Hey folks,

I’m wondering what y’all have found to be a simple, effective, and professional way of handling contracts for freelance post-production and other services such as dialog editing, sound design, etc. I’m talking about a way to keep clients engaged and prevent them from flaking out or disappearing.

I often use Upwork for jobs since it makes contract negotiation pretty easy and the escrow payments are great. I’ve never really had issues with clients on it. But for reasons which aren’t usually explained, some clients eventually ask to work directly with me and not through Upwork. And this is where stuff starts going sideways more often than I’d like. I’d like to find something akin to a form / contract or something simple directors can agree to which prevents them from ghosting me after we’ve already come to a verbal agreement about budget and scope. What have you found that feels professional yet not too formal - something that clients seem to like?

Finding work= Hard
Doing work=Easy
Getting paid=Hard

The eternal problem. The only two who never paid are both well known media multinationals. Not much comeback there...

You say that people you know or have worked with are your potential clients. That is good.

I would suggest a comprehensive email exchange in writing as it will prove who said what if needs be. unfortunately a lot work can be last minute rush jobs and we don't always have time for negotiation.

Good luck!

For decades my approach has been to establish terms and pricing up front, then work with whatever pay system is in place with the client. Depending on whether it's a small company or a big corporation, getting paid can be a different scenario. For instance: TV networks can be a barrel of red tape to work thru at first, but once you've past that phase, and are in their system, getting paid is pretty streamlined. From my experience, big corporations tend to have the slowest pay systems. Small shops may need to collect from their client before being able to pay you for your services. Ad agencies may need to issue a PO for the job before you send your invoice. And some prefer to receive just one invoice at the end of their month when they close out accounts and projects.

I try to be flexible and work with the clients' pay systems. That said, my invoice states '15 days net please',(from invoice date) which usually gets me paid fairly quickly once the invoice goes out, and repeat clients honor that request as best they can. The main goal is to build a working relationship and acquire clients for life. So being flexible is always beneficial.

I dont really get your question. You are worried about not getting paid or worried about setting up an agreement and someone walking away? If it's the latter, you can't avoid it other than making sure these are people who really want you to work with them on the project you are working. Learn to read people. If its the prior, thats easy. Ask nicely, then call and scream, then go all ****. Many eon's ago I was hired by an ad agency to work for them. It was the worst job ever. You had the client reps working directly with the client constantly in your face to get their projects done with the shortest possible notice, and drop everything and everyone else you are working on to get their project done and completed. And then when it was time to pay your contractors, they would tippy toe and be afraid to call their client to ask for payment for fear the client would walk away. so then you had the contractors calling and screaming and freaking out all day asking to get paid. But they did get paid. The calling and screaming worked. Pull a captain caveman. This was before the internet. Now you have social media where can flame and publicly humiliate people for not paying you.

musicians union website has some good (free) contracts you can use as a basic guideline