“How long will it take?” usually comes right after “how much?” on a first call, and the honest answer has two parts.
The studio’s part gets predictable after a few projects, down to how many days the edit usually takes. The client’s part doesn’t. Every proposal, script and cut that goes out for approval waits on someone else’s calendar, and on a lot of projects those waits add up to more time than the edit.
A timeline the client can rely on keeps those two parts apart.
In short
- A two- to three-minute corporate video with one shoot day and two review rounds takes 19 to 37 working days of studio work.
- The client’s six turns add six working days if they answer the next day, and three and a half weeks at three days each.
- Quote the studio’s part as working days that start after each approval, and put the client’s turnaround for notes in writing too.
- Approve the script before booking the shoot, have one approver on the client side and ask for assets before the edit.
A typical timeline, phase by phase
The ranges below are for a two- to three-minute corporate or brand video with one shoot day and two review rounds. They’re an example to adjust with your own numbers, counted in working days of studio work, and they leave out every day the project spends waiting on the client.
| Phase | Working days |
|---|---|
| Briefing call and proposal | 2 to 3 |
| Script, first draft | 3 to 5 |
| Script changes | 1 to 2 |
| Pre-production: crew, location, talent, shoot plan | 3 to 8 |
| Shoot | 1 to 2 |
| Edit to first cut | 4 to 8 |
| Two review rounds | 2 to 4 |
| Finishing: color, sound mix, graphics, captions | 2 to 4 |
| Exports and delivery | 1 |
| Total | 19 to 37 |
That’s about four to seven and a half weeks of the studio’s time. Production companies that publish a number land in the same area.
Shootsta’s guide for UK clients gives four to eight weeks for a typical corporate video, from first brief to final file, and Origin Films, in Toronto, says three to six weeks for a corporate brand video.
Pre-production has the widest spread. An interview with the client’s own staff in their office can be booked in three days, while a location that needs a permit or a casting call for a presenter takes the full eight.
The shoot day is a planning job of its own, covered in our post on building a shooting schedule. The edit depends mostly on how much footage there is. Four hours of interview has to be watched before anyone can cut a two-minute story out of it.
The client’s turns are the biggest variable
Count the moments the project stops and waits for the client:
- the proposal
- notes on the script
- the script sign-off
- notes on the first cut
- notes on the second cut
- final approval
That’s six turns. If the client answers each one on the next working day, the 19 to 37 days grow by six. At three working days each they grow by eighteen, three and a half weeks in which nobody at the studio can move the project forward.
Three working days is an ordinary pace for a client with a day job. Your contact watches the cut the day it arrives, holds the notes for the weekly meeting with their boss, and the boss wants one more person to see it.
Shootsta’s guide names approval delays as the biggest factor in its timeline too. When a client goes quiet, our post on what to do when a client takes too long to approve has follow-up messages you can send.
Quote working days after each approval
A single delivery date in a proposal assumes the client will answer quickly. Quote the studio’s part instead as working days that start when the client’s part ends:
First cut 6 working days after the shoot. Each round of changes 2 working days after we get your consolidated notes. Final file 1 working day after approval.
Then put it on a calendar. Say a client wants a two-minute video for a sales kickoff on Thursday, March 18, and the shoot is on Monday, February 22.
After the shoot the studio needs 12 working days: 6 to the first cut, 2 for the first round of changes, 3 for the second round plus finishing, and 1 for exports. Here’s the same job with a client who answers in one working day and with one who takes three.
| Step | Client answers in 1 day | Client takes 3 days |
|---|---|---|
| Shoot | Mon, Feb 22 | Mon, Feb 22 |
| v1 sent | Tue, Mar 2 | Tue, Mar 2 |
| Notes on v1 | Wed, Mar 3 | Fri, Mar 5 |
| v2 sent | Fri, Mar 5 | Tue, Mar 9 |
| Notes on v2 | Mon, Mar 8 | Fri, Mar 12 |
| Final version sent | Thu, Mar 11 | Wed, Mar 17 |
| Final approval | Fri, Mar 12 | Mon, Mar 22 |
| Delivered | Mon, Mar 15 | Tue, Mar 23 |
The studio did the same 12 days of work in both columns. The first video arrives three days before the kickoff, and the second five days after it.
Put the client’s side in writing as well, as a turnaround for notes (“within two working days of each version”), so the delivery date depends on two numbers both sides agreed to.
Our post on stopping endless revision rounds covers keeping the number of rounds down.
What makes a project faster
- Get the script approved before anyone books the shoot. A rewrite after the crew, the location and the presenter are booked moves a date with three other calendars attached to it.
- Have one person on the client side approve. Five people can watch the cut, but one of them gathers the notes and has the final word. With two decision makers, every round waits for both, and the second one often reopens what the first already approved.
- Ask for the assets before the edit starts: logo files, the brand guide, fonts, product shots, the names and job titles for the lower thirds, and music if the client has its own library. Each one that turns up halfway through the edit is a small wait that nobody puts on the timeline.
- Ask for notes in one batch per round, pinned to the frame they’re about. Our guide on giving video feedback is worth forwarding to a new client.
When the client asks for it next week
Ask what the date is for before you answer. “Next week” is usually an event or a launch, and once you know the real date you can work backward and see which phases fit.
Then offer the version that fits. A week can hold a cut made from footage that already exists, or a short interview shot in the client’s office, with one review round and an approver who answers the same day.
It can’t hold a script, casting and a location shoot. Spell out which parts depend on the client:
We can deliver a 60-second version on Friday. For that we need the approved text by Monday at noon and your notes on the first cut by Wednesday at 5pm. The full two-minute film needs three more weeks.
If hitting the date means overtime or pushing another client’s job, charge for it. Our post on pricing video production shows how to work out a rush fee.
How this works in RecReview
Every task in RecReview can carry two dates: the deadline promised to the client and an internal deadline that falls on or before it. Clients never see the internal one.
By default, sending a version to the client marks the task as waiting on them, and the internal deadline’s clock stops while they have it.
The days the client spends with the cut are added to the team’s internal date, never past the client deadline, and the clock starts again when the client approves or asks for changes. The date promised to the client only moves if you move it.
RecReview also measures how long each client takes to answer, from the moment a version is sent to their approval or request for changes. With that history, the task shows a projected delivery: the internal deadline plus one more review at that client’s usual pace.
It turns amber when it lands after the promised date and green when it lands before. A client with little or no history leans on the workspace average, and the date gets a ~ in front.
Home lists the tasks projected to be late, early enough to renegotiate scope or dates with the client.
In Metrics, owners and admins see their clients ranked by average review time, next to the workspace average. When you write the next proposal for a client, that number tells you how many days to give their side. The project management page has more.
