800–$5,600 total.
Monthly retainer: You sign up for a real estate package that includes four listing videos per month for $2,400. That’s roughly half the cost of booking them one at a time — and it guarantees you faster turnaround and priority scheduling during the busy season.
Not only are you saving money per piece, but you’re also building a steady pipeline of content instead of scrambling for one-off projects. You get priority on my schedule, predictable pricing, and a consistent presence online. I get stability — which means I’m willing to give you a break on price.
If you know your business needs regular content, a retainer isn’t just a way to save money — it’s the smartest way to keep your marketing consistent and cost-effective.
Final Thoughts: So, What Does Video Cost in Boise?
By now you’ve probably figured out there’s no single answer to the question, “How much does video production cost in Boise?” The real answer is: it depends on time. Time spent planning, shooting, editing, and delivering something that actually works for your business.
The good news is Boise is one of the most affordable places in the country to hire a professional videographer. You’re getting big-market quality without paying big-market prices. And if you understand what drives cost — and how to save money with smart planning — your budget can stretch a lot further than you might think.
Whether you need one project, a seasonal campaign, or a steady flow of content, video isn’t an expense — it’s an investment. The right video can sell your product, tell your story, or land your next client.
So if you’re ready to see what video can do for your business, I’d love to talk.
👉 Get in touch here and let’s figure out what makes sense for your budget, your goals, and your brand.
FAQ
How much does a videographer cost in Boise?
Most Boise videographers charge $800–$1,000 for a half-day, $1,500–$2,500 for a full day, and $150–$500 per finished minute of editing.
Why do videographers charge day rates instead of hourly?
Because setup, travel, prep, and post-shoot work take hours beyond the filming time. A “one-hour shoot” really eats up half a day or more.
What’s the biggest cost in video production?
Editing. Organizing, storytelling, color, sound, graphics, and exports often take longer than filming.
How can I save money on video production in Boise?
Hire local, consolidate shoot days, use your full half-day effectively, communicate clearly up front, and consider a retainer for discounts.
