The days of shooting a successful Web series from out of your apartment with a low-quality camera, like EQAL’s Lonelygirl15, are long gone. Nowadays you need a well-written script, a polished musical score, big names (in the YouTube space, at least), special effects and… money.
Viral video master Freddie Wong, in an interesting move for the YouTube community, has broken down exactly how much he spent creating his hit Web series Video Game High School in a post on RocketJump’s official blog, RocketJump being VGHS’s production company. Beginning in May after a successful Kickstarter campaign, the series to date has gathered more than 26 million views on its nine episodes. The first eight segments averaged 12 minutes in length, the finale clocked in just under 22 minutes long.
So how much did VGHS cost to make?
$636,010.71
“While this amount initially seems like a lot of money, the truth is, it’s not,” writes Wong. “VGHS was a six-month project with a cast and crew of over 160 people.” Wong goes on to explain that he is disclosing this information, in what seems to be an industry first, because “we cannot expect our fans to support us financially if they have no idea how much things actually cost.”
Well said, Wong. Without further ado, here is thebreakdown of VGHS’ costs via an infographic by creative studio The Danger Brain:
