How much to charge client for project files?

interesting replies from all, though noone has answered the second very important question... "how much"? ie. IF it is reasonable/expected/in-the-contract to charge for the project files, how much should that be? ie. if the project cost (for the main deliverables) was $10k, should one charge 5% of that? 10%...20%???

personally, i find it a total pain the arse to receive someone else's project files and try and rethink that into my own workflow. everyone works their own way so i'm not really sure there's a ton of value in having the full project files. for video work i can see that it could be useful to receive the edit stems for the previously delivered edit, but beyond that i want to build something unique from my own storytelling perspective and ability.

the only reason a client would ask for it is so they don't have to hire you again if they don't want to.

i'm facing this exact problem right now. the agency has told the client that it will cost them (they also want to keep the work if possible!). but how much? anyone else have a good formula?

cheers

Charging is a difficult thing to consider without more information.

My first question is....

Is the project for local usage, national usage, or international usage?

Second question is...

What are you creating? 

Third question...

How long will it take you to complete the project?

Fourth is not a question but a recommendation...

Only allow the client to ask for three changes.... any additional change should cost extra.

Another pre-project question...

How much time goes into pre-planning?  How are you coming up with the idea?  Are you doing a sketch first? 

There are so many questions that go into pricing a project.  I could go on and on and on. 

It is tough because you do not want to under price and you do not want to over price.  And there are always fools who will do it cheaper.  But let us know more details.

I look at it like this...when you go to a restaurant, you are paying for the final meal.  You don't walk out of the restaurant with the uncooked food that was leftover from making the meal. You don't force the chef to give you the recipe for your amazing deliverable. A bride is paying for the final cake. Does she force the baker to give her the recipe? We are artisans. What we do requires a special skill set that the client couldn't perform without us. We own all rights to the footage shot on our cameras as well (unless stated otherwise).  Now if you are just hired as a shooter or it's agreed to that you are "work for hire", then cough up the footage. Anything else, they need to pay.  

This depends on the original agreement

On TVC's that I do the client owns the footage once they have paid in full.

Should they wish to archive and use my storage facilities they are bilked separately.

But...on smaller projects without anything in writing, legally the client owns the footage

Mo

It is customary to include additional costs for native files. How much of a mark up is really up to you. It can range from 1/3 the project cost to 300% the project costs.

I think, for me personally, so I can't speak from an entirely legal point of view, but...

When I used to work full-time in-house as a video editor then my employer owned all my work, e.g. an After Effects project file.

But now I'm freelance my employer owns only the finished export, not the process I went through to make that export.

Sure, if I've created images or assets as part of that project then I would probably share those - exported to specified formats, and perhaps with an additional charge if it's a considerable amount of time - with my client, but not the project file itself.

I cannot fathom any reason for a client to request a project file that couldn't equally be solved by asking me what they would intend to do with it, e.g. if they want to do some exports in other formats, they can just ask me, and if the reason they're not asking me is because they might have to pay me more then that's a business trying to get away with not paying somebody for the work they do and that's pretty shoddy behavior.

If there are rushes that I've shot for the video then I would probably be happy to share those with the client too, it would be good to establish a cost for those up front, and make sure the client knows - in those instances - that receiving a copy of all the rushes would require an additional charge.

I have had instances where a client has sent me rushes - misplaced their own rushes - and then requested a copy of my rushes, and in those situations I've been happy to just send them their rushes and hope they keep better back-ups in the future.

To use a terrible analogy; you meet the carpenter to talk about the table you want them to build, the carpenter builds the table, you get the table, you don't own the carpenter's arms and tools as well.

The client is asking you to make a finished video, you are telling them how much of your time it will take and how much your time costs, they are not paying for anything other than that finished video which requires x hours of time, they don't even need to know *how* that video comes to be, because, essentially, that's of no consequence to them provided they get their video.

So what support are you providing with this topic? Hire one more to look at it?

Sure

Contrary to what many have said in this thread, your client DOES NOT have a right to your working files unless your contract or estimate states that you will provide those files as part of the project deliverables. You decide what files you hand over and how much you will charge. If you were an employee however, this would be different.

Unless the project is a work for hire, the creator of the original work id the owner of the intellectual property, this applies to scenarios even without a contract.

A contract is always a good idea, and it is a worthwhile investment to hire a business/ intellectual property attorney to write a contract template (our studio did).

The contract should have an ownership clause that clearly outlines the terms.

As for compensation, the typical cost for source files is 300% of the total project cost.

The below-referenced blog post very well explains that the client typically pays for the final product, not the tools used to create the final product.

“My Designer Won't Give Me My Files!” | Breakaway Graphics