Luma Creative is a video production company in San Francisco. We have produced work for Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Coinbase and the UN World Food Programme, and everything below is delivered by our own crew and post team rather than subcontracted out. Most projects use more than one of these services at once.
What video production services include
Video production services cover the whole making of a film: the planning before the shoot, the shoot itself, the edit after it, and the versions you actually publish. A full-service company does all four with one team. A lot of what gets sold as video production is one of the four, with the rest quietly subcontracted, and the seam usually shows up in the edit when nobody on the day knew what the cut needed.
Pre-production is concept development, scriptwriting, storyboarding, casting, location scouting and the permits that decide whether a shot is possible at all. It is the cheapest place to change your mind and the most expensive place to skip.
Production is the shoot: crew, camera, lighting and grip, set, hair and makeup, sound, and whoever is directing the people in front of the lens.
Post-production is the edit, colour, sound design and mix, and motion graphics for anything a camera cannot show. Software, data and internal process usually need this layer.
Delivery is the part most quotes leave out: the aspect ratios, the cutdowns, the captioned versions, the stills. One shoot day can produce a two-minute film, six social cuts and a set of frames for the sales deck, and deciding that before the shoot costs nothing while deciding it afterwards costs a reshoot.
Which film you need, by what you are trying to do
Most people arrive knowing the outcome they want and not the word for the format. This maps one to the other.
| What you are trying to do | The format | Where it usually runs |
|---|---|---|
| Explain why the company exists | Brand video | Homepage, fundraising, recruiting |
| Sell one product | Product video | Product page, launch, paid ads |
| Run a paid campaign | Commercial | Broadcast, YouTube, paid social |
| Push a specific offer or event | Promotional video | Campaign pages, email, social |
| Prove it worked for someone else | Testimonial video | Sales calls, case studies, site |
| Make something complicated make sense | Explainer video | Homepage, onboarding, sales |
| Show a product that lives on a screen | Software demo | Product pages, demos, launches |
| Let a person speak for the company | Interview video | About page, recruiting, LinkedIn |
| Capture a conference or summit | Corporate event video | Recap film, next year’s promo, internal |
| Reach people who cannot attend | Live streaming | Live, then on demand |
| Publish a recurring show | Podcast video | YouTube, clips, audio platforms |
| Show scale, site or geography | Aerial and drone | A layer inside any of the above |
| Raise money from backers | Crowdfunding video | Kickstarter, Indiegogo |
| Feed the channels continuously | Social media video | Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn |
| Hire, onboard or train | HR and internal video | Careers page, LMS, intranet |
| Get stills from the same shoot | Photography | Site, press, sales collateral |
How to choose between them
Four questions settle it faster than a creative brief does.
What is the single thing you want someone to do after watching? If the answer is more than one thing, you are describing more than one film. We would rather make two three-minute films than one six-minute film trying to do both jobs.
Where will it live? A film for a trade show booth plays on mute to people walking past. A film for a paid ad has three seconds to earn the fourth. Same company, same message, and the two cuts share almost nothing.
Who has to approve it? This decides the schedule more often than the shoot does. Testimonial work is the clearest case: the customer’s own legal or comms sign-off is measured in weeks rather than days, and it has to start before anything gets booked.
Will it still be true in a year? A brand film should survive a pricing change and a product rename. A software demo will not survive the next redesign, so it should be built to be reshot cheaply rather than built to last.
How to find what you need
People look for video production in three different ways, so the site is organised three ways. If you know the kind of film you need, start with formats. If you are buying for a department, start there. If your sector has constraints that change how a shoot runs, start with industries.
By format
The kind of film, if you already know what you are making.
By department
Who inside the company the video is for. HR, comms and people teams buy differently from marketing, and the films answer to different measures.
By industry
The craft is broadly the same across sectors. What changes is the schedule, who has to approve what, and when. Eight sectors are covered on the industries hub: technology, healthcare, financial services, mobility, government, food and beverage, education and nonprofit.
Crew and craft services
Individual departments, available on their own or as part of a full production. Productions and agencies book these separately more often than people expect.
What video production costs
Ranges rather than a rate card, because the same film costs different amounts depending on how many days it takes and how many cuts come out of it.
| Type of production | Typical range | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Single-day, one location | $5,000 to $30,000 | Crew size, on-screen talent, how many cuts come out of the day |
| Multi-day or multi-location, larger crew | $15,000 to $100,000 | Shoot days, travel, permits, how many setups per day |
| Commercial-scale campaign | $10,000 to $300,000 | Scope, talent and usage rights, scale of the build |
| Ongoing social content | $4,000 to $10,000 a month | Volume, cadence, how much is shot versus animated |
| Retainer | From $10,000 a month | How much production sits inside the month |
The lever most people leave alone is batching. Filming three customers on the same trip costs far less per film than filming them across three separate months, and the same holds for product variants and executive interviews. The full breakdown of what sits inside each number is on what video production costs.
How a production runs
One team from concept to delivery, rather than handing the project between vendors. In pre-production we do the concept, script, storyboard, casting, locations and permits. On the day we bring our own crew and equipment. In post we cut, grade, mix and, where the subject has nothing to point a camera at, build it in motion graphics.
Schedules vary more than budgets do. The fastest we have turned a product film around was EyeQue’s Vision Check 2: shot across one day, delivered less than two weeks from the initial treatment. That is the floor rather than the norm. What usually sets the date is availability and sign-off, not editing.
Why the crew is in-house
Crew, equipment and post all sit under one roof, which is why we can scope a shoot and finish the edit with the same people. It also means the awkward parts of a production are ours to solve. For Cepton’s brand film we ran an arm car for the driving shots and worked with the San Francisco Police Department and California Highway Patrol to close sections of road in San Francisco and Marin. That is a harder commitment to make when the crew is booked job by job.
Frequently asked questions
What does a full-service video production company do?
A full-service video production company handles pre-production, production, post-production and delivery with one team. That means concept, script, storyboard, casting, locations and permits before the shoot; crew, camera, lighting, sound and set on the day; and edit, colour, sound design and motion graphics afterwards, plus the cutdowns and formats you publish.
How much do video production services cost in San Francisco?
A single-day shoot in one location generally runs $5,000 to $30,000. Multi-day or multi-location work with a larger crew runs $15,000 to $100,000, and commercial-scale campaigns range from $10,000 to $300,000 depending on scope. Ongoing social content runs $4,000 to $10,000 a month, and retainers start at $10,000 a month.
How long does a video take to produce?
It is usually set by availability and approvals rather than by editing. The fastest product film we have delivered was EyeQue’s Vision Check 2, shot in one day and delivered less than two weeks from the initial treatment. Most projects run longer because of scheduling and sign-off. Testimonial work is the clearest example, since the customer’s own legal or comms approval is measured in weeks rather than days.
Can we hire crew, editing or equipment on their own?
Yes. Film crew, editing, sound design, motion graphics, location scouting, casting, set design and camera, lighting and grip packages are all available on their own, without a full production. Other production companies and agencies book these separately more often than people expect.
What is the difference between a brand video and a commercial?
A brand video explains why a company exists and is built to stay true for years, so it usually lives on a homepage, in fundraising or in recruiting. A commercial is made to advertise something specific and normally has paid media behind it, which changes its length, its opening seconds and its usage rights.
Do you work outside San Francisco?
Yes. San Francisco and the Bay Area are the majority of our work, with regular projects on the Peninsula, in Santa Cruz and along the Central Coast. We also travel for multi-location productions.
Where we work
San Francisco and the Bay Area primarily, with regular work on the Peninsula, in Santa Cruz and along the Central Coast. Crew, equipment and post are in-house, which is why we can scope a shoot and finish the edit with the same team.
Tell us what you are making and we will say plainly whether we are the right crew for it.