What should a UK videography contract include?

A UK videography contract should name the parties, the shoot dates and hours, the edited deliverables, whether the client gets a licence or an assignment, how raw footage is treated, who clears music, the deposit and kill fee, and what happens if they cancel or pay late. Sign it before the shoot. Start from our videography contract.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is UK-wide. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Nine blocks do the work:

The booking-fee and kill-fee percentages later on this page are examples, not a statutory rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

Contracts for videographers is the shorter audience page. Wedding booking fees sit in Is a wedding videographer's deposit refundable in the UK?. Photographers write the same split for stills; see What should a UK photographer contract include?. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement compares templates.

Do not email a Word file and hope v4_final is the one they signed. Both sides should edit and e-sign one shared draft.

Write the shoot as a date, hours and place, then write the film as a list. “Coverage of the day” is not a list. “Ceremony, breakfast and first dance until 22:00, a 5-minute highlight in 4K 16:9 delivered within six weeks” is a list. Name what is out of scope in the same breath.

A working scope answers five things:

• When and where. Date, call time, hours, location, travel, overtime rate. A second camera, drone, gimbal or lighting kit is in or out.
• What is delivered. Runtime, codec, resolution, aspect ratio, delivery method, turnaround. A highlight, a feature cut and vertical socials are three items, not one.
• What is not. Raw footage, ungraded selects, project files, a teaser, a second location — unless they are on the in-list.
• What “done” looks like. Edited files the client can download, not an open Premiere project they keep commenting on.
• Dependencies. Access, shot list, brand boards, music choices, model or location releases. Dates slip if those do not arrive.

A revision limit polishes the agreed cut. A change adds a second location, a weekday recce, or an extra hour. Mixing the two is how a “quick extra recut” becomes a new product at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work and change control.

Example

The Videographer will attend the Shoot on the date, at the location and for the hours in Schedule 1. Deliverables are the edited films specified in Schedule 1, in the runtime, format and aspect ratio set out there, delivered by the method and within the turnaround in Schedule 1. Raw footage, ungraded selects, project files and working files are not deliverables. Work not described in Schedule 1 is out of scope and is quoted in writing before it starts.

In Plain English: they get the edited film they bought, for the hours you named. They do not get the card. Anything extra is priced first.

A videography contract is the usual paper. Repeat commercial clients often sit under a services agreement plus a statement of work per job. A freelancer agreement carries the same shoot and delivery lines for mixed creative work.

Cap picture-lock revisions at two consolidated rounds unless you have priced more. A round is one packed set of comments on the then-current cut, not a drip of WhatsApp notes. Name runtime, codec, resolution and aspect ratio as deliverables. Extra rounds, or a new cut, are a priced change.

A working revisions clause answers four things:

• how many rounds are included, per edit
• what a round is — one written set of comments, by a named date
• what happens if they say nothing — deemed acceptance after a set number of working days is common
• the fee, or the change-control path, for extra rounds

A revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary is not change control. Revisions polish the agreed deliverable. A change adds something that was never in the brief: a sixth application, a vertical recut, a new audience. Mixing the two is how “a few more from the evening” becomes a second film at no fee. See revisions and acceptance and Client keeps adding extra work.

Write the formats in the same schedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary:

• runtime of each edit
• resolution and frame rate (4K 25p, 1080p 25p)
• aspect ratio (16:9, 9:16, 1:1)
• codec or wrapper (H.264 MP4, ProRes)
• delivery method (download link, drive, frame.io)

If the client redlinesredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary the limit down to “until we are happy,” that is a price issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

Two rounds of consolidated feedback on each Deliverable are included. A round is one written set of comments on the then-current cut, sent within 10 working days of delivery. If the Client does not comment in that window the Deliverable is accepted. Further rounds, or a request for a new runtime, aspect ratio or recut outside Schedule 1, are quoted and agreed in writing before work starts.

In Plain English: two packed rounds. Ten working days to comment, or the cut stands. A new shape of film is priced first.

Write which one you are actually doing. You own freelance film until you assign it. CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner. An assignment is not effective unless it is in writing, signed. Paying the invoice does not move title. Licence named channels; assign the finals on full payment if they are buying ownership.

A film is a copyright work. Section 11(1) says the author is the first owner. The employee exception in s.11(2) applies to employees, not to a videographer on a contract for services.

GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works is blunt about commissions: the first legal owner is the person who created the work, not the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing. If the contract is silent, courts may find a limited implied licence for the purpose of the commission. That is not ownership. Silence is how a brand puts a wedding film on paid ads and then argues they thought they had bought it.

CDPA 1988 s.90(3) is the assignment rule. An IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary has to be in writing, signed by you or someone signing on your behalf. A licence is permission to use the film. It is not a transfer of ownership. See IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

Our videography contract assigns the final edits on full payment and keeps pre-existing materials and third-party content on their own licences. That is the buyout shape. If the job is a wedding or a named-channel brand film, write a licence instead: web, social, paid ads, territory, duration, exclusivity. Wider or longer use costs more.

Keep three piles:

• Finals — the named edits. Assigned or licensed on full payment.
• Rushes — raw footage. Not included unless priced.
• Libraries — music beds, stock, your earlier work. Licensed for this job, not assigned.

Write the grant in the intellectual property assignment or intellectual property licence clause, and name the uses in usage rights and credit.

Example — assignment of finals

On receipt of full payment the Videographer assigns to the Client the copyright in the final Deliverables. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, publish, communicate or adapt them except as the Videographer agrees in writing. Pre-existing materials, raw footage and third-party content stay with the Videographer or their licensors and are licensed only as part of the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they own the finished cuts once they have paid. They may not use unpaid work. Your libraries, the rushes and the music stay on their own terms.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary sit beside copyright. The director of a copyright film has the right to be identified as director, which must be asserted, and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Those rights cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by you. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with you.

CDPA 1988 s.77 is the right to be identified as director of a film, including when it is shown in public or communicated to the public. Section 77(1) says the right is not infringed unless it has been asserted in accordance with s.78 — on the assignment, or by an instrument in writing signed by you.

Section 80 is the integrity right: not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment, meaning a distortion or mutilation that is prejudicial to honour or reputation. Recutting a film into a joke, adding a slogan across a face, or recolouring a documentary set can raise that right.

They are not assignable. Section 94 says so in one sentence. Section 87 lets you waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary them by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right. A waiver can be specific or general, conditional or unconditional. The moral rights page is the longer note, and the moral rights clause is the drafting home.

Write four sentences, not one American “work for hire” heading:

• licence or assignment of the finals, on payment
• assertion of the director credit, if you want a byline
• the waiver you are actually giving, limited to the uses they bought
• portfolio use, if you want to show the work

A brand that needs to recut a campaign film for a 15-second ad is a reason for a limited waiver. It is not a reason to waive integrity for every future parody. Waive as far as the job needs, and no further. Photographers and graphic designers face the same split; see What should a UK photographer contract include? and What should a UK graphic design contract include?.

Name who clears music, stock and archive clips, and who obtains model or location releases. Third-party material stays on its own licence even if you assign the film. A warrantywarrantyA warranty is a promise that something is true, such as “this work is original” or “we have the right to grant this licence.”More in the glossary that the delivered cut does not, to your knowledge, contain uncleared third-party material belongs next to that line.

A working music-and-releases clause answers:

• who may introduce a track, stock clip or archive still
• who clears it, and who pays the licence fee
• what happens if a track cannot be cleared — a rewrite, a delay, or a kill
• who obtains model or location releases when people or places appear on camera
• a warranty on the files you actually delivered

Split the jobs. You warrant what you put in. They warrant the track they asked you to use, and the talent they put in front of the camera. Do not bury “the videographer will obtain all licences” if you have no budget and no chain of title.

Music, stock and archive clips are pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary or third-party content. They are not assigned with the film. A sync licence for a commercial track is a separate paper. A stock clip stays on the stock house’s terms. See usage rights and credit.

Model and location releases are practice, not a statute we cite. Write who gets them, and that the shoot does not start until they are signed if on-camera talent or a private location is in the brief. A couple booking their own wedding film usually covers their guests by invitation; a brand film with hired talent does not.

This is practice, not a statute we cite. Put it in writing so a later takedown has an owner.

Example

The Client is responsible for clearing, and paying for, any music, stock or archive material the Client asks the Videographer to include. The Videographer will not add third-party material without the Client’s written instruction. Pre-existing materials and third-party content remain on their own licences. The Client will obtain any model or location releases required for people or places the Client asks to appear on camera.

In Plain English: they clear the track they chose. You do not sneak in uncleared music. Stock stays on stock terms. They get the releases for their people and their building.

Name the edited film as the deliverables, and say whether raw footage is in or out. UK law does not require a videographer to hand over rushes. Possession of a card dump is not copyright. Paying the invoice does not create a right to the archive. Write how long you keep the files.

Photographers write the same split for stills; the longer stills page is Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files. This page is the clause that sits in the videography contract.

A working clause answers five things:

• what is delivered — runtime, format, gallery or drive
• what is not — raw footage, ungraded selects, project files, caches, LUTs
• when delivery happens, and that it is tied to payment
• the licence or assignment that applies to what is delivered
• how long you keep the files, and whether a later rushes request is a new paid job

Example — raw excluded

Deliverables are the edited films specified in Schedule 1, delivered by the method in Schedule 1. Raw footage, ungraded selects, project files and working files are not deliverables and are not supplied. The Videographer will keep a copy of the rushes for [12] months after delivery and is not obliged to supply them afterwards. Copyright in the films remains with the Videographer until any assignment in clause 5 bites, on payment in full.

In Plain English: they get the finished cuts they bought. They do not get the card. You keep the rushes for a named period. They may use the edits as the paper says, once they have paid.

Handing over a rushes copy does not assign copyright. CDPA 1988 s.90(3) still requires writing, signed. Put the list in a videography contract.

There is no default UK right to keep a deposit or charge a kill fee. Both sides have to agree the sums. A deposit holds the date. A kill fee is due if they cancel. For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. For a consumer, a 14-day cancellation right can apply.

A deposit or booking fee on signature, with the date not reserved until it lands, is the usual videography shape. A kill fee sits next to it: a named share of the fee if they cancel for convenience, with committed costs on top. See cancellation and kill fee.

Who the client is then splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business — a brand film, a hotel booking a brochure shoot). An agreed cancellation charge that is really a sum on breach must not be a penalty. Cavendish Square Holding v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67 asks whether a secondary obligation imposes a detriment out of all proportion to a legitimate interest in performance. Tie the figure to the date held, other work turned down and costs committed. A flat 100% from the day they sign, with no link to those interests, is the shape that looks like punishment.
• A consumer (an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession — a couple booking their own wedding film, a family booking a film of a party). Distance and off-premises contracts carry a 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Cancellation terms are also tested for fairness under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. A “non-refundable deposit, no cooling-off” line does not remove a right those Regulations give.

The general freelance split is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. The wedding-specific page, with postponement, weather and a sliding scale, is Is a wedding videographer's deposit refundable in the UK?.

Example

The Client will pay a Booking Fee of 25% of the Fee on signature. The Videographer will not reserve the Shoot Date until the Booking Fee is received. If the Client cancels for convenience, the Client will pay a cancellation sum of 25% of the Fee if cancellation is more than 14 days before the Shoot Date, or 50% if cancellation is 14 days or fewer before the Shoot Date or after the Shoot has started, plus committed costs already incurred. The Booking Fee is credited to that sum and is the minimum kept. Intellectual property in work not fully paid for stays with the Videographer.

In Plain English: a quarter lands before the date is yours. If they call it off, they pay 25% with a fortnight in hand, or 50% inside two weeks, and they cover costs you have already committed. They do not own unpaid files.

Those percentages are examples, not a statutory rate. For a consumer the same shape still has to be fair, and cannot remove a 14-day right the 2013 Regulations give.

Write a short due date, a right to pause if an invoice is overdue, and that no licence or assignment bites until payment in full. For a UK business client, statutory interest on late commercial payment is 8% above Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery sum. We do not print the current base rate.

The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer client.

Payment terms should name:

• when invoices go out — on signature, before the shoot, on delivery
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary beats an open-ended “after the cut”
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, and no attendance if the balance has not landed
• that copyright, or any licence to use the work, passes only on full payment

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

A couple booking their own wedding film or a private party film is a consumer. Statutory interest under the 1998 Act does not apply. A contractual late-payment line can still sit in the paper; keep it proportionate. A brand, agency or venue buying in the course of business is the 1998 Act client.

Example

Each undisputed invoice is due within 14 days of its date. The Videographer may pause work, and is not obliged to attend the Shoot, while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Copyright and any licence to use the Deliverables pass to the Client only on payment in full. Until then the Client has no right to copy, publish, communicate or adapt the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they have two weeks to pay. After a week late, work stops and you need not attend. They may not use unpaid files.

The chase sequence — written demand, letter before action, money claim — is Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Net 30, net 14, on receipt is the due-date page.

Only if the contract says so. A licence to the client, or an assignment of the finals, does not by itself give you a right to put the film on your site. Write a licence back: named channels, whether you may name the client, and whether unreleased work stays off the showreel until they launch.

A working portfolio clause answers four things:

• Where. Your website, social, printed showreel, award entries.
• What. The edited finals, not unpublished selects or the rejected cut.
• When. After they first use the film in public, or after a named embargo. Wedding films often wait until the couple have posted.
• Credit. Whether you name the client, and whether they name you. That sits next to the moral rights assertion.

See publicity and portfolio use. If the job is confidential — an unlaunched product, a private family who asked for no socials — write that the licence starts on their public use, or on written consent. Silence is how a sneak peek goes live the week before their announcement.

Example

The Videographer may reproduce the final Deliverables in the Videographer’s portfolio and on the Videographer’s website and social channels, and may name the Client as the commissioner, after the Client has first used the Deliverables in public, or earlier with the Client’s written consent. This licence does not extend to unpublished selects, raw footage or confidential informationconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary. The Client may require a reasonable embargo in writing before the Shoot.

In Plain English: once they have used it in public, you may show the finals and name them. You may not show the selects they never saw, or leak the launch. They can ask for a hold, in writing, before the day.

If they refuse any portfolio use, that is a price issue. Some commercial and family work stays off the site. Get that in the paper before you hold the date, not in a later mood-board email.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared videography contract, so the shoot list, the licence and the kill fee are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a videography contract. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under a services agreement, or sit on a freelancer agreement. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the deliverables list, the raw exclusion or buyout, the licence or IP assignment, the deposit and the kill fee are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, Plus £15/mo, Pro £29/mo, Team £119/mo for 5 seats, Enterprise from £750 — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the shoot in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the date is held.

Contracts for videographers is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.