Bride wants all the footage.

roxics

roxics

Veteran
Hopefully some of you wedding guys can help me with this. I recently shot a bridal shower, just over two hours of footage and cut it down into a two minute piece for online viewing. It covers all the highlights. The bride-to-be saw it and really likes it but would also like to get the rest of the footage.

My goal was never to cut together a two hour long bridal shower video using every shot I took. Let's face it, not all of your raw footage is good stuff. Not to mention a two hour bridal shower video is long and boring and everyone these days is impatient. Which is why my new company is trying to focus on short "sharable" videos people will actually take the time to watch on facebook or youtube.

The last thing I want is the bride recutting a subpar edit from all my raw footage and putting it out there with my companies name on it.

So how do I tell the bride "no you can't have it, pretend it never existed. What you got is the cream of the crop cut together in a fun little video people will actually watch." I mean can I even say that? Is it right for me to hold back the rest of the footage?

Luckily this client was my niece, and this was a shot-for-a-reel-builder project for our new startup. So it's not like I was paid for it. However I suspect this is something that may pop up on future paid-for productions where it will be a little harder to say no.

I mean how much involvement does the bride and groom or mother/mother-in-law have in the final video typically? Are you going back doing recuts or handing off raw footage ever? Or are you just presenting them with a final video they should be happy with?

This is all new to me, I've been shooting corporate video for years. We do recuts if the client isn't happy, but we only include so many before they have to pay for a change control. Even then I never handled the business side of it, I was always just the guy doing the work. Sometimes our clients have wanted the raw footage but we've charged them more for it, time+transfer+hardware if needed.

I'm just not sure how to handle this with brides who expect to see everything that was shot. I mean would it be a good practice just to hand them a short sharable video and then dump all the raw footage on a couple DVD's for them?

EDIT: here is the video I cut for her.
http://vimeo.com/22236548?ab
 
The contract will dictate the terms, including distribution (or not) of the raw footage.

I never give raw footage or all the stills.
 
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Your niece? How much do you like your family? :)

I'd probably give it to her a DVD with the best 60 minutes, cutting out the little bits that she won't really want anyway (even if she thinks she will). But when you give it to her, ask her if she'll sign a release letting you use clips in your demo reel/portfolio/advertising. That's something you'll want in a contract going forward. You'll also want to be clear with future clients that you retain ownership of the copyright, and explicitly state that the work is not a work for hire. Clearly spell out all the terms, including duplication rights and costs and distribution.

Lots of sample contracts you can look at online, but paying a lawyer who writes a lot of contracts to at least review what you put together, is usually money well spent.

Of course, regardless of what any contract says, it always comes down to how badly do you want/need to keep a client happy? What's the referral potential? What's the possible damage if they aren't happy..... I know, I'm stating the obvious now, so I'll leave it at that.
 
I have had this come up a few times for weddings and here is my stance. I cut together a trailer usually about 5-6 minutes in length. I also give the couple the entire ceremony as well as the toasts. They do not get to really have an input on the edit, the only time I will do a recut is if there is something offensive (I have had stuff come up in a Sikh Indian wedding that should not have been filmed or something I guess). Besides that, they are hiring you based on your previous work, and I like to think I always deliver something as good or better than previous work so it is at or beyond their expectations in theory.

As far as raw footage, I am very much against it because its a pain and like you said a lot of shots are not good. However, some couples really want it. In those cases I charge them for it. Anywhere from about $400 upwards extra, but it is stated under that on my contract that it is for viewing purposes only and not to be recut. In reality I would probably never know if they hired someone else at some point to do a different cut, so I am contemplating watermarking all the raw footage, but then that goes back to this whole thing being a pain, so in short I try to push my couples away from raw footage.
 
Some people want it all but never look at it once they see how many hours it is. I would also try to avoid giving them all material. Often it's just bits and pieces that don't make much sense.

But if they really need it all I would charge them for all of the extra work plus rights to use it. And I would delete bad footage out of what they get. Sometimes this comes up when the job is done so lesson learned is to make it clear what they do get before the job.
 
Being that it's family, I would give it to her. In the end, Family is what matters. I can see someone that hired you out of the blue. Not to mention, if you spend sometime editing a longer version, you can call it a wedding gift:)
 
The most important word you will learn as an artist and business owner is NO. Tell her that is not something you do. Family or not. I can not tell you how many times a family member has approached me about shooting a wedding/soccer game/cheer leading championship and I tell them NO. Its not part of my buisness model. Just like giving away master footage is not part of yours. No is magical. Say it with me...NO
 
jason.adams said:
The most important word you will learn as an artist and business owner is NO. Tell her that is not something you do. Family or not. I can not tell you how many times a family member has approached me about shooting a wedding/soccer game/cheer leading championship and I tell them NO. Its not part of my buisness model. Just like giving away master footage is not part of yours. No is magical. Say it with me...NO
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I agree for the most part, Although when it comes to family, you sometimes have to bend the rules. Although I guess it depends how close you sre with this family member.
 
Starshine Video said:
What does the contract say? You do have a contract right?
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Nope I don't have a contract yet. I need to get one made up. I wanted to shoot this one first just to see what issues may pop up that need to be written into a contract. Like I said this is new for me, corporate video has been my bread and butter I figured there would be some changes doing some wedding work.
 
Since it's your family but you don't want to give her the footage I would tell her that It'll take some time to gather all footage and just let it fade away. We did the same with a client that wanted the original files but didn't want to pay. "Sure you'll get it but when is another story..."
 
Honestly I'm not too worried about my niece getting all the footage. I'm just trying to find a way to curb this in the future with paying clients. For the wedding itself I had planned to cut together a 5 minutes highlight video and give the whole ceremony on DVD or blu-ray. That would be our standard package for the wedding, but this was just a bridal shower. There is honestly not a whole lot going on, just people talking, playing a couple games and opening gifts. Otherwsie the rest is pretty boring and we didn't have our audio setup at the time like we do now. So nobody was properly mic'd like they will be at the wedding. This kind of came up on us quick before we had all our ducks in a row. But it was a good experience to show me exactly what a bridal shower entails.
 
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