What matters in practice
“Assets” appears in almost every quote and means something very concrete: the files you end up with. The word only seems vague because it tends to be written as a single line item rather than a list. Spelled out, it is immediately clear. That is exactly why it should be spelled out.
A delivery list looks roughly like this
- the main version in landscape, for the website and for presentations
- one or more short versions, say sixty and thirty seconds
- 9:16 and 4:5 portrait versions for social channels
- a version without lower thirds or text, for trade-fair loops and later reuse
- subtitle files and, where needed, a version with burnt-in text
- the English version
- stills pulled from the footage, or a photo series of its own
Why the list belongs before the shooting day
Aspect ratio is not an export setting but a decision made on set. Crop a portrait version out of a landscape shot later and you lose picture on both sides: heads end up at the edge of frame, two people no longer fit side by side, the lower third falls outside the image. If we know a portrait version is coming, we compose with headroom to spare or shoot the scene a second time. On the day that costs minutes; afterwards it costs another shooting day.
For fashion labels this is the normal case: a campaign rarely consists of one film but of a version for the shop, several short formats and stills. All of it comes from one shoot rather than three.
Three points that tend to stay open
- Rushes: do you receive them, and how long are they kept?
- Project files: are edit and graphics projects handed over if another supplier is to pick the work up later?
- Usage rights: unlimited in time and territory or not. Above all for music and for the employees on camera.