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Must Have Clauses in Your Contract
*** I am not an attorney. I’d like to think I’m a darn good event filmmaker though. With that said, take this advice as just that, advice. Seek guidance from your local attorney before finalizing a contract.
Whether you are just starting out, or a seasoned vet, I understand completely. This post already sounds boring. But don’t judge a book by its cover. I want to share with you five clauses that all of us should have in our contracts that will protect us from scenarios that aren’t boring. They are just plain scary. Most of these additions to our Life Stage Films contract have come from learning the hard way. I’ll be willing to bet some of you will read these and shake your head in agreement. My hope is that I can prevent others from doing risky business.
1. Have your meals covered.
Nothing is worse than having to work 9-12 hours without getting fed. As videographers, we need to be fully present, and not thinking about how hungry we are or if we will indeed pass out in the next 10 minutes or not. Your client also will appreciate that a grumpy, grouchy, lethargic videographer is not a good idea for having the best product. 
We include in our contract that we are required to have a “hot” meal so that we don’t have to meander off-site to find food. We stress this so they know we don’t want to risk missing anything if we do have to go eat. We need to eat. It’s human.
2. Protection from “emotional” damages
I hope most people have in their contract protection from the inevitable situation where an accident happens and the footage is lost, or worse, we fail to show up due to outside circumstances. We have in our contract that we are only liable to refund the funds received and nothing more. But..are you protected from “emotional” damages as well? Add that to your contract! A common loophole is that a family or client can actually sue you from distress of not having their wedding filmed, and that’s a very real thing. We need to protect ourselves from getting sued out of thousands and thousands of dollars.
3. A Time Frame after delivery for any re-editing/changes
Setting expectations is what a contract is all about. And you are creating “art” that you have total control over. What you film, and how you film is YOUR interpretation of that couples wedding day. If you are a good videographer, you’ll film moments they didn’t even know happened, and you’ll edit a beautiful film they will love. But even if you know your stuff, some clients and couples are just plain picky. Some have great reasons for constructive criticism and change requests . Others are just never happy to begin with. We need to protect ourselves from working for free after delivery. We have in our contract, that if there are any technical or grammatical errors on our part, that we will re-edit the video and fix it at no charge. But we also have a clause stating that any requests to edit the video based on creative choices (shots chosen, music chosen, filters/effects used) are subject to a re-edit fee. We also state they have 2 weeks after delivery to tell us of any changes or errors before we take the project off of our server. If there is a mistake, I will gladly man-up. But if they want to be the editor for me, I will gladly charge for my time to make it something they feel they want. With that said, we also don’t allow for a “first draft” so they can tell us what they like and don’t like. Don’t open Pandora’s Box. You won’t like what you see.
4. Guidelines for canceling event
You need to protect yourself from booking a weekend, and blocking any other client to reserve that date, only to have a client cancel on you one month before the wedding with no time to rebook the date. We all live off roughly 35-40 weekends out of the year for our income. Those dates are precious. Include in your contract guidelines for what happens when a client reserves a date. Is the retainer non-refundable? Is there a date where it’s too late to cancel? Put it in if so!
5. Travel reimbursement for BOTH air and ground.
Time is money. Cover yourself from when you travel outside of your city limits, otherwise your profits go down and you lose more money off of expenses the farther away from home you travel. We include a specific rate per mile driven that covers our food, gas and most importantly….TIME! I am based in Wilmington, NC. If I have to drive to Savannah, GA for a wedding, I have a travel rate that covers my TIME spent driving. Any extra time away from your business needs to be billed. You also need to have a separate clause for air travel as well. Make sure you have a per diem for food, your hotels covered, and baggage/taxi fees too.
Did this help? I hope so. For those that want a comprehensive and detailed protection, you might want to check out our Life Stage Films Wedding Contract available for purchase on my Business Coaching site. Also, for those with ShootQ, our detailed contract is now available in a bundle in the ShootQ marketplace under “your account.” It includes ALL of our sales/marketing email templates, wedding workflows, contracts, and questionnaires. If you are struggling with making ShootQ a well oiled machine for you, this bundle is for you.
Head Coach signing out!
