Comments on: Life After Pi Excellent Case Study on Contract Necessities

By: vocalvarieties

vocalvarieties — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 02:33:38 +0000

There’s a great video by Mike Monteiro that talks about the importance of having an iron clad contract with your client so when they decide to change the terms mid project or announce it wasn’t what they wanted or even go out of business, you can get paid.

By: Arielle Q.

Arielle Q. — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 18:32:35 +0000

Reblogged this on Drempt: Creativity and Media Blog.

By: Como um mau contrato pode arruinar uma empresa – Case Study | SWITCH.COM

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:24:57 +0000

[…] fonte: Dare Dreamer Magazine […]

By: Ron Dawson

Ron Dawson — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:48:33 +0000

In reply to Chris. Thanks for the comment Chris. I agree with about getting payment up front. A necessity in about 90% of the cases. The odd thing about the VFX industry is that the other parts of Hollywood don't work like that. Everyone on set is paid by the hour so studios and producers are watching the clock and being mindful. Imagine if DPs, Grips and sound guys all worked on a "fixed bid." Seems like there's got to be a way to make changes in the system.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:14:20 +0000

I would go a step further in terms of contracts and add that it’s usually a bad idea to begin work on a project without a deposit, even if it’s just rough mock-ups or storyboards. Even if you’ve signed a contract which obligates the client to pay a deposit, wait until you get it to start working. I recently had a project go sour midway through. The client signed a contract agreeing to a 50% deposit up front, but the job was a rush job so I started work without receiving the deposit. After the project went south I was unable to recover the deposit to pay for work completed because the client refused to pay.

Having the client show money up front ensures that everyone has skin in the game and makes it costly for anyone to pull out of the project.

Great article Ron, and I 100% agree with your assessment of the VFX industry. Those shops are filled with super talented and create people but are ran in a totally non-sustainable way. A sad reality but one we can learn from.