Most production companies answer this with “it depends”, which is true and useless. Here are real numbers, what sits behind them, and what actually moves the price up or down.

For context, our own prices are published, so everything below is what we charge rather than an estimate of what the market might do.

The Short Answer

A single customer testimonial, filmed remotely and fully edited, is £500.

A case study video starts at £2500, which covers up to two contributors filmed on site with supporting footage.

A flagship case study with four contributors, director led, with cinematic supporting footage and a set of social cuts, is £4500.

Anything beyond that, more contributors, more than one location, several films from the same shoot, is quoted against the brief at a fixed price.

What You Get at Each Level

Testimonial Story, £500. One customer, interviewed remotely wherever they are. We send them a recording kit, direct the interview live and edit it into a finished film of 60 to 90 seconds. Useful when the customer is abroad or hard to pin down, and the cheapest way to get a credible face on camera.

Core Story, from £2500. Two contributors filmed on site, with supporting footage of the workplace, the product or the work itself, cut into a full case study film plus short versions for social. This is the version most teams actually want, because it tells a story rather than collecting an endorsement.

Success Story, £4500. Four contributors, planned and directed rather than simply recorded, with supporting footage shot around the narrative and six social cuts. The version you use when the film is going on the homepage and into the sales process.

Package	Price	What it is	Best for
Testimonial Story	£500	One customer, filmed remotely with a kit we send them, directed live, one finished film of 60 to 90 seconds	A customer abroad or hard to pin down, or proof you need quickly
Core Story	£2500	Up to two contributors filmed on location, supporting footage, full film and social cuts	Most customer stories
Success Story	£4500	Four contributors, director led, cinematic supporting footage, six social cuts	The film that goes on the homepage and into the sales process

Our case study packages set all of this out in full.

What Actually Moves the Price

Three things, in order of how much they matter.

Crew. A single operator costs less than a crew, and for a straightforward case study one person is often enough. The more contributors there are, the faster everyone has to move between setups, which is usually when a second pair of hands stops being a luxury and starts being the thing that gets the day finished. Each extra person on the crew is a day of someone’s time.

Whether someone needs to run the interview. This is the cost most people do not expect. If your team is comfortable asking the questions, that is one less person on the day. If not, a director or producer has to be there to draw the story out, and that is a skilled job rather than a nice extra. A badly conducted interview cannot be rescued in the edit.

The number of interviews. This is the big one, and it is not for the reason most people assume. Filming a third contributor might add an hour to the day. Editing a third contributor adds considerably more, because every minute of interview has to be listened to, logged and weighed against every other answer before the story can be assembled. Four twenty-minute interviews is eighty minutes of talking to get ninety seconds from, and finding which ninety seconds is most of the work.

Locations and diaries. Contributors in one building on one day is the cheapest version of any case study. Two locations means travel, sometimes accommodation, and often a second filming day. And it is not always a choice: senior people are hard to get in the same room, and sometimes the only way to film four contributors is across separate days, or separate weeks. That changes the price more than anything about the equipment.

Motion graphics. Simple, clean titles and lower thirds are included, and for plenty of films that is all they need. Complex animation costs more, and sometimes it is the right answer rather than an indulgence: when there is very little to film beyond the interview, when the product only exists on a screen, or when something has to be explained visually, graphics do the job supporting footage would otherwise have done. If you have a designer in house who can supply assets, that usually brings the cost down.

After those: travel, how many finished versions you need, turnaround time, and subtitles or language versions.

Why Editing Is the Part People Underestimate

A filming day is visible. You can see the crew, the lights, the hours passing.

The edit is not, so it tends to be treated as the cheap end. In a case study it is usually the larger half of the work. The interviews have to be transcribed or logged, the story has to be found in what people actually said rather than what the brief hoped they would say, and then it has to be built, graded, mixed, captioned and cut down for other channels.

When someone quotes a case study film at a suspiciously low number, the edit is almost always where the corners have been cut.

What Should Be Included

Worth checking against any quote, ours or anyone else’s.

The finished film in the formats you actually need, including vertical versions if the film is going on social. Captions. Brand graphics. A defined number of revision rounds, or a clear statement of what revisions are measured against. And clarity on who owns the footage afterwards.

On revisions, the number of rounds matters less than what they are measured against. Unlimited revisions with a vague brief is not generous, it is an admission that nobody agreed what the film was meant to be. Revisions against a brief both sides signed off tell you when the film is finished.

How to Spend Less

Some of these will cost us work, which is rather the point of a cost guide.

Film remotely. If the customer is not in the country, or their diary is the obstacle, a remote interview at £500 gets you a real testimonial without a travel budget.

Film more than one customer in a day. Two customers in one location costs far less than two separate shoots, because the setup and the travel happen once.

Decide how involved your team wants to be. Some marketing teams prefer to lead the interview themselves, and there is a good argument for it: they know the customer, the account history and the questions worth asking. If that suits you, it is one less person on the day. If you would rather focus on your customer and leave the questions to us, that is a role we bring.

Settle the brief before filming. Most cost overruns are a decision made late. Our case study brief template covers the questions worth answering first.

Do not order versions you have no plan for. Six social cuts are only cheaper per film than one. They are not cheaper than none.

What to Ask For in a Quote

A single number tells you nothing and gives you nothing to negotiate. Ask for the filming time, the crew, the post-production, and the deliverables listed separately, so you can see what changes if the budget moves.

Then ask what happens if the day overruns, what happens if the customer pulls out, and who arranges permissions if you are filming somewhere that needs them. Our guide to choosing a production company goes through the rest of the questions worth asking.

If You Want a Number for Your Own Project

Tell us how many customers you want to film, where they are, and what you need at the end of it, and we will give you a fixed price against that brief before any work starts. Get in touch.