How long does it actually take to produce a video?

The short version: for a typical brand story or testimonial project, plan on 4 to 8 weeks from signed proposal to final delivery. For longer documentary-style pieces, 8 to 12 weeks is more realistic.

Here's how that time gets spent.

Week 1 – 2: Discovery & pre-production. Kickoff call, buyer mapping, story architecture, shot list. Scheduling interviews around your team's calendar (this is usually the slowest part — not the shoot itself).

Week 2 – 3: Production. For most brand stories, one to two shoot days. For a multi-site construction piece or a facility that needs multiple areas covered, two to four days spread across a week or two.

Week 3 – 6: Post-production. First cut typically lands in your inbox within two to three weeks of the last shoot day. Two rounds of revisions after that. Color grade, sound mix, cutdowns for social, delivery in every format you'll actually use.

What speeds it up: decisive stakeholders, availability for interviews, one clear approver on the client side. If we can lock feedback in a single call instead of a chain of emails, we can shave a full week.

What slows it down: interviews that need to be rescheduled, feedback that comes in from four different people with four different opinions, or "can we add one more section" after the edit is locked. All of those are recoverable — they just cost time.

If you have a hard external deadline — a trade show, a product launch, a fundraising campaign — tell me on the first call. I'll build the schedule backward from that date and tell you honestly whether it's realistic. What I won't do is agree to a timeline I know we can't hit.