29.03.2024

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival, Here’s What It Cost

In theory, it should have been amazing. World-class musicians. A private island in the Bahamas. Luxury Accommodation. Yet 2017’s Fyre Festival went off the rails, fast.

Two recent documentaries – Fyre and Fyre Fraud, have put the ill-fated music festival back in the spotlight.

But let’s put aside the failed event’s fallout for a second. There’s one thing that caught our attention above all else – the festival’s slick (and costly) promo video.

The cost to license this video clip in 4K? $179 USD. (Screen grab from Shutterstock Video by Maridav.)

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - 4K Licensing

Shutterstock’s Own Fyrestock Promo

Multiple agencies were brought on to promote Fyre Festival. With what looks like a truly epic budget, the official promo video features famous supermodels and hard-to-reach filming locations, not to mention that adorable swimming pig.

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - 4K Licensing

The cost to license this video clip in 4K? $179 USD. (Screen grab from Shutterstock Video by Mozo Productions.)

The video struck a chord with us at Shutterstock. We know that promo videos don’t need to cost the world. The festival organizers could have saved a lot of money by using footage from Shutterstock and royalty-free music from PremiumBeat.

To prove our point, we crafted our own light-hearted mock promo video entirely out of stock footage. Our video, Fyrestock, took only one day to make with just 18 different Shutterstock clips.

In an interview with AList, Shutterstock CMO Lou Weiss states, “We thought it would be a great way to show marketers and creative teams that you can truly create anything you want from our 12 million video clips, and tens of thousands of music tracks in our PremiumBeat library.”

Want to make a viral video using just stock footage? Watch our Fyrestock video and get inspired.

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - 4K Licensing

The cost to license this video clip in 4K? $179 USD. (Screen grab from Shutterstock Video by Aila Images.)


Behind the Scenes: Production Cost Breakdown

The total cost for making this video was less than $5,000 USD, including footage licensing for 18 clips in this collection ($2,062 USD), music licensing on PremiumBeat ($199 USD for a premium license, $65 for a standard one) plus post-production costs.

Like the clips we used? Check out the full collection.

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - Fyrestock Collection


Producing a Similar Video from Scratch

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - 4K Licensing

The cost to download this video clip in 4K? $179 USD. (Screen grab from Shutterstock Video by Nejron Photo.)

We asked industry experts to estimate what a production like Fyrestock would have cost from scratch, from helicopter shots right down to the catering.

Here’s an estimate on what it would take to scout, cast, shoot, and edit such a production over two days.

  • Private Island Location: $10,000/day – x2 days = $20,000
  • High level model talent: ($2,000 each/day) x10 = $20,000
  • Helicopter: 2 hrs = $2,000
  • Drone Operation Team: $5,000/day
  • Camera Crew: $5,000/day x2 = $10,000
  • Equipment rentals (cameras, underwater gear, etc): $1000 – $5000/day x2 days = $10,000
  • Catering: $500/day x2 days = $1,000
  • Yacht rental: $8-$10k for 8 hrs x2 = $20,000
  • Jet ski: x 3/day = $2,000
  • “Concert” with live DJ: $20,000
  • + Production Overhead = $10,800
  • + Production Fees = $43,200

Estimated Total = $161,200 USD*

*all pricing is estimated, production costs vary around the world, and by production level.

Shutterstock Made a Video Inspired by Fyre Festival - Here's What It Cost - 4K Licensing

The cost to license this video clip in 4K? $179 USD. (Screen grab from Shutterstock Video by Blue Planet Studio.)


Producing the official Fyre Festival ad

So how much did the official Fyre Festival ad cost to make? We don’t want to know. Count the celebrities and take a guess. Hint: Kendall Jenner’s single Instagram post to promote the festival is rumored to be $250,000 USD.

Click here to view the official Fyre Festival promo.


It’s Not Stock – It’s Shutterstock

The Fyrestock video is part of our new campaign It’s Not Stock, It’s Shutterstock. With it, we want to show that you can easily and afforsably create an impactful video using Shutterstock footage and PremiumBeat music.

Is your next video going to be a viral sensation? We hope so, and we’re here to help. Because It’s Not Stock, It’s Shutterstock.

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