Four to six weeks from first call to finished video, for most projects. There are exceptions let me explain.
That number surprises people in both directions. Some expect two weeks. Some expect three months. Here is where the time actually goes, and what makes a project run long.
The stages
Pre-production, one to two weeks. Figuring out what the video should say, who is being interviewed, where we are filming, and what has to be true when it is done. This is the part people underestimate and the part that decides whether the video works.
Shoot day, one day. Usually the shortest part of the whole project. Arrive mid morning, interviews run twenty minutes each, film the work while it happens, out by mid afternoon. Here is what a shoot day actually looks like in a plant.
The first cut, two to three weeks. Going through everything, finding the ninety seconds out of each twenty minute interview that carries, and building it into something.
Revisions, one to two weeks. Two rounds are included on most projects. Each round depends on how fast feedback comes back.
Delivery. Final files, social cuts, stills.
What actually makes projects run long
Almost never production. Almost always waiting.
Feedback that sits. A cut goes out and comes back eleven days later. That is eleven days added to the timeline, and it happens on more projects than not.
Approvals moving up a chain. The person we work with is often not the person who signs off. If a video has to go to an owner, a partner, or a committee, build that in.
Scheduling the people being interviewed. Getting five busy people in one building on one day is harder than filming them.
Deciding who should be on camera on shoot day. That conversation belongs two weeks earlier, and it is worth thinking about carefully.
None of those are anybody being difficult. They are all normal, and they are all avoidable if the calendar accounts for them.
What can be rushed and what cannot
The edit can compress. Not for free, and not without something else moving. Rush means another project gets pushed or a weekend gets used, and that cost is real even when it does not look like it.
Pre-production cannot compress much. Skipping the thinking to save a week produces a video that needed the week.
Feedback cannot be rushed on our end at all. It is the one part of the timeline entirely in your hands.
Working backward from a real deadline
If something is driving the date, a trade show, a hiring push, an anniversary, an event, start from that date and count backward.
Six weeks minimum. Eight if approvals go up a chain.
For a trade show, filming should happen at least four to six weeks before the show so there is room for revisions and getting files onto the booth hardware. For High Point Market in October, that means filming in late summer. More on what actually works for trade show video.
We have watched good projects miss their reason for existing because the conversation started three weeks out. The video still got made. The moment it was for had passed.
The one thing that saves the most time
Knowing what the video is supposed to accomplish before the first call.
Not what it should look like. What has to be different afterward. Projects where that answer exists on day one move noticeably faster, because every decision after it has something to be measured against.
Short version
Four to six weeks for most projects, eight if approvals go up a chain.
Shoot day is the shortest part. Pre-production and revisions are where the time is.
Delays are almost always waiting on feedback, not production.
Working backward from a real date, start six weeks out minimum.
The fastest projects are the ones where somebody knew what the video had to accomplish before the first call.
We make documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across Greensboro and the Triad. Happy to come to you.
Dylan Smith is the owner of With A Twist Media in Greensboro, NC. He has been making documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across the Triad since 2019.