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Posted by Steve King on 02/12/07 04:22
<rynato@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1171224156.716073.123500@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> apologies if I should have posted this to another newsgroup; this post
> is related to the business end of video production...
>
> I have a client who, through her own foolishness, has chosen to
> terminate our working relationship with a project that is 95%
> completed. She is demanding that in return for final payment, I send
> to her all files associated with the project (presumably so she can
> continue it with someone else).
>
> Now, she has no way of knowing what all the files are; I could easily
> send her whatever I want (e.g., flattened Photoshop files, Final Cut
> project files which won't link up with re-named video files, etc) and
> tell her 'that's it, where's my check?'. I have a feeling she will
> demand help with the files, which I will of course refuse; she
> terminated our working relationship and I am under no obligation to
> help her any further with them.
>
> What I would really like, however, is as a backup to be able to quote
> back at her my right to the working materials. That is, I contracted
> with her to produce a video and website. I did not contract with her
> to provide the raw footage files or other 'working materials'.
>
> I need a reference to the UCC or whatever other legal citation I can
> show her which proves that I am under no obligation to provide her
> with anything other than a video and a website. Could someone point me
> in the right direction? Googling has not really turned up what I am
> after.
>
> Thanks in advance.
Interesting that you should bring this up. I received a call from a client
this week asking us to create a new short MOS video segment from existing
footage shot for the purpose of creating two videos that were finished by my
company and are currently on the client's web page plus they widely
distributed the videos to customers in the form of MPEG files on CD-ROM.
Normally, this is the kind of call we like to get, to make another version
of something. It is usually a profitable assignment. This time, though,
there was an additional request: the client asked for the original footage
from the three-day shoot. The request was made by a product manager. I
spoke to the company's marketing department, where I found out that the
company had had several bad experiences in which the producing company had
either gone out of business or had lost original video footage, thereby
making it impossible for the client to create new programs from existing
footage. They are hoping to institute a new policy, which allows them to
archive the raw footage on all shoots commissioned by them. They are a
long-time client, so we will reach an accommodation. However, with the
strong move to web marketing, where short, often MOS, often simply edited
video clips are becoming the norm, I would expect clients possessing the raw
footage to think it quite all right that they digitize a scene in-house and
prepare it for posting on a web page themselves. From their point of view
they would be wise to create a work for hire agreement at the outset giving
them copyright control over all the work product. From my point of view, I
have to think about how I charge for projects, where I know I will lose
control of the original footage after the production of the initial program.
Under these circumstances I no longer have any assurance of further business
in creating new productions from the existing footage. Perhaps even more
distressing, I believe that I might reasonably expect a client to offer "my"
footage to another producing company for use in diverse new productions.
Any thoughts?
Steve King
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