What to ask before you sign a video quote

Before you sign a video quote, ask what the number actually includes, how many finished deliverables it covers, and who's directing the shoot on the day. A price on its own tells you almost nothing, because two quotes for the same dollar figure can cover wildly different amounts of work.

Video pricing isn't standardised the way a lot of other services are, so comparing quotes side by side without asking what's inside each one is close to meaningless. A handful of direct questions before you sign will tell you more than the total at the bottom of the page.

Does the number include pre-production?

Some quotes are for the shoot and edit alone, with the brief, the shot list and the planning either assumed to already exist or billed separately. That matters, because a shoot without a settled brief tends to either run over on the day or come back from the edit missing something. A single video engagement that includes pre-production, production, editing, optimisation and an implementation guide as one package, rather than a shoot-day rate with everything else added on, is a materially different offer even at the same headline price.

How many deliverables does this actually produce?

Ask specifically: is this one video, or is this one shoot day that produces several? A properly planned production day can generate a hero piece, a handful of shorter cuts and a run of short-form clips from the same footage, and a quote that's clear about how many finished assets you'll walk away with is far easier to judge against another quote than one that just names a price for "a video."

Who's directing, and are they the person you spoke to?

Ask who's actually running the shoot day, and whether that's the same person who sat in the planning conversation. A brief can get lost between the person who sold the project and the person who shows up to film it. We keep the same person across the whole project, from workshop through to the edit, specifically so nothing gets lost in a handover. It's worth asking any provider directly how they handle that.

What happens to footage that isn't used?

Ask what's included in terms of rights and raw footage, and whether there's flexibility to pull further cuts from the same shoot later without a full new production. A shoot that produces enough material to be re-cut in six months is worth more than one that's designed to be used once and discarded.

What's the review process, and how many rounds are included?

A quote should say how feedback works: how you review the cut, how many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens if you need changes beyond that. Vague or open-ended review terms are one of the most common places a project's real cost creeps past the number on the quote. For what a properly run edit and review process actually looks like, see what happens in the edit, and how reviews work.

What questions is the provider asking you?

This one runs the other way. A production company that doesn't ask about your audience, your goal for the video or where it'll be published before quoting is pricing a generic job, not your job. The questions they ask you before the quote tell you almost as much as the quote itself. We've written about what that should sound like in the questions a good production company asks you.

Is the price ex GST, and is the payment structure clear?

A small thing, but worth confirming in writing: our pricing, like most business-to-business production pricing, is quoted ex GST. Confirm that upfront rather than discovering it at invoice time, along with what the payment schedule looks like across the project.

Does the quote match the shape of your business?

A quote worth signing should read like it was written for your project, not lifted from a template with the client name swapped in. If a proposal talks in generic terms about "engaging content" rather than naming your audience, your sector, or the specific problem the video is meant to solve, that's usually a sign the thinking hasn't actually happened yet, whatever the number at the bottom says.

Asking these before you sign costs you five minutes. Skipping them costs you the difference between a video that does what you needed and one that technically got delivered. If you'd like a quote scoped properly against your actual project, get in touch and we'll walk you through exactly what's included before you commit to anything.