Delivering Project Files: Making The Choice About Your IP

Your Product Is On Screen, But It Also Lives In Your Project Files

A couple weeks ago, I was asked to be on a panel about client relationships for a local user group. It was fascinating (and good article fodder) to hear many different perspectives on working with clients, but a very interesting question came up from a designer in the crowd:

‘I’ve been finding that clients are now asking me to deliver not only final finished files but my design files too – like Photoshop & Illustrator documents. How do you handle that?’

After a little discussion, someone else in the room remarked that after delivering project files to a client they were surprised when a mix they had worked on had different music and tweaked sound design elements when they heard the piece on air – yikes!

Since that event I’ve been talking to freelance colorists, editors, mixers and other business owners about the delivery of project files in addition to the normal deliverables one would expect.

The results of those discussions (I talked 20 people in total) were surprising –  half never deliver project files, 5 deliver project files as a normal part of their deliverables, and the remaining 5 only delivered project files if they were being paid extra.

Why was this surprising?

Well for some reason, I’d like to think that as creatives we value our creative efforts and go to great lengths to protect access to those efforts – so I was surprised that people were actually delivering project files!

I was also surprised that the folks who I talked to who were delivering project files as part of their deliverables weren’t considering the intrinsic value of those files!  In other words, I was shocked they weren’t charging for them!

In this Insight, I’d like to explore if delivering project files is a good thing or not.

What’s I.P. ? & Delivered Video vs. Project Files

You’ve probably heard the term Intellectual Property (I.P. for short) before, but what does that really mean?

Well, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) :

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.

WIPO also as a pretty informative primer on IP and the ways (in broad strokes) it’s protected – you can find that HERE.

The bit of the WIPO definition on IP that’s relevant to us as colorists is ‘creations of the mind….such as artistic works: designs…’

Every thought and decision that goes into adjusting a knob on your control surface or a click of a mouse on a slider to adjust the artistic representation of the images on the screen is your intellectual property – your ‘creation of the mind’.

Of course, the original video is the client’s, and most likely the final rendered files will also be the client’s – after all, your color work applied to their images is what they’re paying for but how you arrived at the particular artistic intent on a shot, scene or project is your intellectual property.

This is why my default stance when it comes to project files is to never offer them to clients.  Clients are paying me for my time and effort and the results of my work.

If a client would like the intellectual property i.e. my project files I may offer that as a project option or consider their offer for my IP, but I generally assume that project files are NOT part of a standard deliverable package.

Defining Your Deliverables

It’s important to understand that different industries have different accepted practices with this type of thing – what may be standard practice in photography, may not be the same in design, or video projects.

However, like most things in business, all that really matters is what was agreed to and documented with your client.

In my project orders (contracts) with clients, in the deliverables section, I only include the stuff that I’m actually going to deliver on a project.  If it’s not here, I’m not delivering it!

Here is a recent deliverables section in my project order for a feature-length project:

• ProRes 4444 2048 x 858 (Scope) individual clip renders in a .mov container with 1 second of handles
• ProRes 4444 1920 x 1080 Letter Boxed (2.39:1 1920 x 803) individual clip renders in .mov container with 1 second of handles
• Premiere Pro Project (version 2015.3) with both scope and letterboxed timelines (no audio or graphics remarried) relinked to rendered media
• XMLs of both scope and letterboxed timelines that reference individual clip renders
• ProRes 4444 1920 x 1080 Letter Boxed (2.39:1 1920 x 803) flattened render in .mov container
• ProRes 4444 1920 x 803 Cropped 2.39:1 flattened render in .mov container
• 15mb/s 1920 x 1080 Letter Boxed (2.39:1 1920 x 803) h.264 flattened render in .mp4 container
• 15mb/s 1920 x 803 Cropped 2.39:1 h.264 flattened render in .mp4 container

Missing in this list is anything about DCP creation – even though one of my deliverables was Scope aspect QuickTimes. I also made no reference to remarrying audio or graphics – indeed I said the Premiere Pro project would not contain those items.

Also missing?  Yep, any mention of a Resolve project file (my IP).  Sure, I’m delivering a Premiere Pro Project with graded timelines, but at no point can the client ‘edit’ my color work with those timelines – they can add on to it or grade my grade, but they don’t have access to the myriad of individual corrections and decisions that went into the creation of the look of a shot.

Defining your deliverables like this (or in whatever fashion you’d prefer) makes it clear what you’re delivering and more importantly, what you’re not delivering.