Production
From brief to delivery: the timeline and cost lines of a commercial shoot
22 January 2026 · Venüs Medya · 6 min read
The stages of a commercial, the approvals needed at each, and the cost lines that should be itemised separately in the proposal.
Producing a commercial is not a single shoot day; the shoot is usually the shortest part of the process. What determines the schedule and the cost is the preparation before the shoot and the editing and approval stages after it.
The process starts with the brief, which fixes the film's objective, channel, length and number of versions. Script and treatment follow, then, after approval, the storyboard and shooting plan. Approvals taken at these stages remove uncertainty on the shoot day; any script change after the shoot means shooting again.
On the cost side, crew and equipment, location and set, cast and voice-over, music and stock licences, editing and colour grading, and channel versions should be shown as separate lines. The proposal should state clearly that music and talent fees vary with the usage period and channel, and that expired licences need renewal.
A single-day shoot typically takes three to six weeks depending on approval speed. Sharing the schedule at the very start and tying every approval point to it makes both the timing and the cost predictable. For films airing on television, the channel's technical specification is checked before delivery.
Author: Venüs Medya
Production