General Shot a commercial, Client changed it.....WT%$#@

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
I shot a commercial for a national client a little while back with my cheapo 60D. All the releases were signed, checks were issued and cashed. Deal done as far as I'm concerned.

A friend in Michigan says he's seen it on the tube. (I smiled a
little) I finally see it in my area and the 5-6 seconds of voice over is changed?????

Is this normal for national clients to do? (do they change stuff afterwards?) Should I even care since the checks been cashed?
My last commercial played exactly as I edited it, no changes.
(this is only my second national add)

Vast majority of my stuff is local so I'm dealing with clients face to face most of the time.

I just don't know if I should be pissed or just not give a crap since the check got cashed.
Why wouldn't they just tell me to change it? (content of the voiceover didn't change, just the voice.?)
 
Sometimes the guy you're working for isn't the one calling the shots.
I've had projects that I thought were finished and delivered, only to find out my client brought it to their boss who didn't like something about it.
Rather than go back to me (I stipulate in my contract that additional revisions are not included in the price after the project has been deemed "complete" by both parties), they made changes in-house. Usually with fairly awful results, but hey- that's the game sometimes.

I don't have much experience with national client commercials, but even the local guys do that sometimes.

::shrug::
 
yeah, i know i have been brought projects from editor x or shooter y and asked to make re-edits and its always a pain because i have no masters or project files. Most of the time i have a DVD thats already been output as an mpeg 2 and they want me to make changes to a flattened video or audio track. Very frustrating for me and im sure for the editor whose toes im stepping on. I try to avoid these projects as best i can but they still come up form time to time.

Its just sort of the nature of the business. Projects go through many hands before they get released into the wild and its kinda sad to see your work changed by some schmuck that you think has no idea what hes doing. Meanwhile he thinks your the idiot because you only gave him this DVD or this compressed while when really that was just a rough for the client to view and approve. Its a damn shame

sorry to hear it happened to you. I know its happened to me on both sides and it blows.
 
Erm- why do you care? It's airing and you got paid- that's really the bottom line. The client can do whatever they want with your stuff- they paid for it...

Noah
 
Sounds like he cares because he is new to that type of thing happening. After time, he will realize that it is common practice, and not care as much.

Cheers,
Brian
 
MotionFx said:
Sounds like he cares because he is new to that type of thing happening. After time, he will realize that it is common practice, and not care as much.

Cheers,
Brian
Click to expand...

+1

However, to be honest, there's nothing quite like a client who "messes up" your work before airing it.
I've had projects I was very proud of that were utterly ruined by the time they were presented.

That's depressing, seeing all your hard work get man-handled by someone else. Its not something I hope anyone ever has to get "used to". But, unfortunately sometimes that's how it works. ::sigh::

Yeah, be ticked off about it, but don't do anything about it. You got paid. You can always show people the original in your demo reel. :)
 
Once you're paid, it's not "yours" anymore. It can be cut up beyond all recognition if they want to.

5 seconds of a voice over change is nothing.
 
Yeah there's a reason why you have the 'director's cut' on your reel. But you may sometimes find the version that airs is better liked than yours as well because the folks doing it have no sentimentality about a particular shot. They will cut it so it works- period.

Noah
 
MotionFx said:
Sounds like he cares because he is new to that type of thing happening. After time, he will realize that it is common practice, and not care as much.

Cheers,
Brian
Click to expand...

I guess in the long run it doesn't matter. Like Noah said, the check cleared, so........
If this is common practice, I can live with that. This is a business, not a love affair.
Just kinda shocked because I was contracted to do additional changes if needed, but they said it was good as is.
(and , although it's legally theirs and they can do what they want with it, In my head it was still "mine". Now, not so much)
 
It always stings a little to see your work changed from your vision.

I had one shoot that i specifically kept it all on my helios 44-2 to give it all a specific look and a classic feel. It felt wonderful. Then i later saw the work and they had added some POV shots that were done with a gopro using a super fish eye lens that just threw the whole flow off. A damn shame
 
There can be a thousand reasons why they changed it and might not even concern anything creative, sometimes VO is there because it is so easy to change if need be. Sometimes the whole thing can get shelved because someone at the agency or client side messed up. If they were happy with your work and you got paid promptly your work is done.
 
i have this client for whom i just shoot all day then hand off the footage for them to edit in-house.

someone in their in-house process makes a good deal of edit decisions and shot selections that i dont agree with. and some of the tv spots come out looking kinda hacky in my opinion.

personally, i dont care. BUT a lot of people know that i shoot for this advertiser, and they may or may not understand that im not involved in the editing.
so it indirectly and inaccurately reflects upon me. so i can kinda feel your pain.

but at the end of the day you have to accept that you got paid and move on. and just assume that you did a good job and that your karma will be clean at the end ; )
 
Not uncommon in all areas of production. I have a client that I regularly work with for different internal, broadcast news, and web videos, they always pay an extra $100 for a media managed version of the project. I don't mind passing it along, I get paid for my shoot and edit, then there in-house guy (my direct contact) shows it to all the superiors for approvals then makes edits.

He always makes changes, some small, some large. The last video had 2 edits, 1 for social networking, 1 for in-house corporate sharing. The social networking one went out basically as-is, 1 shot swapped for another angle and that was it. The corporate one I saw by chance yesterday actually, it was completely butchered and hacked, the in-house editor hated it, but the bosses insisted on some significant trimming and changes. It had no flow whatsoever, but what do I care.

I have my "director's cut" I will show if a client ever wants to see samples of different projects. Their cut is only a reflection of them, not me.
 
When I did the Extreme Makeover Behind the Scenes video for our local Bright House Networks, I also made a 30 second trailer for them to air on TV. I hadn't seen it or heard anything about it until a month later I randomly saw a completely different version on TV (that was very corny). The script was basically the same and most of the B-Roll was the same, but they just made it very kiddy looking with House cartoon graphics and hammers and ****.

It stung a little but by that point I was so over that project that I really didn't care.
 
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