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Raw Footage, No Contract, No Deal
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[Dominique Lee] “He didn’t reply to me asking for $15 each tape. He did say he’s expecting them in five days. No money no tapes.”
You were out of your mind to charge him just $15 per tape – you should have charged for the tape plus an hourly duplication fee based upon the run time of each of the tapes. In any case, that’s water under the bridge now.
At this point, you should simply ignore him; don’t write him, don’t do anything, simply wait for him to contact you when the tapes don’t arrive. Then, let him know that you never received his check, and that you will gladly send the tapes upon receiving his cashiers check for the total amount due in full.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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He refuse to sign to take the tapes as is and told me to go get something to view them on. O_o And he doesn’t know whether or not the tapes are damaged so he won’t sign the contract. But he’ll accept them without a contract because he “legally doesn’t have to sign anything.”
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Ignore him. Go on with your life. What’s he going to do, sue you for $15 per tape? Let him do it.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Having gone through contractual disputes before, here’s my take:
It costs about $5k to have a lawyer file something for you properly. It would cost about $25k to take it to court and another 25k to get through the case. It’s very unlikely the guys going to have that kind of coin laying around.
He could take you to small claims court, but as the previous post says, there’s no contract! So what exactly is he suing for? Sit tight. You are in the driver seat in my view. No money, no tapes. He can make you an offer.Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications -
I did miss that. So why not send him all of the materials and kiss the project and the client goodby. Why keep the tapes? But, have the client sign a “as is” acceptance form?
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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Offer him this: Send your rep over and I’ll give you 30 minutes to review the tapes and give him the originals AFTER he signs that the tapes are in good shape. Shoot the transaction with a discrete camera in the corner, advising him that you’re doing so.
Why drag this out and why keep anything to do with the project?
Interesting story – I did a job for a client in 2007 and they called yesterday asking for footage to make a new TV spot, in-house. I looked their records up and they requested the original footage to store because they didn’t trust any “outsiders” with their precious footage. I can understand that and have recommended against it as we have never lost anything and I have library tapes going back to 1983.
It seems at though the former manager left the company and the tapes are nowhere to be found. I did get $40 for a Quicktime of their finished 8 minute production that was still sitting in a folder on one of the edit machines.
I have one client that moved their entire operation to Texas. I asked if they wanted their library and they said “Hell no. We’ll just lose that for sure”.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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