Chicago Videographer Video Production Chicago

Our video production crews are able to travel to +80% of the US Population, with 250+ metro areas in our logistics network.

We provide video production services to all 50 United States;

AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY

Video conveys information fast and accurately, both visually and audibly. There is no substitute for video. Most people see dozens, if not hundreds, of videos per day. Video is ingrained in daily life; and, it is everywhere. Simply stated, the modern language is video.

Speaking in a language customers do not comprehend is a recipe for confusion. People today, speak in video-dialects. Consider all these,

• Short videos with comments on a web page.
• Animated video characters generated on phones.
• Video selfies, with filtered graphical / text overlays.
• Feeds of video; i.e., video games, screen-sharing, etc.
• First person, point-of-view perspective videos.

Your computer screen itself is a continous display of moving images, commonly referred to as — video. The missing puzzle piece is often right under our nose. Video is often that piece for a business.

• Automate processes (sales, training, etc.) with video.
• Introduce products, services, locations, people, or ideas.
• Educate customers, or employees, with video content.
• Warm-up, and prime leads with entertaining video.
• Conduct personalized memos, messages or theater.
• Animate advanced concepts, or simplify big ideas.
• Avoid repetitive explanitory tasks with video.

Most businesses benefit in unfathomable ways by using video. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. If you or your business would like a free video consultation — let our professionals explain how we can improve your business operations, logistics, training, onboarding, marketing, education, and so much more. Reach out to us today.

Hiring a videographer has many benefits. It's impossible to video continuously, and attend the same event — most people capture a few moment of video and quickly realize it is hard work to film much beyond 30-seconds, let alone several minutes or hours. If you want video of an event, you need a videographer; it really is that simple. A dedicated person needs to film the event if you want it on video.

Whether you should hire a videographer for your event can be boiled down to three essential questions, with no right or wrong answer:

1. Is this a pivotal moment for the subject?
2. Are more than a dozen people attending?
3. Will there be people who want to see this?

Many people choose to film their wedding because it is a pivotal moment. Likewise, many businesses film conferences, speakers, or events they host if it has signficance to their history or brand. And, many musicians or sports athletes may film if it's an important or special moment. This is taking video for keepsake, or posterity.

Similarly, social gatherings with intent-to-gather are often worth filming. It is unlikely that exact group of people will remain the same, or unchanged, over the years. If a social group is interested enough to gather together, there is a high chance future generations are interested in virtually attending by means of digital video.

Ultimately video is a means for sharing information visually, and the closest thing we have to time-travel. Many people would pay money to travel into the past, but capturing video requires foresight. This is why so many people exclaim, "I got that on video!" as if they caught lightning in a bottle during unexpected events. On the flip-side, this is why nearly all brides regret not having video of their wedding.

Video is a portal into the past; arguably, video is the most effective communication method ever created. Not only is video one of the best storytelling mediums — but video is inherantly empathetic. If your goal is to share an emotion, moment, feeling, time, or create a communication piece based on your event, you should absolutely hire a videographer. Sometimes for you, sometimes for posterity.

We primarily create video content by capturing live events on video, or undertaking small video productions for businesses. We have full-time videographers, and full-time video editors on direct payroll. Our specialty is producing video from a live event, or the ideas you have.

Our team is similarly capable of conceptualization, drafting ideas, and providing a full creative treatment — upon request, we are able to handle the development of client strategies, marketing efforts, advertising campaigns including video marketing, etc. We have an on staff software engineer / web developer to bridge the video production realm to websites, web apps, and advanced uses.

Further, our video production studio is wherever it needs to be; as our team is familar with booking studio, specialty spaces and filming in unique environments. We can prepare scripts, locate actors, and pre-produce as much or as little of the video project as desired. If needed, we can source and acquire props, catering, and procure other necessities for a specific project. Research, including market A/B testing with various video-cuts or lengths, is fine for us too.

If you are looking for a video production partner, or a video agency that can reliably deliver quality videos across thousands of video productions, Vanilla Video is the top-choice. Video marketing and video use on the web for business is our expertise. We are one of the few video production companies to internally host and stream videos without a third-party solution. Everything we do is unique.

From production, to post-production and video finalization — our project managers are great communicators and even better with deadline management. Again, with proprietary high-volume order and project management software internally developed by our own team, Vanilla Video is unmatched in production efficiency.

Our company is world-class, a true best-in-class service. Apprentice videographers come to intern for our team, and cut their teeth in the industry. We are an industry-leading video production company, and whether it involves filming live-action, editing, animation, motion graphics, or complex pre-production — we produce video.

Vanilla Video is a Chicago-based video production company with full-time employee videographers. Vanilla Video, LLC is our legal parent company name, Co-founded on December 30, 2011 in a suburban apartment by Corey Olson, Frank Romano III and Nick Romano. We have served thousands of customers.

We operate multiple video production brands, to more easily attract specific customer segments and separate lines of business.

We are committed to fair, transparent and consistent pricing. We quote from the same standard pricing model. Regardless who you are, or what you are filming — our pricing remains the same. †

† Pricing is specific to geographic boundaries. We adjust rates to be in-line with local geographic markets; i.e., New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago may have different pricing due to local market conditions, costs of living or cost of doing business.

A videographer is a video-camera operator who captures video to an electronic medium of storage. Videographers are functionally similar to a photographer, but skilled in the art of video production. Usually, videographers work in Electronic News Gathering (ENG) scenarios with the goal of capturing live events or small video productions.

Videographers focus on smaller productions like documentaries, short films, weddings, sporting events, corporate videos, birthday parties, legal depositions, television commercials, and generally any live event or video production smaller than a Feature Movie set. In recent parlance, "cinematographer" has become synonymous with "videographer". Although traditionally, cinematographers work on movie sets, and they specifically use film as their medium.

Many videographers label themselves as cinematographers, offering cinematography — despite using digital video production techniques and working with digital video. This is a marketing technique; it calls attention to interchangeable lens cameras which produce cinematic looking digital video. These are referred to as "Cinema Cameras" but nonetheless it is operated by a videographer (i.e., cinematographer.)

Individuals hire videographers to capture video of personal events, while businesses employ videographers to produce video marketing content, or to gather video content for a mixed range of purposes.

Video is a technical medium that requires skill and knowledge to capture, handle, edit or generally work with. While a few very large companies can afford in-house videographers, many businesses need a videographer to handle their video production needs.

Most video production companies charge between $200 to $500 per hour to cover gear, multiple videographers and / or production assistants, pre-production planning, and post-production. While it is possible to find and hire a single videographer, their rates will range from $75 to $200 per hour based on the individual or company.

Video production companies often charge $50 to $150 per hour for editing. Similarly, a video production company might charge $50 to $150 per hour for consulting or pre-production. Billing frequency varies — however, most video production professionals require a deposit / retainer to get started. Payment schedules are common.

Producing a video can involve several hours or days of planning or pre-production work. Likewise, nearly all video production involves some level of post-production labor. Some video companies bundle pre / post production pricing with the actual production costs. It is usually more helpful to look at the total project cost instead of line-items when looking for a video production company.

An average, but well produced video (for web distribution) might cost between $1,000 - $3,000 per minute of runtime. Television commercials, music videos, high-end brand films, and a variety of circumstances can push production costs higher. Video production does not have an inherant budgetary cap; as noted in major feature films, producing video can cost upwards of $1 Million per minute.

Keep in mind that every person added to a video production set will likely inflate the budget by at least $500. Actors, voice over artists, graphic designers, animations, production assistants. Most halfway decent videos cost at least $1,500 if considering basic pre-planning, production and post-production. Good videos start to appear above the $5,000 range; and, commercial video work is easily $10,000+.

The average wedding videographer charges $1,500 to $4,000 for a completed wedding video; with the average couple spending $1,800 on their wedding videography. Prices vary by geography, wedding videographer skill level, and add-ons (e.g., coverage, deliverables.)

Spending less than $1,500 on a wedding video will likely result in compromise. Either sacrificing length of coverage, camera quality, number of cameras or videographers, editing, etc. While there is nothing wrong with spending less to get an affordable wedding video, couples should be aware of the trade-offs. A videographer working solo will have more difficulty (and fatigue) than a team.

A secondar videographer for weddings is highly useful, since they can capture the event at a different angle. Even more valuable to the editing, and therefore the emotional impact, is an alternative focal-length while capturing the event. Often two videographers working an event might opt for different focal-lengths; i.e., one medium-wide safe shot on the primary, and one close-up on the secondary. With two or more videographers, more artistic risk can be taken to get visually appealing shots — but a "safe shot" is always desireable.

Spending over $4,000 for a wedding video will likely result in more thorough pre-production or planning, tertiary videographers, and a more highly polished edit. Again, there is no true limit to how many cameras or videographers a wedding can have. While there are diminishing returns, most weddings benefit up to 3 cameras.

Most wedding videographers charge $100 to $200 per hour; with editing rates from $50 to $150 per hour. However, most wedding videographers do not sell their time by the hour; instead, they will often create packages which require a specific amount of time.

A well produced wedding video by a single videographer costs $1,500 to $3,000. Likewise, a good wedding video utilizing multiple videographers will cost anywhere between $3,000 to $7,500+. It is recommended couples spend 3-5% of their total wedding budget for wedding videography — with the average around $1,800.