Expiration on Corrections to Edits

[Mike Cohen]

I have had a few clients over the years who take ages to be happy with a project. These are usually clients who keep coming back with more work, so I accommodate their edits in almost all cases.

The worst examples are when they come back a few months after approval with some new request, which was never discussed, and then expect you to make the edits and quick too. One client e-mailed to say the DVD we just finished would now be translated into 10 languages, and could I send a master with no supers and separate audio channels for music and narration to their service provider.

Then I get a call from the service provider saying they cannot download the DVD menu from the DVD to change it – obviously.

Again, set your rules for changes and timeframes at the outset, and decide on a client by client basis what is worth doing for a good client.

Mike

[Mark]

I had a project last year where I edited 2 30 min shows for the client. The show was in French, which I speak fluently, but the French language is full of rules when writing. Anyway, the client sent me some translations, those translations were then corrected by the director and handed off to me. I copy and pasted the text into the title program I was using and away we went.

The 2 shows aired and all was good. Then the shows were sold to another network to air. This network found errors on the translations and asked for changes…also i had to reformat the timing of the show. Luckily I had backed up the project, including media to an external drive.

I explained to the client that this would take time. I also apologized for the translation errors, but then I explained that i copy-pasted their text…I also mentionned that he, the producer and the director had seen the show, and noone had seen the errors.

He was very understanding and paid full rate. I explained that restoring that backups and relinking also took time (which it did, some backups didn’t restore fully), but I also explained that i had kept the backups on my drive without “renting” the space…I suggested that if he wanted to be sure, he could provide me a drive and I would backup to that.

He was very happy with the work that I did for him. He is a good client and continues to be so. He has called fo me work after the corrections, and I suspect he will.

If the mistakes would have been user error (mine), and caught in a reasonable amount of time, then I would have made the changes on my own time, but that was not the case.

After 4 years, as mentionned, this becomes a new project and the client must pay the hourly wage….also as mentionned, if it is a good client then you could do it for free, but that is opening a dangerous door…one that leads to the phrase, “can you do me a favour”.

Mark

Mark Harvey
Senior Editor
Le Réseau des sports

[David Roth weiss]

Mark,

Exactly!!! That’s a great example. It just goes to show that just because we’re all in business as creative artists, it doesn’t mean drama is required as every stage of the game.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Mark Suszko]

Old sign in our office:

“Lack of planning on YOUR part does not constitute an emergency on OUR part.”

It is hard to resist the urge to be the Big Hero and save the day every time. It IS fun and an ego boost, but people can use this against you sometimes when they realize you never say no. Superman and Batman can afford to be heroes for free; me, I have to charge.

[Fernando Mol]

When we a budget for a client we add some commercial clauses that say “if you make changes in the creative direction in the middle of the project or your original material comes with mistakes, that maybe will affect the delivery times and could cause an extra charge”.

Maybe and could are the magic words that give you some space to put limits if the client is problematic.

We also do a delivery note for each project. We give the client the videos and a DVD so they can review it right there, in front of us, then sign it for done.

If later they call us for a change they will “ask” for a favor, not demand a correction in a work not done right. You can negotiate a charge easier that way.