had kind of an awkward situation last week and curious how other people deal with it. did a shoot for a small construction company, just documenting site progress basically, flew out twice over two weeks and delivered edited clips each time. now they're asking if they can just have all the raw D-LOG files because they want to "do their own thing with it" going forward.

i dont really have a policy on this and said id think about it. part of me feels weird handing over raw files because honestly my color work is a big part of what i think makes my stuff look good, and if they take the raws and butcher the grade it's kind of going to look like garbage that i shot. but also they're a business client and maybe its reasonable for them to want to own the footage.

do you charge extra for raw delivery? just give it to them? i didnt have anything in the contract about it which is probably the real problem here

yeah this is a contract thing for sure, learned that the hard way too. i now have a line item for raw/unedited files and charge an additional fee, usually like 30-40% on top of whatever the edited deliverable price is. not because the raw files take more work obviously but because you're giving up some control over how your footage gets used and presented. some clients totally get it, some push back, but at least it's a conversation upfront and not awkward after the fact.

for your current situation id probably just charge them something reasonable for the raw transfer and move on. not worth losing the client over. but definitely get something in writing before the next shoot.

tbh i've stopped worrying too much about what clients do with raw files. once it's a b2b job and not like editorial work where my name is attached i just treat it as footage for hire. the construction industry especially, they just want documentation, they're not posting your color grade on a film festival. charge them for it, sure, but i wouldnt stress about brand perception too much in that context. different if you were shooting something more public facing i guess