St. Louis, MO – December 10, 2022 – “ I was so pissed off when my agency wanted to charge me for using the creative we had already paid them to create that I decided I was moving my business someplace else,” a business owner confided with me.

I will admit that few things annoy me more than the idea that I would pay someone a lot of money to create something for me and I wouldn’t own it. But that is very common with video production and photography.

I’m not proud of the fact that I don’t own my own wedding photos, but that is the truth. I have a license to the prints the photographer sold to us for a lot of money.

The photographer owns the copyright on my wedding photos. I suspect that is the case with your wedding photos as well. Or professional headshots. Or your kid’s school or sports league photos. Photographers usually only grant a limited license to images they take. Check out the fine print. They own it and you have rights to them.

It is very common for professional video production companies to retain copyright on the work they are hired to do for clients. They will hold onto the raw footage in the hopes you need more work. They expect you will have to pay them to do it. It is an industry practice that began with still photography.

A photographer is an artist. You are paying them for their art. Even if that is just a picture of you. Now you own your name image and likeness, so unless the fine print of your agreement specifies that you granted them unlimited usage, they can’t sell images of you. Most photography agreements are written in favor of the photographer, not the buyer.

Same goes within the professional video and film production.

I didn’t realize any of this at the time I was getting married. Ironically, I should have known better as I was finishing my first year of law school when I got hitched. Shame on me for not realizing that key detail.

It wasn’t until I found myself negotiating contracts with photographers when I worked for the St. Louis Cardinals that I became keenly aware of the industry practices and the default settings under American copyright law. It is par for the course for professionals in the creative space to own the copyright on their work. In many respects, it is as it should be.

The creator of a creative work owns the copyright automatically. A photographer who takes a photo owns the copyright on the photo. The videographer who creates a video owns the copyright on the video. The copyright is automatic under the law. While there are benefits to filing paperwork with the USTPO, you don’t need to file anything to get copyright on a creative work.

For instance, I don’t need to file a copyright on this blog. It is automatic.

All of that said, let’s be honest, if you hire someone to do something for you, it isn’t unreasonable to expect to own it. They guy I hired to build my deck doesn’t retain any rights in it after I’ve paid him.

This ownership element is critical in today’s world where more media is produced by the masses than mass media. You need to think and act like a media outlet. You can damn sure the New York Times ensures they own copyright on everything they publish. And they have an army of lawyers who will fight any infringement. All the big media companies protect their rights because it is what they sell.

It is why you can’t stream Yellowstone or find the 6th and final season of Better Call Saul on your favorite streaming service. Rights matter. It is how those services exist. You pay to watch. They pay to license or own the content they share. It is a big business.

That thinking informs our work. STORYSMART is born of the idea that you should own your story while also having it told professionally on screen. We believe someone like a Ken Burns or Anderson Cooper will do a better job bringing your story to the screen with video than you would doing it yourself. But we also believe you are entitled to own that story.

We believe you should fight for your right to own your story. Truth is, you probably won’t run into much resistance from video professionals unless you hire a big agency. Even then, you will likely be able to convince them to sell it to you. You just need to ask. The devil is in the details. In other words, read the fine print.

Have a contract that makes it clear everything is a work for hire.

In a world where owned media is more valuable than paid and earned media, you need to make sure you own the copyright on your creative. You don’t want to be encumbered and prevented from sharing your video. If you are spending a ton of jack to produce the next Yellowstone, you damn well want to own it don’t you?

Know that if you create something yourself – i.e. you DIY your video, you own it. If you hire someone to do it for you, please make sure you have an explicit written agreement that grants you copyright if you want to own it. If you don’t care, well then don’t worry about it.

Our default setting at STORYSMART is that you own the copyright and we maintain a limited license to showcase the work in our portfolio (i.e. a portfolio license). Most creatives really want just that. They simply want to be able to showcase to others the work they did for a client. But even that is a negotiation.

We would cede that for a client if they insisted on it.

With some of our high-end clients, like celebrities and athletes, they want confidentiality and strict limits on usage. We honor their wishes as they are paying us for our work.

The bottom line, just like you, they are entitled to the right to own their own story. We won’t fight it.

About STORYSMART

You have a story to bring to the screen, but you don't have the time or resources to do it yourself. Telling your story well with video can be hard. And let’s be brutally honest. No app will turn you into a great filmmaker. Few are capable of producing a do-it-yourself (DIY) video or film we actually want to watch, much less remember.

To do justice to your story on screen, you need the right skills and equipment, not to mention time, money and talent.

That is why STORYSMART developed our premium video storytelling as a service. We help clients tell their story in the amazing way they deserve with a proprietary done-for-you video storytelling service unlike any other.

STORYSMART provides a nationwide premium video storytelling service that empowers individuals, families, celebrities, small businesses and other organizations to have their stories told professionally while retaining their intellectual property rights as though they did it themselves.

STORYSMART provides clients an experienced television reporter or journalist filmmaker to help them tell their story following our proprietary high-integrity brand journalism system. Our transparently priced premium services for businesses and families ensures that each client gets an authentic, high-quality story they own the intellectual property rights on forever.

About Ron Watermon

Ron Watermon, a licensed attorney, is the founder and CEO of STORYSMART, a premium video storytelling technology startup that empowers anyone to have their stories told professionally while ensuring they retain the intellectual property rights on their productions.