Six clauses avoid nearly every dispute, and the one about your face is the least negotiated.
What is delivered
Five lines, and they remove half the post-delivery discussions.
The number of videos, their length, their formats.
The number of hooks or variants.
The raw files, delivered or not.
The photographs taken during the shoot, if included.
And the number of revisions included, with what counts as a revision and what becomes a new job.
What the brand can do with it
Four elements, each named, never a general word.
The channels: organic post, paid advertising, website, marketplace, email, in-store screen.
The duration, in months, with a starting date.
The territory: one province, the country, North America, the world.
And the possibility of sublicensing to distributors or partners, which must be requested explicitly and paid for.
When and how you are paid
Four points, written before starting.
The total amount, the currency, and what it covers.
The deposit: half for a new client, received before the shoot.
The payment date of the balance, expressed as a date and not as a number of days.
And the mention that aligns everything else: the assignment of rights takes effect on full payment.
Exclusivity, if there is any
Three parameters, and its lack of a price is the most frequent mistake.
Its duration, its exact category, and its territory.
Exclusivity stops you working for a competitor: that is a loss of income, therefore an invoiced line, never a commercial gesture.
A simple rule: if the brand cannot name precisely the competitors concerned, the exclusivity is too broad and must be narrowed.
Who keeps what if the agreement ends
Three situations, to be provided for while everything is fine.
Cancellation before the shoot: the deposit is retained, in whole or in part depending on notice.
Cancellation after delivery: the rights are not assigned if the balance has not been paid, and the video cannot be run.
And withdrawal requested by the person on screen: what happens, within what time, and who informs the resellers.
The six lines that are enough
| Line | What it fixes |
|---|---|
| Object | Number of videos, formats, languages |
| Price | Amount, currency, due date |
| Licence | Media, duration, territory |
| Revisions | How many are included |
| Delivery | Date and form of the files |
| Termination | What happens if either side withdraws |
What is specified in a bilingual market
The language the contract is drafted in and the one that prevails in case of divergence. Two unaligned versions create a dispute nobody saw coming.
What applies to the people filmed
Every recognisable person gives written consent, including a relative. Without that document the video cannot be released, to be confirmed with a lawyer.
The format that really suffices
Two pages, and they are worth more than a twenty-page document.
The first: the deliverables, the price, the deadlines, the rights, the exclusivity.
The second: the image authorisation, separate, with its duration, its channels and its withdrawal conditions.
One last remark, specific to this market: add a line stating the language or languages of delivery. A version in the second language is a second shoot, not a translation, and forgetting that line regularly turns a simple order into a dispute about what had been agreed.
