so anyway i finally landed a proper client, small construction company that wants monthly progress shots of a development site they're working on. recurring work which is huge for me. they asked me to send over a contract before we start and i just kind of froze because i have literally never written a contract in my life.

ive been doing this semi-professionally for about a year but always just worked off a handshake or a quick email agreement. that was fine for one-off real estate stuff but this feels different, this company has lawyers and i dont want to look like an idiot or accidentally sign away rights to my footage forever or something.

has anyone got a contract template they actually use or know of a good starting point. ive seen some stuff on Copilot and there are a few on etsy of all places but i have no idea if theyre any good. also do i need to spell out who owns the footage, i kind of assumed i retain ownership and just license it to them but maybe thats not how most people handle it

congrats on the recurring gig, construction progress work is genuinely great because its predictable income and the clients usually just want consistent altitude and framing so its not super demanding creatively.

for contracts ? yeah you definitely want something in writing for this. the Etsy templates are hit or miss honestly, some are fine, some are clearly written by someone who doesnt understand drone work specifically. i ended up buying a template from a photographer who had adapted it for aerial use and then had a local attorney look it over for like $100 which was money well spent.

on the ownership thing, yes you should absolutely retain copyright on the footage and just grant them a license to use it for their specific purposes. make sure you spell out what those purposes are too ? like internal use, marketing, social media, whatever. if they want unlimited usage rights thats a different price conversation. also put in a clause about what happens if they cancel the monthly arrangement mid-project, you dont want to show up month three and find out they just decided to stop

i'd also add ? make sure the contract covers what happens if weather cancels a shoot. do you reschedule free of charge, do they get a credit, is there a minimum notice period. learned that the hard way with a client who expected me to just show up the next day with zero notice every time it rained. now i have a 48 hour reschedule window written in and it saves so much hassle