Usage Is Not a Detail

A campaign fee can look generous and still be badly built. The number on the first page is only one term in the deal. Usage decides how far the work travels: for how long, in which markets, across which media, and whether the same image is still speaking for you long after the day you shot it.

Before you sign, know what you are actually giving away. Where can the work run, and for how long. Which markets and formats does it cover. Do you keep the right to approve how it is used, and does the deal renew without anyone asking you again. Can someone train an AI system or build a synthetic version of you out of what you shot. Each answer changes what the deal is really worth, whatever the fee on the first page says.

If someone asks for every media, everywhere, forever, with no end date, let that slow you down. There are rare cases where terms that wide are fair. They should never be the line you sign without reading, because a grant with no end date can turn one day of work into a permanent asset for somebody else, one you no longer have any say over.

Usage is a rights question, not a paperwork detail. The shoot might last a day. What you sign away can last years, and it is worth knowing which one you actually agreed to before your name goes on the page.

Any agreement that reaches you through us gets marked up within forty-eight hours, in writing, so you know exactly what you are trading before your name goes on it.