Who owns the video footage and can we see it?
Can you get your hands on the raw footage?
Many production companies work under the assumption that all the work they’ve been commissioned to create belongs to them, the production company. Not the client or partner who’s hired them to capture and / or create that work.
And strictly speaking, this is legally correct
Unless any other contract states otherwise, copyright on the footage, final film and all assets and files used for it’s creation belong to the commissioned production company. It’s their intellectual property. And as a consequence, you may find a buyout charge associated with a production company releasing any of that footage to their clients.
This doesn't quite sit comfortably in our creatively responsible hearts
The way we see it, if you’re hiring us to capture and create a film for you then you absolutely should have access to that footage. After all, in this whizzy digital age we’re all operating in, isn’t it in your best interests to get a copy of the footage without a hoo ha?
For that reason, we always do what we can to release raw footage to our clients and partners when we’re asked to do so
Sometimes it can be somewhat time consuming - where there’s a sizeable amount of data to deal with for example. And in these cases, there’s often a small admin fee associated with the transfer. However, we'll always do what we can to help make this process as easy as possible for our clients and partners.
So, to answer the first question; legally we own the footage. But ethically it’s right for you to have access to it too, and we’re in the business of operating ethically.
"So can I see all the raw footage then?"
Yes you can. But before we copy it all over to a hard drive and post it to you willy nilly there are a few important things to explain first.
To start with, on even the most diligently scheduled and planned shoot there’s always an amount of ‘mooching’ that every camera professional carries out. Let's say they’re establishing and maintaining focus, tilting or panning to land on the right spot at the perfect moment. Or they’re trying that same shot from a number of angles to give the editor several options to create a seamless sequence. And often that requires two or three takes of each shot to get it ‘just right’.
We’ve carefully selected all the best bits for your edit
When we share our finished edit with you, we’ve spent hours – sometimes days – searching through all that captured content. We’re sifting through all the shots that are too dark, too slow, too wonky, too blah etc to source and select those golden moments. And then there’s the time we take to carefully stitch those wow moments together seamlessly into your finished film.
To put it bluntly, there’s heaps of raw footage
Your average 2-minute film could have anywhere between 100-200GB data (depending on recording formats). We’re talking hundreds of clips. Which – if you’ve got the time and commitment to sift through it all - will need copying on to a hard drive first. But before we do that, it’s important to make sure your computer system can handle both the format and volume of data. We don’t want to make an enemy of your IT department!
So before we start transferring any rushes onto an external hard drive, we always double check that you’re happy and adequately equipped to invest your time searching through it all. After all, it wouldn't be very responsible of us to just heap hours of video content into your lap without a full explanation now, would it?
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