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McDade MotionWorks

Visual

Commercial video production services for TV, CTV, and social.

Two ways in. Standard spots are a fixed price and ship in 48 to 72 hours — pick one, pay, and we start. Campaigns, brand films, and broadcast work get scoped on a call and quoted the same day, or the next at the outside.

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Years in production

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To first cut

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Official releases, reviewed by Grammy-winning press

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Traditional-production equivalent delivered

Selected work

Spots, product ads, and branded content

Any studio can show you one good spot. The harder question is whether the second one looks like the first. These nine don’t — a felt-puppet bar scene and a broadcast product ad have no business sharing a house style, and neither does your brand.

Want the whole build? Livin’ the Dream is broken down scene by scene — fourteen of them, not one shot on location, reviewed by a Grammy-winning journalist.

The math

What $397 actually buys in commercial video production

It is a fair question. Here is the honest answer, with the market rates next to it.

01

Speed is the product

A videographer’s day rate runs $600 to $1,200 and buys a shoot day, not a finished film — editing bills separately at $60 to $150 an hour. Fast-turnaround video production here means the spot arrives done, in 48 to 72 hours. Test a hook Tuesday, run it Friday.

02

A concept, not a template

Every spot gets written before it gets built. Self-serve tools hand the same three templates to everyone in your category, and it shows in the feed. This is social video and UGC-style advertising with a director’s decision behind each frame.

03

The whole deliverable

4K master, every ratio, captions, and a revision round — all inside the $397. No usage-rights bill later, no hourly edit charges, no per-cutdown fee. Affordable commercial video production only counts if the quote is the price.

A UGC deliverable averages about $198 before usage rights add 30–50%. A production company quotes $1,500 to $5,000 and books weeks out. The point isn’t that $397 is cheap — it’s how much finished craft arrives per dollar, and how fast.

Lane one

Fixed-price social video and UGC-style spots

Two formats, both standardized end to end. Buy either one outright — there is nothing to negotiate.

Spark Cut

Stop the scroll

One scene, maximum punch. The format that earns the click before the skip.

$397flat

6–10 seconds · 48–72 hour delivery

  • One scene, built to your brief
  • Voice and captions included
  • Two platform ratios (Reels, Shorts, Story)
  • One revision round
  • 4K master delivered
Buy Spark Cut — $397

Best for e-commerce, local business, and creators testing a new offer.

Social Spot · Most popular

Land the message

Three-scene story arc — hook, proof, call to action. Long enough to convert, short enough to hold.

$697flat

15 seconds · 48–72 hour delivery

  • Script and storyboard included
  • Three scenes, voice and captions
  • Platform cuts in the ratios you need
  • Sound-off optimized pacing
  • One revision round · 4K master
Buy Social Spot — $697

Best for SMBs running Meta or YouTube ads, and product promos.

Always On · Monthly

Two spots a month, standing

The same Spark Cut on repeat, without buying it every time. For brands that need the feed fed, not one good ad.

$597/month

Two spots monthly · $794 bought separately

  • 2 × Spark Cut every month
  • Priority scheduling over one-off orders
  • Your rate locked while you stay subscribed
  • Brand assets on file — no re-briefing
  • One unused spot rolls forward, two banked max
Start Always On — $597/mo

Cancel anytime. Best for brands running paid social continuously.

Always On Pro · Monthly

Two Social Spots, plus a direct line

The full 15-second format twice a month, and me on the other end of a message instead of a contact form.

$1,197/month

Two Social Spots monthly · $1,394 bought separately

  • 2 × Social Spot every month (15s, three scenes)
  • Direct support line — same-day answers
  • Free 15-minute strategy call each month
  • First in the queue, ahead of all other work
  • Rate locked · one spot rolls forward
Start Always On Pro — $1,197/mo

Three seats only. Cancel anytime.

  • Fixed price. No hourly billing.
  • Revision round included.
  • 4K master plus platform cuts.
  • Written scope before work starts.
  • You own the finished spot.

Virtual influencers

Your own creator. Built once, posts forever.

A recurring social-native presenter made for your brand and nobody else — same face, same wardrobe, same energy in every post. Shot vertical, framed handheld, and built to look native to the feed rather than produced for it.

  • An original character, exclusive to your brand
  • Identical across every post, campaign, and refresh
  • Native 9:16 for Reels, Shorts, and TikTok
  • No creator fees, no usage-rights renewals, no scheduling
  • Unlimited content from a single build

A UGC creator averages roughly $198 per deliverable, and usage rights add 30–50% on top of that. This pays for itself around the fifth post — and it never renegotiates, ages out, or takes a competing brand deal.

$750one-time build
Build the System — $750

Lane one

Brand presenters and persona models

A face that stays the same across every campaign and refresh. Built once, reused indefinitely — which is why these cost more than a single spot and are worth more.

Brand Character Kit

A face that repeats

Anyone can generate a character once. The work is making the same one show up in shot forty. This is that kit.

$295one-time

Delivered in 3–5 days · credits toward a Persona Model

  • Locked character across three angles
  • Three lighting states, three wardrobe states
  • Reference pack so every future render matches
  • No third-party release needed
Build a Character Kit — $295

The full $295 credits toward a Persona Model if you upgrade later.

Virtual Influencer System

A character plus the machine

The character kit, plus everything that turns one face into a content calendar. A finished spot comes in the box, so you see it working before you commit further.

$750one-time

Delivered in 3–5 days · includes one finished Spark Cut

  • Everything in the Character Kit
  • Twelve scenario setups — unboxing, testimonial, POV, tutorial
  • Vertical-first framing and hook framework
  • One finished Spark Cut included — a $397 deliverable
  • Built for high-volume variant testing

Signature Persona Model™

Your talent, trained

A private Flux LoRA adapter trained on a real person — your founder, spokesperson, or talent.

$997one-time

$350/yr license renewal after year one

  • Private low-rank adapter, trained on your talent
  • Style guide: lighting, wardrobe, framing
  • Held privately to your account, never shared
  • Licensed by channel, geography, and term
  • Signed likeness release required

About the likeness release

Any persona model trained on a real person requires a signed release before a single frame is produced. It names the person, defines where and how long the likeness may run, and records their permission for McDade MotionWorks to train on and reproduce it. We send it the moment checkout completes.

Production begins when the signed release comes back — not before. If the release isn't returned, the purchase is refunded in full. Human review sits at every milestone, and usage rights are settled in writing before production starts.

Renewing an existing model? Renew a license — $350/yr →

Extras

Add-ons

Same checkout, fixed prices. Add them to any spot.

Extra ratio

$75

Add →

Extra revision

$125

Add →

Extra cutdown

$195

Add →

Source files

$250

Add →

Lane two

TV spot production and brand films

Anything with a variable in it — scene count, locations, clearance, recurring characters, broadcast delivery — gets scoped properly and quoted at a fixed fee.

Own the Break

30-second spot

Full message arc. The format that runs on TV, CTV, YouTube, and social — and converts on all four.

Quoted

Scoped on a 15-minute call

  • Broadcast delivery specs
  • Music and voice clearance
  • Cutdown set built to your media plan
  • Captions and every platform ratio

Brand Film

Tell the full story

Long-form narrative for launches, founders, and campaigns that need more than a hook.

Quoted

Typically from $4,500

  • Multi-scene narrative development
  • Consistent characters and locations
  • Original score and full mix available
  • Social cutdowns included in scope

Post, VFX & CGI

Work on footage you own

Editorial, set extension, visual effects, and CGI on material you've already shot — for commercials and for film.

Quoted

Priced per scene or per sequence

  • Editorial, grade, mix, and delivery
  • Set extension and scene alteration
  • VFX, CGI, and compositing
  • Collaboration with your existing team

Need it in 48 hours?

We hold a limited number of priority slots for launch-window deadlines. Rush is a flat 35% premium on the project fee, and it's quoted rather than sold online because it depends on an open slot. Assets must arrive at kickoff, the brief is approved same-day, revisions come back within two hours, and scope is locked at kickoff. If we don't have capacity we'll tell you immediately.

Footage you already own

VFX and CGI for commercials and film

You shot it. It isn't finished. Send us what you have and we take it the rest of the way — or further than the camera got.

01

Editorial and finish

Cut, restructure, grade, mix, and deliver to spec. Footage that has been sitting on a drive since the shoot becomes something you can actually run. We work from your rushes or your locked picture, in whatever format it came off the card.

02

Set extension and scene alteration

Push a frame past where the camera stopped. Change the sky, clear the background, put something in the shot that was never on set, or take out the thing nobody noticed until the edit. Generative technology now does in an afternoon what a matte department used to take weeks to paint — which means the reshoot you were budgeting for usually isn't one.

03

VFX, CGI, and compositing

Tracked elements, cleanup, rotoscoping, digital environments, and full CG builds. Independent features, shorts, and festival work get the same pipeline as broadcast spots. Send three shots or a whole sequence — both are priced the same way, per shot, quoted before anything starts.

Send us the footage →

Tell us the shot count and what needs to happen. You get a fixed per-shot quote back — same business day where we can, never longer than the next. No hourly artist rates, no open-ended post budget.

Where we sit

What a social ad actually costs in 2026

Published market rates from third-party research — not our pricing. Ours is in the right-hand column.

Comparison of social video ad production options and 2026 market rates
Where you buy it2026 market rateWhat you give up
Self-serve ad platforms$1–$5 per adTemplate output. No strategy, no brand judgment, and it looks like every other ad built from the same template.
UGC creator~$198 avg per deliverableNative look, but you're renting someone else's face and aesthetic. Usage rights bill on top.
Freelance videographer$600–$1,200 per shoot dayOne shoot day yields one or two finished clips. Editing billed separately at $60–$150/hr.
Production company$1,500–$5,000 per social pieceReal craft, real timeline. Crew, location, and talent costs are in that number — and so are weeks of scheduling.
McDade MotionWorksFrom $397, flatNothing billed hourly. 4K master, platform cuts, captions, and a revision round in every package, back in 48–72 hours.

Market figures compiled from published 2026 industry benchmarks. Rush conventionally adds 25–50% across the industry; ours is a flat 35%.

Investment

What projects typically run

Most engagements land between $397 and $7,000. A single social cut sits at the low end; a multi-scene narrative with recurring characters, VFX work, and broadcast deliverables sits at the high end.

01

Runtime and shot count

A 15-second cut versus a full narrative is a different build, not a different export.

02

Scene and location complexity

Each new environment is its own build. Three scenes cost more than one for a reason.

03

Character consistency

Recurring faces need dedicated model work before a single shot gets produced.

04

Production volume

Premium shots take multiple passes to reach final. Volume moves the number.

05

Revisions and deliverables

Rounds included, plus every cut, ratio, and caption format you actually need.

06

Turnaround

Standard scheduling, or a priority slot at a flat 35% premium.

Every quote is fixed-fee and approved in writing before work begins. Add-ons are optional and quoted separately.

Enterprise

Retainers for teams shipping continuously

Retainers begin at $7,500/month and scale with reserved production capacity — the render allocation, studio hours, and priority scheduling held open for you each month.

Enterprise Retainer

Reserved capacity

$7,500/month and up

Scaled to your reserved production capacity

  • Monthly creative sprint — roadmap plus assets
  • Reserved capacity and priority turnarounds
  • Persona Model included, or a loyalty credit
  • Quarterly brand system refresh
  • White-label available for agency partners

Agencies

White-label production

You own the client and the strategy. We deliver under your banner, quietly, with NDAs honored.

  • Your brand on every deliverable
  • Margins that make the math work
  • Turnarounds that win the retainer
  • Custom scopes for multi-brand portfolios

Process

What happens after you pay

The fixed-price lane, start to finish. No project managers, no status meetings.

01

Checkout

Pick the format and pay. You land on an intake form immediately — no waiting on an invoice.

02

Brief and assets

Tell us the offer, the audience, and the look. Send logos, product shots, and any brand rules.

03

First cut, 48–72 hours

You get a watermarked cut to review. One revision round is already in the price.

04

Revision

Notes come back on the timeline. We turn them fast — usually the same day.

05

Delivery

4K master, every platform ratio, burned-in and sidecar captions, ready to upload.

06

Run it

The spot is yours. Need it placed too? Media and distribution is down the hall.

Questions

Before you buy

How fast is delivery?

Fixed-price spots deliver in 48 to 72 hours from an approved brief and received assets. Quoted work is scheduled on the strategy call.

What do I actually receive?

A 4K master, platform cuts in the ratios you need, burned-in and sidecar captions, and one revision round. Every package, no exceptions.

Why is the 30-second spot quoted instead of fixed price?

Thirty-second spots carry broadcast delivery specs, music and voice clearance, and a set of cutdowns that varies by campaign. Those inputs move the number enough that a fixed price would be dishonest.

What is a Signature Persona Model?

A private low-rank adaptation — a LoRA — trained on your talent using the Flux architecture. It learns a face, wardrobe, and lighting signature, then holds them consistent across every campaign and refresh. The adapter stays private to your account and is never shared or reused.

Do you require a likeness release?

Yes. Any persona model trained on a real person requires a signed likeness release scoped by channel, geography, and term before production begins. We send it immediately after checkout, and production starts when it comes back.

What does rush cost?

A flat 35% premium on the project fee. It's quoted rather than sold online because it depends on an open priority slot, which we confirm on a call.

Who owns the finished work?

You do. Usage rights are defined in writing before production begins, and the finished master is yours to run wherever the scope allows.

Tell us what needs to exist.

Buy a fixed-price spot outright, or send a brief and get a fixed quote back — usually same day, never longer than the next. No deck, no discovery phase.