|
|
Posted by Steve House on 07/16/06 12:30
It's not an issue of owning the masters so you can use them elsewhere
- if it's footage of a company's product or event you probably
couldn't use them for another purpose even with owning the copyright
on the footage - they still own the rights to their trademarks, brand
names, use of their personal likenesses. etc. Would you charge more
for a commerical running nationally than one running on your local
cable access channel? Most likely you would - retaining ownership of
the copyright and specifing exact license conditions in your contract
insures you'll get paid appropriately for the usage of your work - you
won't do a spot for $500 to run on that local cable access channel and
suddenly see the footage running on the networks in a spot where you
normally would have been paid 15 grand or see your client resell it as
stock footage and have it suddenly turn up in the opening sequences in
a show at your local IMAX theatre without any compensation or credit
to you. Owning the copyright means that when your client for the
local ad wants to take it national he has to come back to you and you
get the chance to say "Had we shot that as a national spot from the
beginning it would have cost you $15000 so that's what it'll cost you
for the rights to use it that way now."
On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 10:32:05 -0700, William Davis <davisbill@mac.com>
wrote:
>
>
>My view is 180 degrees different.
>
>When a client hires me to make a video for them. I consider that
>EVERYTHING I do regarding their project belongs to them.
>
>If I get a call and they want the masters for someone else to cut - I
>write up a page of notes on what I did, and why, and send it to the new
>team with my compliments.
>
>I don't charge them for the dubs or the time it takes me to make them
>or to write the notes, or even the delivery charges.
>
>Why?
>
>Because my view is that the only thing being created of actual lasting
>value in the typical ³work for hire² deal is the EXPERIENCE you get.
>
>And I get to KEEP that each and every time I work.
>
>So I don't give a rats patootie who ³owns² the masters. They're
>yesterday's news. I'm focused on how to get the client to come back
>tomorrow or to recommend me to someone else. So I can get MORE
>experience. (once again, the ONLY thing of real lasting value that
>results from any ³work for hire² experience.)
>
>Someone asks ³what was it like working with Bill?² even the slight
>possibility that the answer might be ³it was OK, but we had problems
>when we wanted to use the footage of OUR project for OUR website² is
>enough to send cold chills up my spine.
>
>The ONLY acceptable answer I want ANYONE giving when asked that is ³It
>was GREAT. No problem whatsoever. You'll absolutely LOVE working with
>him.²
>
>For what it's worth.
[Back to original message]
|