How to Determine Post-Production Ownership

Video Transcript

"TRAVIS JOHNS: Hi. I'm Travis Johns with Expert Village, and I'm going to talk to you about ownership and rights. A lot of times when you finish a video and you hand them all the files, all the media, everything that they need, there is an issue of ownership and rights. Obviously, when you're a graph designer or if you're a video editor, your resume isn't so much on paper. It's on a demo reel. The important thing to remember is, is that you need to discuss with the clients upfront about what you're available to use for your demo reel so that you're not misrepresenting yourself later on. Sometimes, you'll find yourself in a position where you've done some work for someone else or with someone else and it ends up on their demo reel. You have to decide at the onset with the client, the co-worker, whoever you're doing the job with, who owns the work at the very end. Is it joint? Do you share it? Do they own it solely? All of these things are very important to figure out upfront so that you don't find yourself in a situation where you're getting into an unpleasant argument with someone because they're saying you're using their work or vice versa. You also don't want to be in a position where you've done some work and it shows up somewhere else and they're taking all the credit for it. You also don't want to take someone else's work and say that it was yours and misrepresent yourself. Generally speaking, you always want to get everything in writing. Verbal agreements usually suffice but you want to make sure that you have written documentation to back all of that up. Something as simple as e-mail correspondence will serve to back up your claims so that there's no question at the very end as to who said what. If early on in the negotiation or during a project sometime, you've had verbal communication but you start to realize that you're not quite sure where the client stands, continue that correspondence through e-mail or through letter writing. That way, it's all down on paper, everyone can read it and it's for everyone to see."