Rights, delivery and revisions

The video is filmed and edited, but the job isn't done. Delivery, terms and revisions decide whether you get paid on time and booked again.

What's in a delivery

The finished video, vertical 9:16, usually 1080 by 1920, as an MP4. Two versions: captioned and clean, so the brand can add its own captions in any language. No music unless the brief says otherwise: tracks from platform libraries often can't be used in ads, so the brand adds its own. A cover frame and the script as text are often requested, but they're not standard.

Raw footage, meaning the untrimmed clips, often isn't included; check the brief. If the brand asks for it, it's a separate item with an extra fee.

Files and sending

Name files by a pattern: brand, product, format, version, something like brand_product_review_hook1_v1.mp4. "IMG_4821.mp4" gets lost on the brand's side within a day.

Send a cloud link: messengers compress video. In the message, the link, the file list and the script.

Checklist before sending:

• Brand and product name pronounced correctly.
• Mandatory line in place, word for word.
• Product visible from the first seconds, label readable.
• No other brands in frame.
• No promised results or banned words.
• Length on brief.
• Captions without typos, both versions included.
• No tracks from platform music libraries.
• Not reading off a page; sound is clean and the product is well lit.

Rights: what the brand can do with the video

In this course we assume the model where the rights stay with you and the brand gets a licence: permission to use the video on agreed terms. A contract may differ, so read that clause. Here's what you'll see in briefs.

Organic use: the brand posts the video on its own accounts, website and newsletters. Usually included in the base price for an agreed term.

Paid use: the video runs as an ad, from the brand's account or from yours. This normally carries an extra fee: ads bring the brand direct sales. An ad in your name gets labelled under the platform's and the country's rules; check who adds the label.

Term. There's no single standard, but as a rough guide: organic use is often agreed for three months to a year, paid ads more often for 30–90 days. A perpetual handover of all rights costs noticeably more; don't accept it at the base price. Agree renewal up front.

Exclusivity: not filming for competitors for a period. It limits your income, so it's paid for too.

Face and voice. Check whether the brand can use your likeness after the term ends. Assume it can't unless the terms say so.

Your portfolio: ask before delivery whether you can show the video as a work sample. Usually yes, once it's published.

Mistake. Handing over a video with no written usage terms, then six months later seeing your face in an ad nobody paid you for.

The rule: before filming, fix in writing where, for how long, from whose account, paid or organic, exclusive or not. Through an agency it's in the contract, so read it.

Payment

Fix payment alongside the rights: how much, when and after what. Options: part up front and the rest on sign-off, or everything on sign-off within an agreed period. Sign-off means the brand accepted the video, not that it published it; publishing can take months. If a video is rejected for breaking the brief, that's a revision first. What happens if revisions don't fix it, and whether you're paid, should be written into the terms in advance.

Revisions and new jobs

Terms usually say "two rounds of revisions included". A round is one message from the brand, not one note: all the notes in one message are one round. What also matters is what counts as a revision.

A revision: fixing something that was in the brief and the approved script and came out wrong. A mispronunciation, a skipped line, a dark shot, length, a caption. That's on you, at no charge.

A new job: the brand changed its mind after sign-off. Rewriting the script, filming a hook that wasn't ordered, a reshoot because "we decided the kitchen would be better". That's paid separately, and you say so calmly and straight away: "That's outside the order. I can do it for an extra fee, here's the timeline."

So get the script approved before filming.

Deadlines

The deadline is in the brief, often five to ten working days after you receive the product. If you won't make it, write before the deadline: "The product arrived two days late, I'll deliver Thursday, OK?" Going silent and delivering a week late will cost you that client.

Do this now

• Build a delivery folder for any video you've made: clean version, captioned version, files named by the pattern.
• Write a template paragraph on rights and payment for the brand: where, how long, from whose account, when you get paid.
• List five examples of revisions and five of new jobs.