Buyer's guide
How much does video production cost in Dublin?
Short answer: in Dublin and across Ireland, a short social or testimonial video typically costs €1,500 to €5,000 ex VAT, a corporate or brand film €5,000 to €25,000, and a high-production campaign or TV-grade commercial €10,000 to €100,000. Ongoing content and ads retainers usually run €2,000 to €12,000 a month, depending on what is delivered. These are Irish market ranges to help you budget, not a price list for any one company.
What you are actually paying for
A video quote is mostly people and time. A typical shoot day has a director or camera operator, a second operator or sound recordist on bigger jobs, planning before the shoot, and then the edit, which often takes longer than the shoot itself. Colour grade, sound design, motion graphics and captions all sit in the edit. Kit such as cinema cameras, lighting and drones is usually built into a studio's rate, so a "cheap" quote tends to mean fewer people and less planning, not cheaper cameras.
Typical price ranges in Ireland, 2026
| Project type | Typical market range, ex VAT | What usually drives the number |
|---|---|---|
| Short social or testimonial video | €1,500 to €5,000 | Half a day, one location, one or two finished edits. The entry point for most small businesses. |
| Content day, a batch of short videos | €3,000 to €10,000 | One planned shoot day cut into a batch of short-form and long-form edits. Usually the best value per finished video. |
| Corporate or brand film | €5,000 to €25,000 | One to three shoot days, scripting, crew, lighting, sound, grade and motion graphics. |
| Event or conference coverage | €3,000 to €20,000 | Days on site, crew size, and how many highlight films, speaker edits and social cutdowns you need. |
| High-production campaign or TV-grade commercial | €10,000 to €100,000 | Creative concept, a producer, a larger crew, cast, studio or location hire, art department and a full post-production schedule. National TV campaigns with agency fees can go well beyond this. |
| Monthly content and ads retainer | €2,000 to €12,000 a month, plus ad spend | Depends on deliverables: shoot days per month, number of edits, and whether Meta, Google and YouTube campaigns are managed too. |
| Cast, voice-over, licensed music | Quoted separately | Only when the brief needs them. Real customers and staff often work better on camera anyway. |
All figures exclude VAT at 23%. Ad spend is separate and is normally paid to Meta or Google directly. These are typical ranges you will see from Irish production companies and agencies in 2026, to help you set a budget before you talk to anyone. They are not Blue Motion Media's prices.
Why the range is so wide
A €2,000 video and an €80,000 video are not the same product at different prices. They are different jobs. The cheaper one is usually one person filming for a few hours with a straightforward edit. The expensive one has weeks of pre-production, a concept, a producer, a crew of eight or ten, cast, a studio or location, an art department, and a long post-production schedule. When you compare quotes, compare what is inside them, not the number at the bottom.
How production companies price their work
- Day rate. Crew per shoot day, plus edit days on top. Common for simple shoots. Check whether editing is included or billed separately.
- Per project. A fixed fee for a defined set of deliverables. The easiest to budget for, as long as the number of revisions is written down.
- Monthly retainer. A fixed monthly fee for a steady volume of content, often with ad management included. Usually the best value per video if you need content all year, because the planning and briefing are only done once.
What pushes the price up
- Pre-production. Concept, scripting, storyboards, casting and location scouting can be as much work as the shoot itself.
- Crew size. A single operator is fine for a testimonial. A brand film with lighting, sound and drone needs two or three people. A commercial can need ten.
- Locations and travel. Three sites across Leinster cost more than one showroom.
- Edit complexity. Motion graphics, subtitles in several languages and lots of versions and aspect ratios all add edit days.
- Talent and licensing. Actors, voice-over and music licensed for paid ads are extra.
- Turnaround. One to three weeks is normal. Rush delivery usually costs more.
How to get more for your budget
Batch. The single biggest saving is planning one day so it produces a quarter of content instead of one video. Script every deliverable in advance, map each one to a speaker and a format, and shoot it all in one go. Plantech got sixteen assets from a single day, and the AIMS Summit produced around forty from two.
Use real people. Customers and staff on camera cost nothing and convert better than actors in most local markets. Here is how to get customers to say yes.
Budget for distribution, not just production. A video nobody sees is a cost, not an asset. Decide where it will run and set aside ad spend from the start. If you are unsure where to begin, this comparison of Meta and YouTube ads for Irish businesses will help.
Five questions to ask before you sign a quote
- What exactly are the deliverables? How many finished videos, what lengths, and in which formats: 16:9 for YouTube and your website, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok, 1:1 for feeds.
- How many rounds of revisions are included? Two is common. Unlimited usually means slow.
- Who owns the footage and the finished videos? And can you use them in paid ads without paying again?
- Is the music licensed for paid advertising? Many tracks are cleared for organic posts only.
- Is ad spend marked up? If the same company runs your ads, spend should go to Meta or Google at cost, with management charged as a separate fee.
What does Blue Motion Media charge?
We do not publish a price list. Every project is scoped around what it needs to achieve, which is usually leads rather than views, so two "one-day shoots" can be completely different jobs. The ranges in this guide are Irish market figures to help you budget; they are not our rates. To get a real number for your project, book a free 30-minute strategy call and we will map it out with you.
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