Terms and conditions

What you get

Exactly what the quote describes: the deliverables, runtimes, aspect ratios and formats, on the timeline agreed.

A finished video is a selected, edited piece. It will not contain every speech, performance or moment unless the quote says so. That is not a limitation, it is what editing is.

Extra versions, reformats, subtitles or shorter cuts are separate deliverables. They are quoted on request and they are usually straightforward, but they are not included by default. Starting points for each kind of job are on the videography pricing page.

What I need from you

Three things, and jobs run smoothly when they are in place. A running order with times against anything that has to be filmed. Access to the spaces involved. One named person free to bring people over on the day.

If something is not made available on the day, it cannot appear in the finished work, and the quote stands. This is not me being difficult: a shoot day is a fixed window, and things that do not happen inside it do not get filmed.

Consent from people on camera, and permission to film at the venue, are yours to arrange unless the quote says otherwise. I can supply talent release forms if that is useful.

Payment terms

As set out in the quote. Where a deposit applies, the date is not held until it is received, and dates go to whoever confirms first.

Extra time on the day is charged at the quoted rate. Where anything is agreed at a rate other than standard, the conditions attached to it are set out in that quote and are part of the deal.

Invoices unpaid 14 days past the due date may carry interest at 2% per month, along with reasonable recovery costs.

Cancellation and postponement

Cancelling inside 48 hours of the shoot means the full fee is payable, along with any third-party costs already committed.

Earlier than that, a fee covers the work done and the time held. That fee is a genuine estimate of the loss, not a penalty: a booked date is a date I have turned other work away for. If I cancel, any payments you have made are refunded in full.

Weather

More than one shoot day

Who owns the footage

This is the question clients ask most, and the answer in New Zealand is not what most people assume.

Under section 21(3) of the Copyright Act 1994, a client who commissions and pays for a video or photographs is the first owner of the copyright by default, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. Most people, including plenty of people in the industry, have this backwards.

My agreement is a deliberate agreement to the contrary, which that section expressly allows. So: I own the copyright in all footage shot, including raw material, and in the project files.

From delivery you have a licence to use the delivered videos for the purpose and media agreed. That licence is conditional on the invoice being paid in full, and it can be suspended or withdrawn while an invoice is overdue. Once payment clears, it is permanent and cannot be withdrawn.

In practice that means you do not have to sit on a finished video waiting for an invoice to go through. It also means a video that never gets paid for is one I can ask you to take down.

The licence covers the delivered files only. It does not extend to raw footage, outtakes or project files.

If you need outright ownership, that is an assignment rather than a licence, and it can be agreed separately in writing. It is priced differently because it is a different thing. Where an assignment is agreed, copyright in the final deliverables transfers to you on full payment, I keep the right to show the work in my portfolio, and I retain ownership of the raw footage and project files.

Portfolio use

Raw footage

Raw footage is not included as standard. Where you want it, it goes on the quote as its own line, priced against how much material there is and what you are planning to do with it.

Worth knowing what you would actually be buying. Raw footage is unsorted clips straight off the card, filmed in a flat colour profile. It looks grey and washed out and will not resemble the finished video at all, because the colour comes from the edit. It arrives with no grading notes, no LUTs and no technical support.

Buying raw footage is a licence to use it. Copyright stays with me. It is supplied once, in its original ungraded state, under the same delivery terms as everything else.

If you might want it, say so before the shoot, or soon after delivery at the latest. Footage is not held indefinitely and I give no undertaking that it can be supplied again later.

Music, stock and fonts

Music, stock footage, images and fonts are used under the licence of the library they came from, usually Envato Elements or Artlist. Each is a non-exclusive licence to use that item in this one project. It is not a transfer of ownership.

The licence covers use within the finished deliverable for your project. You cannot extract, resell, redistribute or reuse the licensed items on their own or in another project.

Licences are registered in my name and were valid at the time of download. I keep the download records and licence certificates as proof of clearance, which matters if a platform ever queries a track.

Using the same material in a further project, or a materially different edit, needs a fresh licence. Third-party libraries provide items as they are: I pass on the benefit of the library’s licence but give no separate warranty over third-party material.

Anything you supply, footage, music, logos or otherwise, you confirm you hold the rights to, and you cover me against any claim arising from it.

Changes and revisions

Where a job includes an edit, the quote names the rounds included. A round is one consolidated written list, from the person named on the quote, within seven days. If nothing arrives in that window, the cut is treated as approved.

Notes given by phone or voice message get summarised back in writing, and that summary becomes the list once you confirm it. That is not bureaucracy, it is how you avoid two people remembering a conversation differently three weeks later.

Notes from someone who has not been involved to that point are new work, and they are quoted. A change of direction, different music, a different length or a different aspect ratio is a fresh deliverable, not a revision, and it is quoted before work starts.

Each round moves the delivery date. Changes to an approved cut are chargeable. If a project goes quiet for more than a month, work done to that point may be invoiced and the project closed.

Delivery and how long you have

Final files come by private download link, live for the window named on your quote, starting the moment the upload finishes. It cannot be extended, so download and back up promptly.

Files cannot be added or swapped inside a link once it is created. Any correction means a fresh link with the full set on it. One upload is included, and a later re-supply is chargeable.

Footage is not archived indefinitely, and no undertaking is given that it can be supplied again later. If there is any chance you will want more from the shoot, raise it soon after delivery rather than next year.

Editing footage you supply

If you are bringing your own footage and want it cut, the full fee is payable before work starts. If the work is called off once it is under way, the fee covers the work done to that point.

The finished edit can only be as good as the footage provided. Lifting material to a different standard, or reshooting it, is new work with its own quote, and it does not count as a revision. The quote assumes a reasonable quantity of usable material and names the hours involved, so sorting through significantly more than agreed is chargeable.

Any equipment you supply is used at your risk, and I am not responsible for problems arising from it.

Crew

Working through another producer

Travel

Rush turnarounds

Ongoing arrangements

Where work forms part of an ongoing arrangement, it runs to the date named in the quote, after which it either renews on terms agreed in writing or lapses. Work outside the agreed scope is quoted separately, however small.

Any exclusivity applies only where the quote names it and names what is being paid for it. A date is only held once payment terms for it are agreed.

If something goes wrong

If equipment or media failure loses footage, the remedy is a refund of the fees for the affected work, or a reshoot at my cost, at my option. Neither party is liable for delays outside their reasonable control, and my total liability is limited to the fees paid.

Raise any problem with me directly first. If it cannot be sorted that way, both parties agree to mediation before anything formal. In practice almost everything gets sorted in one phone call.

People on camera

Consent from people appearing on camera is yours to arrange unless the quote says otherwise. I can supply talent release forms, and for anything going out publicly I would recommend using them. Where someone under 18 appears, a parent or guardian signs on their behalf.

A signed release gives me and my clients the right to record and use that person’s likeness, voice and performance in the finished work and in promotion of it, with no approval right and no further payment owed.

Privacy

Personal information is handled under the Privacy Act 2020. It is used only to quote for, run and deliver your job, kept securely, and shared only as far as needed to do the work.

Running a job involves third-party business services including email, invoicing and file transfer, some of them based overseas. They are used to deliver the work and nothing else.

On this website, the contact form collects your name, email and whatever you write in it. That is used to reply to you and to quote. It is not sold, rented or added to any marketing list. If you would like your enquiry deleted, email hello@declangale.com and it is gone.

This website

The text, video, photographs and design on declangale.com are mine, or used under licence. Please do not reproduce them without asking. Asking is usually fine.

Client names, logos and trade marks appearing on this site belong to their owners.

Nothing on this site is an offer capable of acceptance. A quote is. I try to keep everything here accurate and current, but prices, availability and turnaround times change, so treat published figures as indicative until they are on a quote with your name on it.

Consumer Guarantees Act and Fair Trading Act

If you are acquiring these services for the purposes of a business, and both parties agree in writing, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply, and both parties agree it is fair and reasonable to be bound by that. Where both parties are in trade, both agree that sections 9, 12A, 13 and 14(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 do not apply, on the same basis.

If you are a private individual rather than a business, the Consumer Guarantees Act applies and nothing on this page or in any agreement takes it away from you. It cannot be contracted out of for consumers, and I would not want to.

That written agreement happens in the client agreement attached to your quote, not on this page. This section describes the position rather than creating it.

The accepted quote and the client agreement attached to it are the whole agreement, and changes need to be in writing. Either party may end it if the other materially drops the ball and does not put it right in reasonable time, with work done to that point payable. You insure your own venue, property and equipment.

No signature is needed. Accepting a quote, in writing or by paying the deposit, means the terms apply. If a shoot goes ahead without either, going ahead with it is taken as acceptance.