5 Things Missing From Your Video Production Contract | Business Mondays

this is by far the number one question that I get asked the most about so let's jump into it all right first thing that I typically find that is missing in most people's contracts is not necessarily how much you're charging but how you want to charge them and what I mean by that is how are you breaking up the payments most clients don't want to pay everything upfront especially if it's their first time working with you so what I found that works well for me is the 50/25/25 rule and so what this means is I charge my clients 50% of the deposit up front or 50% which is the deposit it's non-refundable and this primarily is to cover things like pre-production and most of production then I charge them a remaining 25% once we get to the first round of edits this is when I submit them the first edit the first trap whatever that is obviously I still have a watermark on it because the full payment hasn't been done yet but then I charge them the final remaining 25% when the project is completely done they've signed off on it and at this point is when they actually get their video with no watermarks it's important in your contract to actually not only dictate what you're charging but how you're going to charge them and when they should expect to actually receive these charges so that way they're not kind of like you know out of the blue figuring out how they're gonna pay you or trying to figure out what works the best it's best to go ahead in your contract to not only dictate how much the project is going to cost them but how they're gonna pay for it and win now real quick before I jump into the remaining things that are currently missing from your contracts I've actually created an entire video document bundle which includes two different contracts a work order a talent release form a video scope project as well as a work order document now if you guys want to check out all these documents I'll have them linked down below in the description you can purchase them and literally every single one of them is customizable no matter if you're gonna be editing it in pages or word or if you just want to be able to use the PDF to see how it looks copy paste it alter it however you want this documents and all of the documents in here were all created for you guys to make the process of so you're taking your business more seriously easier all the documents are color-coded makes it super easy definitely check those out down below in the description all right now the next big thing that I typically find that's missing in most people's contracts is ownership ownership is huge and I get this question from you guys all the time and dm's and emails and whatever and that is who owns the footage well your contract should stated now a lot of clients believe that because they hired you and you shot their video that they should own all the raw footage at any moment things should be able to call you and ask for it and you'll deliver it to them on a hard drive when now all actuality you may not be thinking the same thing and this is why it's so important to have this in your contract if you don't have this in your contract is gonna be a huge issue later on when you're having to explain to them that yes even though you shot it you still own it even though they paid you for it it's a big hassle go ahead and talk to your client about this ahead of time and put it into your contract now one thing that I typically do is I own all my footage I have the rights to it if I want to reuse it I can if I want to use it for my youtube channel I can and it's on my client to let me know that they're not comfortable with that and then ultimately on me to decide if I want to make that change to my contract for that client typically if a client wants to have all of the footage I charge a little bit extra for that and if they want ownership of everything then I charge extra on that see it's really important that you state in your contract what exactly your client is paying for and who owns the raw footage as well as the finish video when the project is completed alright the third thing that I find and that's really important for your contract is your deliverables now we talked about the raw footage but let's talk a little bit more about the actual finished video first of all what will the finished video look like and what exactly is the client gonna be able to do with that finished video see just giving them a video is one thing but what how would you feel if later on maybe a year maybe two years from now you actually saw that finished video in a big campaign on television all over the internet and you had no idea that the client was gonna be using it that way you'd probably feel maybe a little cheated especially depending on you know what you charge them for the project see this is why it's so important that you put in your contract what the client can and can I do with that finish video for example in the past I actually had a client who took my finished video and actually sold it sold my finished video to someone else for them to be able to use that's not ok and especially because I had it written in the contract so it is super important especially if you're new this whole thing and you're not sure what your clients gonna do with the video when it's all said and done that you have it dictated in your contract what your client can and cannot do what's your finish video all right now this fourth one is one that trust me if you can put this in your contract it's going to save you so much headache and that is who is the shot-caller or who is the decision-maker now I don't know if you guys have ever been in this situation but I've been in situations where I've been working with clients and it's a company and there's a couple people who have input on how the video should be done and I'll submit it at it and then I'll get four different people emailing me back telling me how the actual video needs to be changed and what alterations should happen this is a nightmare because it is impossible to make all those people happy so one thing that I always recommend you do is find one person or allow them to choose one person within the company and make them the point of contact that way the four five six however many of them can all come together tell that one person what changes they want to be made and then that one person communicates with you on how to make those changes if you can figure out a way to put this into your contract or like I said before you use even my contract states that says this it's going to make your life so much easier because now you only have one person to please and ultimately it's gonna put a little bit more work clients to really determine what they want from that video come together collaborate and then submit that to you so then you're only having to deal with one person and making one person's vision come true or in the fifth and final one is something that I had never heard of before until I started writing my contract and that is something called a force major or a what-if clause pretty much what I call it and that is what happens if something happens to the footage this could be an act of God this could be harddrive corruption what happens if the worst of the worst comes to into play who's at fault do you owe them a 100% refund could you be sued if you don't have some type of clause like this in your contract and the worst does come to worst it really puts you in a situation where you feel helpless and trust me you don't want to be in this situation I personally can say that I've been in situations where I had a client project and I had it on a hard drive and that hard drive failed before I finished the project this is a nightmare situation it'll ruin your whole month it'll ruin pretty much probably that whole quarter until you figure out how to make it right and if you don't have something in your contract kind of guiding you and telling you what you can and can't do and what you should and should I do and who's responsible and ultimately what that ending is gonna kind of look like it's pretty much just gonna be a terrible situation trust me from experience if you don't have this type of a clause in your contract you're going to regret it so I strongly recommend that you figure out a way to type this up throw it in your contract and if your client has questions about it or if your client you know wants to combat you on it then have that conversation with the client up front so that way if worse came to absolutely worse everybody's on the same page as far as what will and won't happen if the worst situation actually comes true but they have a guys those are the five things that I personally think that are missing from most videographers contracts don't let your contract just kind of be this little they document that you have your client signs be detailed with your contracts because trust me it's one of those things that you hope you never have to enforce but if you ever have to enforce it you're gonna be happy that you had it and everything was lined out I mean if anything it'll make you and your client feel more confident so that way they know if anything happens both parties know what to do in any type of situation that could possibly come up but they have a guys those are the five things that I personally think that are missing foremost videographers contracts don't let your contract just kind of see this little vague document that you have your client sign be detailed with your contracts because trust me it's one of those things that you hope you never have to enforce but if you ever have to enforce it you're gonna be happy that you had it and everything was lined out I mean if anything it'll make you and your client feel more confident so that way they know if anything happens both parties know what to do in any type of situation that could possibly come up I'll have links down below to my video production document cheat sheet bundle so that way you guys can actually check that out like I said everything you need as far as a video production you know document should be in there if there's anything else you guys want me to add to that in the future definitely let me know and any other questions you guys have about documents I'd be happy to cover those in a future of business Monday this video specifically came from questions that you guys were asking so be sure to leave comments down below on things you want me to cover in future videos but thanks for much checking out this video and I'll catch you guys in the next one peace

Channel: Brandon Washington

Views: 9,122

Keywords: Filmmaking Tips, Photography tips, video production contract, video production, photography contract, cinematography, filmmaking, tutorial, business monday, production company, video production contract template, video production contract sample, video production for beginners, video production company, video production business, Get clients, make money

Id: FmUp0EpyceY

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 30 2019