How long does it take to create a 1 minute video [QUICK OPTIONS] (2024)

So, you’d like to start making video content to support your marketing efforts or grow your professional brand. But, you are worried that it’ll quickly take up all of your time and energy. How long does it take to create a 1 minute video? Well, it depends…

Producing a short video can take anywhere from three hours to nine months – it just depends on what your vision is for the style and quality of the video. For the rest of this blog, I am going to assume you want the best combination of value and quality. I’m going to fill you in on the know-how to producing a good quality video (with a narrative, simple graphics and call to action) so that your product or brand can stand out without breaking the bank.

Although, it is hard to give an exact answer to this question here are some very rough times that video production can take for each video type.

Rough guidelines on how long it takes to produce a video:

Here are some basic guidelines for the time it typically takes for video marketing videos:

• A 1-minute vlog – The lack of effects and simple edits mean that I can finish a vlog in under two hours. This, from my experience, can be part of your daily video content as long as you have the time. A simple vlog style video has become very popular on LinkedIn and tends to lack the fancy effects and editing that you’d find in a corporate high-end video that CEO’s LOVE! These types of videos are a great workhorse for your marketing plan of attack.
• A 1-minute verylow budget corporate video –Three days planning, one shoot day, one day in editing. Customer approved and posted to the social media channel of your choice in one week. These types of videos can often do more harm than good. They are the fallback option when a company wants to produce something slick and high end but come to their marketing team with a budget of about $1000.
• A 1-minute high budget corporate video – Likely four to six months of planning, numerous shooting days and delivered to the client within six to nine months. This video is what everyone hopes they have the budget for when they start thinking about producing video content.
• A 1-minute 2D/3D animation – About six to eight weeks for 2D and could be much longer for 3D animation and simulation-style videos. This type of video can often get started very quickly. The planning phase typically involves scripting and asset collection (such as finding illustrations and style guides for the animation). The time-consuming part of this type of video is all of the back and forth with the customer. Normally, there are client consultations during the scripting, storyboarding, style and asset, draft and final delivery stages. Being quick with your feedback can really reduce the time animations can take.

Below, I want to go through the stages of video production that I go through when I’m creating videos for myself. I’ll also include tips/tricks and any tools that I’ve created for myself to make the process of video creation as painless and smooth as possible.

Saving time (and money) at each stage of video creation

Time for planning

The first step in video production is to discuss you really want to achieve with your video. You’ll need to get this clear in your mind before anything else happens! Don’t start your project until these answers have been teased out and double checked. It’s not fancy or the glamorous side of video production but is very important.

Simple questions and discussions with your team can really help save time when it comes to filming and editing the video.

These are the types of questions I (informally) ask myself when planning a single video or video series that I produce.

• Why do you want a video?
• What’s the budget? Be realistic with the time and budget…
• Who’s the audience?
• What do you want viewers to do after watching the video?
• What’s the best TYPE of video for your audience (vlog, corporate, 2D animation?)
• What does a successful video or series look like for you or your business?
• Where will the video be published?
• How are you going to distribute the video to your audience?

Being clear with your vision is where the real time saving will happen. Once the wheels are in motion, it can be challenging and time-consuming to make changes.

Note sure what you want? Get on line and find some videos that you like the style of. You can present this to your production or marketing team to deconstruct.

How long for script writing?

A lack of story is the number one failing of novice and first-time video producers. It’s easy to push record and hope that the topic will fall out of your mouth in the right way.

It’s hard to work out an engaging narrative that’ll keep an audience engaged – but well worth the effort!

I tend to craft a story outline like this:

1. Hook – what is in the first five seconds that will capture an audience’s attention?
2. Background information – what does your audience need to know to get this video? The topic should be clear and kept to one thing.
3. Conflict – what conflict or problem is this video addressing? This is where you need to deepen the problem so people become invested in hearing the solution (and more of your video).
4. Resolution – what is the solution to the problem or conflict that you are presenting in the video and what did you learn?
5. Call to action – This is the single action that someone should take after watching your video. Do you want them to…Share the video? Sign up for something? Subscribe to your newsletter? Download your lead magnet?

When you have a script prepared edit the hell out of it and cut it down by as much as you can whilst still keeping the narrative clear. Cutting out things at this stage is so much cheaper and faster than doing it at the editing stage.

When you think you are done – try cutting out more from the script. I’m always amazed at how verbose the first draft is. Read it out loud and time it to make sure that you will run under the maximum time you want the video to run for.

Now, I very rarely script vlogs down to the word but I always know the broad answers to the questions above before I push record.

Want more help? Check out my free templates for video recording…

Save time with equipment and recording

Videographers and camera nerds LOVE equipment. They will nerd out on it for hours.

But don’t fall in to the trap of thinking that you need a lot of fancy kit to start recording and produce high quality videos.

I actually did a TAFE evening course on video production and was thrilled with the knowledge that I gained. Perhaps you can look for a short course in your city that can fill you in on the basics of videography and filming.

A huge amount of time can be saved by minimizing your kit and technical requirements. For example, I often recommend that businesses that want to start a vlog to set up a camera (with a good inbuilt microphone), ring/simple light in a quiet and private part of the office.

That way, they can walk up, push record and remove all of the headaches associated with video production.

For bigger projects that you want to film without outsourcing, simple three-point lighting set up and mid-range DSLR is all you need for most corporate videos.

Check out this video for a simple three point lighting set up for your corporate videos:

Quickly record B-roll footage

B-roll footage is a really important part of film making and you can save some time by collecting a bunch in one go…but what exactly is it?

During a video you’ve probably seen that the main story or shot is interspersed with things like the company’s headquarters, its manufacturing or distribution facilities, etc. These images are B-roll.

I’d recommend building up your own library of b-roll footage that you can go back to and use time and time again. For an inexpensive way to get b-roll shots, consider a service like videoblocks.

Services like this will give you access to loads of stock footage for you to drop between your own footage.

A word of warning: stock footage has to be selected carefully…otherwise it looks very cheap and cringe worthy!

Keeping it simple will shave hours of set up time and allow you to get into the editing stage quicker.

Reduce the length of time for editing and motion graphics

The editing can be a long painful process. You are going to have to watch all of the raw footage you have collected, pick out the bits that tell the story that you have scripted early on and weave it into a fun video.

For me, the biggest time saver when it comes to editing is creating templates. You make them once and you can use them over and over again!

Ah…perfect!

I have a number of templates for each of the social media channels through which I distribute my content. They include the recommended aspect ratio, a limiter on the length and also the motion graphics templates that I have created in after effects.

Then, when I come to building the video structure and edit them together it’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

The way to reduce caption-making time

Captions are so important when it comes to video and can be the difference between a few thousand video views. It means delaying the publishing of a video until you can get the captions created.

You can do that yourself or with a service like rev.com.

For the ultimate caption guide, check out my post on how to add captions to videos. I highlight the free and very cheap ways to generate the captions for a load of different social media channels!

Now, you are armed with knowledge and time-saving tips to answer how long it takes to produce a video.

Let me know if you have any other massive time-saving tips in the comments or get in contact at [emailprotected].

If you’d like more help feel free to get in contact about your video ideas or requirements and I’d be happy to help!