How to read a video production quote in Dubai: the lines that decide what you actually pay
You asked three companies for the same film and got three numbers that will not line up. Here is how to read a video production quote line by line, so the comparison is real before you award the job.
Three quotes, three numbers, and no way to compare them
You asked three companies for the same film. One came back at a number, one came back at double it, and one came back well under the lowest. Nothing in the three documents lines up closely enough to tell you why. This is the normal state of affairs in Dubai, and it is not usually dishonesty. A video production quote is a description of a plan, and three companies have quietly planned three different projects. One priced a single shoot day with a two-person crew. One priced two days, a lighting package and a director. One priced the first day and assumed you would pay for the second later. The cheapest quote on your desk is often the one with the most missing from it, and the gap tends to arrive as a variation in week three. What follows is how to read the documents against each other so the comparison is real. It applies whether you are commissioning a corporate video or a brand film.
Start with the deliverables, not the total
Before you look at a single price, write down what each quote actually delivers. Not a video. The number of finished films, the duration of each, the aspect ratios, whether subtitles are included, whether there is an Arabic version, and how many social cut-downs come with the master. A quote for one two-minute film at 16:9 and a quote for one two-minute film plus six vertical cut-downs with burned-in subtitles are not comparable documents, and the second one is doing considerably more work. Cut-downs are the line most often left out and most often assumed. If you intend to run the film on Instagram and LinkedIn as well as the website, say so in the brief and make every company price it, because a social cut planned before the shoot costs a fraction of one requested after the edit is locked. Put the deliverables side by side on one page first. Quite often the price gap explains itself before you have read anything else.
A crew listed by role, or just a team
A quote that says our team will handle production is telling you nothing you can check. A quote that lists a director, a camera operator, a focus puller, a gaffer, a sound recordist and a production assistant is telling you exactly what will be on set, and lets you ask whether each role is needed. Both documents can be honest. Only one can be compared. Look for the gaps that cost money on the day. A shoot with interviews and no sound recordist means the camera operator is also running audio, which works until you are in a room with air conditioning nobody can switch off. A shoot in a glass-walled office with no gaffer means you are lit by whatever the building gives you that morning. J-Cut assembles specialists per brief rather than sending the same fixed crew to every job, so the crew list changes with the work. Ask any company why each role is on the list, and why an obvious one is not. The answer shows how carefully the day has been thought through.
The shoot day: hours, locations and who handles the permits
A shoot day is not simply a day. Ask how many hours the quoted day covers, when overtime starts, and what overtime costs per hour. Ten hours on site is a common assumption, and it disappears quickly once you add a second location, a client walkthrough and a lunch break. Then check locations. Moving a unit from a Dubai office to a site in Sharjah or Abu Dhabi is travel time, and travel time is shoot time you are paying for. Ask whether the quote covers one location or several, and whether the move sits inside the quoted hours. Permits are the other line to find. Filming in most public and semi-public locations in Dubai needs a permit, lead times vary by location and authority, and aerial work needs clearance before anyone takes off. Our Dubai filming permit guide sets out the process, and drone work carries approvals of its own. A quote that is silent on permits has either absorbed them or left them with you. Find out which.
Post production is where quotes quietly diverge
Two companies can price an identical shoot and still sit a long way apart in post. The lines to compare are the number of revision rounds included, what counts as a revision, whether a colour grade is charged separately, whether music is licensed or library, whether voice-over and translation are included, and how long delivery takes. Revisions are the usual source of friction. Two rounds of notes on one cut is a normal inclusion. Restructuring the film after the second round is a new edit, and a quote that does not say so will say so later, on an invoice. Turnaround belongs in the comparison too, because a cheaper edit that lands three weeks after the shoot can miss the campaign it was made for. J-Cut delivers most post production in three to five business days. Ask each company for its own number in writing, ask what happens to that number if you are late returning notes, and ask who holds the project files afterwards.
Rights, VAT and what triggers the final payment
Three commercial lines decide what a quote really costs. First, usage rights. A film licensed for twelve months of UAE social use is a different product from one you hold outright for all media across the GCC, and if the quote does not state term, territory and media, you do not yet know what you are buying. Talent is part of this. An actor booked for one year of digital use needs paying again in year two. Second, VAT. UAE VAT is five per cent, and a quote from a VAT-registered company should state plainly whether the total is inclusive or exclusive. Two quotes that look a hair apart can sit five per cent apart once you check. Third, payment terms. Ask what the split is, what triggers the final payment, and whether that payment is tied to delivery of the master or to your approval of it. These are also the lines where a cheap quote is most often recovered later, so read them before the creative pages.
Ten minutes, three quotes, one page
Put the three quotes beside each other and fill in one row per question. Deliverables: how many films, what length, what ratios, how many cut-downs, which languages. Crew: who is on set, by role. Shoot: how many hours, how many locations, who obtains the permits, what overtime costs. Post: how many revision rounds, grade included or not, music licensed or not, delivery in how many days. Commercial: rights term and territory, VAT inclusive or exclusive, payment split and what releases the final payment. Then add one more row. What has each company told you that you did not already know about your own project. The quote that flagged a permit you had not considered, or asked who signs off the script, is usually the one that has run the job before. If you want that comparison run against a brief you already have, send it to us through the contact page and you will get a quote in the same shape, or see how similar jobs were scoped in our case studies.
