Custom videos are commissioned productions for a single customer: they describe what they want to see, you decide whether you shoot that, and you deliver a file. The work is easy to calculate, because place, time and process sit with you. It is at the same time risky, because you negotiate directly — without a production, without production management, without an agency in between. Custom-video enquiries rarely fail at the shoot. They fail on unclear agreements, missing payment in advance and renegotiation after delivery. All three points are decided before you say yes.
How an enquiry runs
It comes via a platform message, by email or through a form, and at the start it is almost always vague: “Do you do customs?” or “What does a video cost?”. Neither of those is an enquiry; they are conversation openers.
Your first step is therefore not the price, but the description. Without a precise description there is no price, and anyone who names a figure before they know what is asked is negotiating against themselves.
The process that has proved itself: enquiry, follow-up questions, your written summary, their confirmation, payment in advance, shoot, delivery. You write the summary, not they — then it states what you will shoot, and not what they would like to read into it. Everything runs in text. A phone call as the only basis is worth nothing.
Count on the majority of enquiries never becoming a commission. That is not a reason to lower conditions — it is the reason to keep the prior conversations short and always use the same sequence. Anyone who treats every enquiry individually works a lot and earns little.
What is settled before the acceptance
- The content, described precisely. Acts, clothing, angle, language, what is said. “Like the last video, only more intense” is not a description, but a later point of dispute.
- The length. Net running time in minutes. Not “a longer video”.
- Delivery date and delivery path. A date, a format, a resolution, a path. If you deliver via a download link, the expiry date belongs in the agreement.
- The usage right. The point most often skipped. Private means: only for them, no passing on, no uploading. Further distribution is a different product and costs different money. What these terms mean in detail is in the industry lexicon.
- Exclusivity. May you later sell the video yourself? If yes, they have to know that beforehand. If no, it is more expensive, because you forgo every further exploitation.
- Price, payment path, payment in advance. In one sentence, with amount and date.
- What does not take place. Your exclusions belong in the agreement, and before the price question.
These points in one message, their confirmation underneath, both kept. That is the whole paperwork, and in practice it saves most of the problems.
Why payment in advance is the standard
After delivery you have nothing left in your hand. The file is with the customer, and a digital service cannot be taken back. Everything you still negotiate after that you negotiate from the weaker position.
On top of that the effort arises beforehand: preparation, props, possibly a second person, shoot time, edit. Anyone who does not pay in advance is not buying, but trying out whether you deliver.
The usual is full payment before the shoot. On larger commissions a part payment on acceptance and the rest before delivery. Note that some payment paths can be reversed by the payer — which path is suitable for digital services you settle once in peace and then keep.
On pricing: reliable market figures for custom videos do not exist for Germany, and invented ones do not help you. Calculate from your effort — communication, preparation, shoot, edit, delivery — and really count the communication, because on small commissions it eats the largest share. As an orientation for what a shoot day is worth in booked productions, the ranges under earnings serve. Commissions whose price sits under the value of the prior conversations you are better off declining.
Where the limits sit
Your yes-no-maybe list applies here just as it does on set. The difference is that nobody else is in the room: no production management, no contact, no stop word that anyone hears. That is why the written list is more important on commissioned productions than on set, not less important.
Personalised address with a real name. A video in which the customer’s first name falls is personalised material — and it turns up later with that context. For you that means: never surnames, no addresses, no employers, no reference to third parties such as an ex-partner, a neighbour or a colleague. Whether you speak a first name you decide; that every personalisation raises the blackmail risk on both sides belongs in that decision.
Enquiries with a reference to minority or to a non-consensual depiction are declined and not negotiated. No counter-offer, no rephrasing, no “only implied”, no higher price. That also applies to props, clothing and language that point in that direction. Keep the message and break off contact afterwards.
Shifting limits in stages. The first enquiry is harmless, the second goes further, after the acceptance new wishes arrive. The pattern is known and the answer is always the same: what is not in the agreement does not take place. An extension is a new commission.
Renegotiation after delivery
Three sentences are typical: “That was not what I wanted”, “Do it again”, “Otherwise I will leave a bad review”. All three come after delivery, because they do not work beforehand.
The only thing that helps against that is the written description. You delivered what was described — that is checkable and ends the discussion factually. You make a correction when you have actually departed from the agreement. Everything else is a new commission at a new price.
Pressure via reviews is blackmail on a small scale. Anyone who gives in once will experience it again, and from the same person. In a case of genuine blackmail with material the rule is: do not pay, keep everything, file a report. What helps and who takes it on is under safety.
The income in the bookkeeping
A custom video is income from self-employed activity like a day rate. It belongs in your records, even if no customer asks for an invoice and the payment comes via a platform. What that means in duties is in the article on trade registration and tax for performers.
On payments via platforms the platform keeps its share. How the gross amount and the fee are to be recorded in your case, and what applies with customers abroad, you settle with the tax office and not by feel. In any case you should keep three things: the commission description, the message history and the payment proof.
A simple list belongs with that: date, customer as an abbreviation, amount, payment path. It does not replace a bookkeeping programme, but it prevents you in the spring from searching message histories for amounts you have long forgotten.
Note: This article provides a general overview and is not a substitute for legal or tax advice.
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