There is a line missing from most Belgian creators' invoices, and it is the one for the half day they spent on a train.
Nobody put it there because nobody argued about it. The client asked whether the creator could shoot at their premises, the creator said yes, and the journey became free.
Why smallness makes it expensive
The distances here are short, and that is the entire mechanism.
Nobody would ask this across a bigger country
A brand in Lyon does not casually ask a creator in Lille to come and film for the afternoon. The distance makes the request visibly large, so it arrives with a budget attached, or it does not arrive at all.
Ask somebody in Liège to shoot in Antwerp and the same request sounds like nothing. It is the same country, it is a train, everybody does it. The size of the favour is hidden by the size of the map, and the creator hears a reasonable request rather than a day of work.
What a half day actually costs
Not the ticket, which is the part people think about.
It costs the morning, the afternoon around it, and a schedule built on filming two or three things at home in a day. A shoot elsewhere is not one item that moved location. It is every other item that day, cancelled.
| The request | What it looks like to them | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Can you film at our office | A short trip, same country | Most of a working day |
| Just a couple of hours on site | Two hours of your time | Two hours plus the travel either side |
| While you are here, one more | A small extra | The only part that was actually free |
| Can we do it at ours next time too | A preference | The same day, again, every time |
The third row is the one that catches people, because agreeing to it feels generous and it is the only moment in the day where saying yes costs you nothing extra. Say yes to that one and price the rest.
How to put it in the quote
Two lines, sent before anybody agrees a date.
One line for the work, unchanged. One line for on site filming, priced as a half day and named as such rather than as travel. Travel sounds like an expense to be reimbursed. A half day sounds like what it is, which is time you cannot sell to anybody else.
Nobody objects once it is written down. Friction comes from raising it after the date is agreed, which turns a normal line into a renegotiation.
Keep reading
- Going Full Time as a UGC Creator in Belgium
- Three Foreign Markets Before Lunch
- "You Said You Were Bilingual"
- The One UGC Brief Marketing Does Not Pay For
- The complete UGC guide for Belgium
Publish your creator profile →
Frequently asked questions
What if the client is genuinely nearby?
Then it is a normal shoot and there is nothing to add. The line exists for the journeys that eat a day, not for the ones that do not.
Should I charge for the ticket separately?
Yes, and keep it separate from the time. Bundling them makes the number look like an expense claim and invites a conversation about the price of a train.
Does this apply to a first job with a new client?
Especially then, because it sets the shape of everything afterwards. A first shoot where the travel was free is very hard to reprice later.