Couples asking for the Raw Footage

[mark-mvs]

Hey all, hope everyone is having a great 2012 so far. So I wanted to ask you all about something. I've had a couple of clients ask me for the raw footage (in addition to the wedding video I'll be making for them.) What is your feeling on this? I don't know if I'm completely comfortable turning over my raw footage to anyone. Like most of us, I'm very particular about my work and how it's edited. One of the couples who asked me about this said that they couldn't find ANY videographers willing to do this for them....and that's why they came to me.

Do you have prospective clients asking for the raw footage?

Note: In my contract it states that I have any and all rights to everything I shoot so I wouldn't be giving up any rights to the footage but I would be letting "Uncle Joe" or whoever play around with the stuff that I shot. (And the Bride and Groom would see Uncle Joe's cut before mine since I have a bunch of weddings to edit before I get to the ones I most recently shot.

What do you all think about this?
Thanks
Mark

[DavidPartington]

No, no, no, no, no!

Raw footage is only for viewing in the edit suite prior to colour grading, stabilisation etc. 

I almost gave in to one couple, but I told them I would only give them footage once I'd had chance to top & tail it so that there were no button push wobbles etc, and I'd also want to cut out any seriously wobbly bits that would not only not make the film but they would also be unable to use.

I also told them they'd have to find their own way of synchronising the sound from the external recorders (which without Plural Eyes wasn't going to be easy).

I told them it would take me a couple of days to work through the footage and fix colours and exposure and it would cost them around £700 ($1,000) but then I'd be happy to give them it.  BTW - they'd also need to supply a large HDD (1TB or so) because I'd be giving them transcoded footage, and they'd need to choose between ProRes 422 and Avid DNxHD or H264.    At this point their faces glazed over and that was the last I heard of this request!

[HankCastello]

Whatever your raw footage policy, it should be in your written contract, so there can't be any squabbles about things later. 

I've never really minded, but I charged extra AND I would never give out raw footage before my edited video had been reviewed and accepted.

[mark-mvs]

That makes sense, guys. Thank you for your input! I think I'll put something in my contract and also figure what I would charge for the raw footage. I might not color correct it before giving it out but I would definitely stabilize what I could and throw out anything that was too shaky to look good. So in truth I guess it wouldn't be "raw" footage. It would be footage with the minimal amount of editing to make it usable.

Thanks again,
Mark

[zvit]

We gladly give raw footage together with the final DVD's. Yes, the client provides the external HDD but we do no color correction, stabilization, or cuts. This is because we found that after clients watch the edited footage and then watch the "crappy" raw footage, they appreciate even more the work that went into the editing. Many of them say, "Wow! In the raw footage, the colors are terrible! How did it come out so nice on the DVD??"

Just make sure that there is no background talking between videographers or photographers that you wouldn't want the clients to hear. I can't tell you how many times I heard quiet swearing or people mumbling not nice things in the raw footage. Be warned.