How long does it take to produce a video?

The production timeline for a video can range from a couple of weeks to several months, depending on complexity. A relatively straightforward video might be turned around in 4–6 weeks from kickoff to final cut  . Here’s a typical timeline breakdown:

• Pre-production (planning): This includes discovery meetings, concept development, scripting, storyboarding, casting (if needed), scheduling the shoot, scouting locations, etc. Pre-production can take anywhere from a few days for a simple shoot (just coordinating a date to film an interview) to 2-4 weeks for more involved projects (developing a script, hiring actors, getting permits for locations). On average, expect at least 1-2 weeks of prep.
• Production (filming/animation creation): The actual shoot might be 1-3 days for many corporate videos. For animations, “production” is the animators creating the scenes, which could be a week or two of work for a short explainer (sometimes done in parallel with other phases). If it’s a live-action video with multiple scenes or locations, filming could spread over multiple weeks (though usually not continuously). Many marketing videos are filmed in one day if carefully planned. Large commercials could be multiple days.
• Post-production (editing, graphics, revisions): After filming, editing a first cut might take a week or two. Then you’ll review, give feedback, and the team will do revisions, color grading, add music, motion graphics, etc. This revision cycle is often another 1-2 weeks. If there are multiple stakeholders giving feedback, factor in their review time too. For simpler videos, post-production might be just a week; for more complex ones, 3-4 weeks.
• Total time: A typical timeline of 1-3 months for video projects on average , but that includes many larger projects we’ve completed; simpler ones definitely don’t need that long. A safe average for a well-planned small business video is about 2-8 weeks.

If you are in a hurry, we can compress timelines by:

• Overlapping phases (e.g., editing one part of video while still filming another).
• Putting more manpower (multiple editors working round the clock).
• Simplifying things (maybe using stock footage or simpler graphics to save time).
• SVZ asks about your timeline at the start. If you need something in 2 weeks, it might limit what’s feasible (maybe a quickly shot and edited piece without heavy scripting).

For most marketing videos, 1-3 months is a realistic range. At SVZ, we usually allocate about 3-6 weeks for a video once the concept is agreed on. For example, we might spend the first 2 weeks on scripting and planning, then shoot in week 3, then edit in weeks 4-5, buffer for revisions, and deliver final in week 6. If a client needs faster and the concept is simple (say, a quick testimonial montage), we’ve done it in as little as 1-2 weeks by streamlining everything. Conversely, if doing multiple videos at once (like a series of tutorials), it might be a few months or longer to get them all done but we’ll deliver as we complete.