What to put in a contract videographer agreement

When a wedding film studio hires contract videographers, its agreements do three jobs. They make clear the person is a contractor, not an employee. They say exactly what each job is and what it pays. And they settle who owns the footage and what the videographer may do with it. Get those three right and most disputes never start.

Use two layers: a master agreement and one per job

Re-signing a full contract for every wedding is tedious, and people stop reading what they sign. Two layers are easier on everyone:

• A master agreement, signed once, covering how you work together: the relationship, payment, cancellations, conduct, footage ownership and confidentiality.
• A project agreement for each booking: that job's dates, hours, role, price, overtime rate, gear and usage terms. It refers back to the master, so it fits on a page.
• A hold agreement for dates you want kept free before the couple has booked, with an expiry and first-right-of-refusal rules.

When you update your master agreement, keep every old version. Each job is governed by the version that person actually signed.

The master agreement

The relationship

Say that the videographer is an independent contractor, and that each job is offered separately and accepted by signing its own agreement. Then make sure the way you actually work matches the words, because the label alone doesn't decide it.

The IRS weighs three kinds of evidence: behavioral control (do you control how the work is done, or only the result?), financial control (do they bring their own equipment, set their own rates, work for others?), and the relationship itself (benefits, permanence, what the contract says). Some states use a stricter test. California's "ABC test" is the best known, and it has its own exceptions for some photo and video work.

A videographer who brings their own gear, sets their own rates, can turn down any job and also films for other studios looks like a contractor. One you schedule every weekend, train, equip and forbid from other work may not. If you have both kinds on your roster, keep track of which is which.

Equipment and travel

Say who provides what. Usually the contractor brings their own camera, audio and lighting, and anything a particular wedding needs goes in that job's project agreement. Decide whether travel is bundled into each job's price or reimbursed afterwards. Bundling is simpler for both sides: one number, and no receipts.

Payment

Say when you pay (for example, within a set number of days of receiving the footage), how you pay, and how extra time is paid: hours beyond the contracted hours, at an overtime rate stated in each job's agreement. Collect a W-9 before you pay anyone, so you can issue tax forms at the end of the year.

Cancellations, in both directions

• If the videographer cancels. A last-minute cancellation can cost you a wedding. Many studios set a fixed amount, called liquidated damages, for a voluntary cancellation, and some also require the contractor to help find a replacement. Courts generally enforce liquidated damages only when they're a reasonable estimate of your real loss rather than a penalty, so choose a number you could explain.
• If the couple cancels, or an event is dropped. Say what the contractor is paid. A common approach: a removed event comes off the job, with its share of the price, and neither side owes anything more for it. Decide how one event within a multi-day job is priced, for example by its share of the job's hours.

Late arrival and conduct

Spell out what happens if someone arrives late, such as a flat fee plus a deduction for the time missed. Then incorporate your Operations Manual by reference, so your rules on dress, arrival, card handling and conduct are part of the agreement without being pasted into it, and you can update them without re-signing everyone.

Insurance and drones

Require general liability insurance and keep a current certificate on file: many venues won't let a vendor in without one. If anyone flies a drone for paid work, require an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, and say that venue rules on flying come first.

Confidentiality and your clients

Your couples, and the planners and venues you work with, are your business. Ask contractors not to market their own services to them at your weddings, and to keep client details private. Keep it narrow. Several states, California among them, refuse to enforce most non-compete clauses, and an overly broad restriction may simply be thrown out.

Who owns the footage

This is the clause that matters most, and the one most often left vague.

Under US copyright law, the person who films footage owns it unless a written agreement says otherwise. A contractor's commissioned work counts as a "work made for hire", owned by you from the start, only if it falls into one of a short list of categories and you both sign a written agreement saying so. A contribution to "a motion picture or other audiovisual work" is one of those categories, and wedding film footage fits it. Many agreements also include a backup assignment of copyright to the studio, in case work-for-hire is ever found not to apply.

Then grant back what the videographer may do with it. Most want to show their work, and most studios are happy to allow it within limits. Those limits are the usage terms.

Usage rights: three levels and three switches

Your agreement with each couple says what may be shown publicly. A contractor's rights should never be looser than that. A simple system uses three levels:

Level	What the videographer may use
No use	Nothing from the wedding may be posted or used.
Non-identifying use	Anything that doesn't reveal the name, face or likeness of the couple or their guests, or the location of a private home: details, decor and the venue, for example.
Full use	Everything may be used.

Then set, for each job:

• Where they may post: their own website, social media, or both.
• Whether each post needs your written approval first.
• An embargo: nothing posted until a set time after the wedding, six months for example, so the couple sees their film before the internet does.

Start each job at the couple's level and only ever make it stricter. And put the terms in the job's own agreement, so the videographer reads them before they sign, not after they've posted.

The project agreement

One page per booking, filled in from the job itself:

• The videographer's name, home address, email and phone
• The wedding, and the role: lead, second or assistant
• Each event, with its date, start and end time, and address
• The contracted hours, and the overtime rate for any more
• The total price, and whether travel is included in it
• Any gear the job requires
• The usage terms above
• Late-arrival terms, and a line confirming the master agreement still applies

Fill it in from the same record you made the offer from. A contract retyped from an email thread is where the wrong date or the wrong rate creeps in.

The hold agreement

A hold keeps a videographer's dates free for a wedding that hasn't booked yet. Its agreement should say:

• Which dates, and roughly how many hours, are held, and that they're estimates
• When the hold expires
• That they may withdraw before a booking is sent, but if it's to take a conflicting job, they must tell you first and give you a window (48 hours, for example) to book them
• That when you turn the hold into a booking, they'll accept it if it covers only the held dates, at the same or higher rates, with the same or better role and usage terms

Changes after signing

Weddings change. Agree in advance how each kind of change is handled, so nobody renegotiates the week of the wedding:

• Timeline, contacts, shot list and notes: you update them and tell the videographer. No new signature.
• Extra hours on a booked day: paid at the overtime rate.
• A move to a venue that's farther away: the extra travel is added to the price.
• A dropped event or a cancelled wedding: handled by your cancellation terms.
• An extra date: offered as a new job, to the same person first.

Never edit a signed agreement. Keep a dated record of every change and what it did to the amount owed, and let both sides see it.

Signing and countersigning

Electronic signatures are legally valid for agreements like these in the US, under the federal ESIGN Act and the state laws based on the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which nearly every state has adopted. What makes an electronic signature hold up is the record: the exact text that was signed, who signed it and when. Keep a copy both sides can download.

Countersign promptly. A videographer who has signed is waiting to hear the job is theirs. Give yourself a deadline, 14 days for example, after which an unsigned job goes back out and they're free to take other work.

A clause checklist

Clause	Where it goes
Independent contractor relationship	Master
Who provides equipment; travel bundled or reimbursed	Master (a job's own gear needs: Project)
When and how you pay; a W-9 before the first payment	Master
Overtime rate	Project
Cancellation by the videographer; liquidated damages	Master
Dropped events and cancelled weddings	Master
Late arrival	Master or Project
Operations Manual, by reference	Master
Liability insurance; Part 107 for drones	Master
Confidentiality; not marketing to your clients	Master
Footage ownership: work made for hire, plus a backup assignment	Master
Usage level, where to post, approval, embargo	Project and Hold
Dates, hours, role and price	Project and Hold
Hold expiry, first right of refusal, matching booking	Hold
How changes after signing are handled	Master
Agreement to sign electronically	Master

For how these agreements fit into staffing a season, from building a roster to pricing each job, see how to staff second shooters.