Cost of Filming a Christmas Nativity or School Play

When schools plan their Christmas shows or end-of-year performances, capturing the event in a professional, high-quality video is a fantastic way to preserve the magic. At 20 Media, we specialize in filming school performances, offering transparent, flat-rate pricing that makes it easy for schools to budget while reaping the benefits of a professional production.

For a minimal setup, we charge £450 for a local production. This includes:

• Filming the performance with broadcast-grade equipment
• Editing the final video
• Costs associated with hosting and distributing the digital copy to parents

We believe in keeping things simple and providing excellent value, so our base price covers everything you need to ensure your school performance is beautifully captured and easy to share.

While the base price of £450 is ideal for shorter, local shows, there are a few factors that can influence the overall cost of filming:

1. Length of the Show: Longer performances naturally take more time to film and edit. Additionally, longer videos require more storage space for hosting, which can impact the final cost.
2. Travel Distance: If your school is located outside our immediate area, travel costs may increase due to time, fuel, and potential congestion charges. Parking fees and tolls may also apply.
3. Number of Operators: For larger or more complex productions, you might need an additional camera operator. While the first operator is charged at £400, adding a second operator costs just £200 more, since the editing time and hosting space remain largely the same.
4. Special Equipment: We typically bring all the necessary equipment, including broadcast-grade cameras, tripods, microphones, and sound capture devices. However, if you require specialised equipment like a sound desk, sound operator, or a camera crane, this may add to the cost.

We offer several ways to help reduce costs:

• Multiple Shows in One Day: If your school has multiple performances on the same day, we offer significant discounts. The travel and setup time is reduced, which means you’ll save on overall costs.
• Early Booking: Book early, and we’ll lock in your rate, even if our prices increase later. This ensures that you benefit from today’s rates no matter when the performance takes place.
• Loyalty Discounts: For our repeat customers, we honor past pricing, only increasing by minimal amounts to cover rising costs. This is our way of showing appreciation for schools that continue to choose us.

One of the biggest advantages of choosing 20 Media for your school’s performance is that we offer a fixed-cost production model. This means:

• You decide how to distribute the video: Once we provide you with the final edited video, your school has complete control over how it’s shared. You can stream the performance, allow downloads, or do both. There’s no minimum or maximum number of copies, so you have complete flexibility.
• Full privacy and control: Your school decides who receives access to the performance and when. This ensures that parents and family members are the only ones who see the show, offering peace of mind when it comes to privacy.
• Environmentally friendly: Our fully digital delivery means there’s no need for physical copies, reducing the environmental impact. However, parents are still free to download the video and create their own DVDs or USB copies if they want a physical keepsake.
• Access from anywhere: Because the video is hosted online, parents can watch from anywhere in the world, as long as they have an internet connection. This is perfect for families who may be unable to attend the live performance but still want to share in the magic.

We go above and beyond for our clients. Here’s what’s included with every package:

• Behind-the-scenes footage and interviews: If requested, we can capture interviews or behind-the-scenes moments while waiting to film the show—free of charge.
• Express Turnaround: We’re often asked for fast turnarounds, and we’re happy to accommodate 24-hour or same-day edits when feasible, at no extra cost.

Here is a list of cities where we don't add a travel charge 

•  Crawley (West Sussex)
•  Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent)
•  Redhill (Surrey)
•  Reigate (Surrey)
•  Sevenoaks (Kent)
•  Tonbridge (Kent)
•  East Grinstead (West Sussex)
•  Orpington (Greater London)
•  Bromley (Greater London)
•  Haywards Heath (West Sussex)
•  Horsham (West Sussex)
•  Maidstone (Kent)
•  Croydon (Greater London)
•  Guildford (Surrey)
•  Westerham (Kent)

Here is a list of towns where we only charge a £80 - £100 surcharge for travel time 

•  London (Central)
•  Brighton (East Sussex)
•  Chatham (Kent)
•  Reading (Berkshire)
•  Southend-on-Sea (Essex)
•  Slough (Berkshire)
•  Guildford (Surrey)
•  Hastings (East Sussex)
•  Ashford (Kent)
•  Woking (Surrey)
•  Worthing (West Sussex)
•  Basingstoke (Hampshire)
•  Rochester (Kent)
•  Dartford (Kent)
•  Eastbourne (East Sussex)