The Real Cost of Being a Filmmaker/Photographer (and Why We Love It Anyway)

The Glamour vs the Reality

From the outside, video production looks like a dream job. Travelling for shoots, filming in great locations, working with big brands, meeting creative people.

And sometimes it is brilliant. Cannes beach parties, engineering projects, cocktail masterclasses or E-Commerce conferences across the Atlantic - it’s varied, exciting, and rarely dull.

But behind the highlight reels are early mornings, late nights, long drives, and kit bags that seem to get heavier every flight of stairs (flight cases become a blessing and a curse). Clients usually see the end product, a polished film or promotional video, but not the cost, planning, and problem-solving that goes into creating it.

Being a filmmaker in the UK isn’t cheap or easy, but it’s still one of the most rewarding jobs around.

The Financial Cost of Professional Filmmaking

Let’s be honest - video production isn’t cheap. You can’t fake quality, and professional gear costs real money.

Our main camera setup includes three Canon C70s (around £4,500 each), an R5C (roughly £3,500) for hybrid and gimbal work, and an R6 (£2,000) for photography. That’s close to £18,000-£20,000 in cameras alone, but each one earns its place.

The C70s handle interviews, events, and multicam setups, while the R5C offers flexibility for handheld and social-first content. The R6 covers stills, BTS coverage, and photography briefs.

Then there’s the lens collection - around 20 lenses, a mix of RF zooms and cine-modded vintage glass. Most primes sit around £500-£1,000, and pro zooms usually fall between £1,500-£2,000. Altogether, that’s roughly £15,000-£20,000 worth of glass.

Lighting and audio are next. We use a compact but capable kit - Amaran 300c, 150x, and PT4C tubes, complete with diffusion, modifiers, and V-mount batteries. It’s around £3,000-£4,000 in total, but it’s what lets us make grey offices and dim halls look cinematic.

Our audio setup includes shotgun mics, wireless lav kits, recorders, and all the necessary extras. A dependable audio kit comes in at roughly £1,500-£2,000.

Then there’s the support gear - DJI gimbals (£900-£1,200 each), sliders (£400-£600), Manfrotto tripods (£300-£600), filters, SSDs, cages, and friction arms. It’s not glamorous, but it’s what keeps shoots running smoothly.

We also use drones - mainly a DJI Mini 4 Pro and a Mavic 3 - together worth around £3,000, including batteries, ND filters, registration, and insurance. Keeping drones compliant means paying for training, renewals, and maintenance.

And then there’s live streaming. Broadcast gear adds another layer. Our ATEM switchers, converters, HDMI-to-SDI boxes, and fibre HDMI cables quickly add up. Some of those cables alone cost around £100 each, and you need plenty of them for big venues. Once you factor in switchers, encoders, monitors, routers, and backup systems, you’re looking at around £4,000-£6,000 invested in streaming gear.

Back at the office, we run editing and post-production systems worth about £4,000-£5,000 each, with calibrated monitors and RAID storage for ongoing projects. Software like Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, Frame.io, and cloud storage costs around £400-£500 per month in subscriptions - plus various plugins, LUT packs, and add-ons that creep up to a few hundred more each year.

And finally, the running costs of the business:

• Office rent, utilities, broadband, and storage - around £800-£1,200 per month.

• Insurance for kit, liability, and travel - about £200-£250 per month.

• Music and stock licensing - typically £50-£100 per project.

• Travel costs - flights, Carnets, baggage, hotels, fuel, parking, and car hire. Even local travel adds up fast.

• Maintenance, replacements, and upgrades - usually a few thousand a year.

By the time it’s all added up, the annual running cost of operating a professional video production company like ours comfortably sits between £50,000 and £70,000, before crew day rates. It’s a serious investment, but it’s what keeps us adaptable, reliable, and ready for anything - from a corporate live stream in Kent to a brand shoot abroad.

The Physical Cost of Filmmaking

Filmmaking takes a toll on your body. Long days, heavy cases, and unpredictable weather are part of the job. You’re constantly lifting, climbing, crouching, and carrying. The gimbal feels light for five minutes, then it’s a workout.

UK shoots often mean cold mornings, muddy fields, and drizzle that appears from nowhere. Abroad, it’s the opposite - shooting in direct sun, 30-degree heat, and sweating through interviews. There’s no such thing as a comfortable day on set, just good preparation and strong coffee.

Post-production isn’t easier. Sitting for hours editing, colour grading, and exporting footage leaves your back and eyes destroyed by the end of the week. You start Monday upright and finish Friday hunched like Gollum over a timeline.

Still, there’s a real sense of achievement when the gear’s packed away and the footage looks great. You forget the pain the moment the shot plays back perfectly.

The Mental Cost (and Why Filmmakers Don’t Sleep Much)

Filmmaking is equal parts creativity and control. There’s always the potential for things to go wrong - a mic might cut out, a memory card could fail, a cloud rolls in right as you roll camera, or a client changes direction mid-shoot. The skill is staying calm, thinking fast, and having the experience to adapt before it becomes a real problem.

You can plan everything down to the last cable, but every shoot carries an element of unpredictability. That’s part of the craft, and in truth, part of the fun.

Then there’s the pressure. Every project carries expectations - from clients, from your audience, and from yourself. You’re constantly balancing deadlines, revisions, and creative decisions while trying to keep the energy and focus consistent.

It can be mentally draining, but it’s also deeply rewarding. When everything aligns - the right shot, the perfect music, the colour grade that pulls the whole thing together - it’s a buzz that never really fades. It’s what keeps us doing it, even when we’re running on too much caffeine and too little sleep.

Why We Love It Anyway

Despite the costs, the chaos, and the long hours - we absolutely love it.

Filmmaking lets us tell real stories for real people. One week we’re filming a local business in Kent, the next we’re covering an event in London or flying to Chicago or Cannes. We meet brilliant people, learn about industries we’d never normally see, and turn ideas into something visual and emotional.

There’s no better feeling than seeing it all come together - when a client watches their finished video for the first time, or when your edit hits just right and you know you’ve nailed it.

The real cost of filmmaking isn’t just money - it’s time, energy, and commitment. But when it all comes together, there’s nothing quite like it.

Closing Thoughts

So yes, it’s expensive, unpredictable, and exhausting. But we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

When we first started Matchbox Motion, it was just two mates – a couple of cameras, a shared drive to make something creative, and no real idea of where it might lead. We spent evenings experimenting with lighting setups, learning the ropes on every job we could get, and figuring things out as we went.

We made plenty of mistakes early on – lighting things from the wrong side, choosing some questionable colour grades, and overcomplicating shots that really didn’t need it. But each project taught us something new. We learnt fast, adapted quickly, and got better with every shoot. That process of trial and error shaped how we work today – more confident, more refined, but still just as curious.

Looking back now, it’s mad to think how far we’ve come. From those first shoots in Kent to working with brands across the UK and overseas, we’ve grown into a company that still runs on the same passion we had on day one.

Of course, the challenges never go away. The late nights, the gear malfunctions, the edits that refuse to cooperate. But that’s all part of the process. Every project brings something new, and that constant mix of pressure and creativity is what keeps us hooked.

At Matchbox Motion, we see every video - whether it’s a corporate film, event highlight, or product shoot - as a chance to tell a story that matters. We’ve built something we’re genuinely proud of, and we still get the same buzz from seeing an idea come to life as we did when we first started out.

The cost is high, but the reward is higher.