Advice Needed on Clip Licensing Fee for National Commercial

[Jd Christie]

Richard, these are license agreements to the best of my understanding.

[Richard Herd]

I am not a lawyer. I hope you consult one before you sign anything. The lawyer is the only person who will represent (for a fee of course) your interest. I’m saying this because it all sounds a bit dubious: not only is the fee a high but also they’re 60-40 sounds weird.

Regarding the high fee, okay, I could see that, if your footage is (for example) a crowded kids birthday party, where the cost of producing it would require 15 kids on a day rate, plus 10 adults on a day rate, wow! that’s expensive.

Regarding them taking a cut, I could see that if they are aggressively soliciting buyers. In which case, I would think they are more akin to an agent, in need of an option agreement.

Hope that makes sense.

[Jd Christie]

Thanks Richard. I had an Entertainment Lawyer review the license agreement on the last project and he felt it was standard. He did not recommend any changes.

As for the 60/40 split, I did some research and found Getty’s contributor agreement online. They actually only give contributors 30% of the license fee. Getty requires an exclusive agreement to market the footage if you place it in their library, and so does this company. So from both of these perspectives I think these guys are pretty well in line with the industry.

The clip they licensed last time was a close up of my wife and daughter, outdoors at a park. They have said that they “did not make a great a profit” on that project. I can see that may be the case. Everyone deserves to get a fair piece of it, but it also seems to me that once they have discovered a videographer that they can market, their expenses to provide the content drop way off. Once you’re discovered and they know where to find you, all they need is a project that fits the content. As a “research company” their model seems to be more “go and find X for our production”.

[Richard Herd]

[Jd Christie] “They have said that they “did not make a great a profit” on that project.”

That made me actually laugh out loud!