Filmmaker Tips: Deliverables, Project Scope, & Alignment

Let's talk about one of the most important things you need to do as a freelancer or commercial production company, before you begin shooting or editing. The wonderful world of aligning on the deliverables & project scope.

What are deliverables / project scope, and why is it important when doing commercial projects?

Defining deliverables

Deliverables, strictly speaking, are everything that you are going to deliver as part of your service. I've heard this most often in a corporate setting and have unfortunately carried this over into my common parlance, much to my loved ones dismay. However, think of it simply as everything you are going to give to your client at the end of the project. It is an itemized checklist and is used as such.

A deliverable is typically thought of as each individual, discrete final product you are delivering. When vague, it can be everything from "general event photos" to "raw footage from the event." When specific, it can be "10-20 photos of X person speaking" to "a sub-60s social media edit delivered in 1x1 aspect ratio."

Remember, the more specific you can define a deliverable, the better your life will be.

For example, a photographer for a project might have as a deliverable "general event photos," which is amazing as they are able to give as little and as many event photos as they would like. However, this is a trap in disguise: without guidelines or guardrails in place, you'll be forced to share more and more photos until the client is happy, or there could be a miscommunication about how many photos you actually needed to send over.

Another example could be an editor that takes on a project that has the following deliverables: a sub-60 second athlete sizzle video formatted in 16x9, 9x16, and 1x1 aspect ratios, with two music options.

How many deliverables is that? Well, that's not one deliverable; that's actually six deliverables. The editor is delivering six separate cuts—six discrete, unique products—to the client.

What is project scope?

Project scope is everything you are tasked (and asked!) to do to accomplish your deliverables. It is typically linked directly with the deliverables for the project, as the deliverables are what defines the scope of the project.

Let's go through two examples. First, a photographer is tasked with capturing a corporate summit, and their end deliverable is 60 photos from the event. The project scope for the photographer is

• To shoot the photos
• To edit the photos
• To deliver the photos in a way the client can access them

If the photographer wanted to allow for a couple of rounds of feedback, they would also add that to the project scope. To a client, the project scope would be communicated as:

• Capture general event coverage of the summit
• Edit & Deliver 60 photos from the event
• One Round of Revisions/Review

In our second example, let's use a production company who is capturing the same summit, where their end deliverable is a social media highlight video of the day. The client wants you to include interviews with participants in the social media piece as well. The project scope for the production company is to

• Capture general event coverage & B-roll
• Capture interviews with participants
• Edit the final piece into a 9x16 social media highlight video.

To the client, the project scope would be communicated as

• General event coverage & B roll
• Capture interviews with participants
• Edit & deliver a 60s highlight video formatted in 9x16 for social
• XX rounds of review

In both examples, the deliverables were singular, but the amount of work you needed to do to achieve the deliverables inlcuded extra steps or extra effort.

Why is this important?

Because you are only going to get paid for the work you agree to do.

Aligning on project scope is a way of protecting yourself, your company, and your reputation when you do a project. It's a way of getting everyone on the same page, and making sure everyone understands everything that is included in what you are doing and everything that is included in what you are delivering. It's a simple way of making sure there are no miscommunications or misunderstandings.

For example, two days before your event, the client comes to you and says that they would also like for your team to capture the CEO's speech at the summit so they can share it to social media. That is an increase in scope, because now you are changing up the work that you have to do.

• You now must dedicate resources & time to capture the CEO's speech, which might mean different equipment or extra personnel.
• You now must dedicate resources & time to edit the speech

When a client goes out of scope, you are forced to make a decision & forced to have a discussion. As the service provider, you will need to make a decision of how you are going to handle this increase in scope, and what it means big picture to you and your company. You also are going to need to decide if this means that there should be a increase in budget as a result. The results of your decision drive the impetus of your discussion.

You could decide that this is something that doesn't need an extra hand, and that you can do this without increasing the budget. However, if you think this means that you need to increase the budget, you should tell the client that this is increasing the originally agreed upon scope, and could / would have budget implications.

Ultimately, this is why it is important to discuss project scope & deliverables in the upfront. It's a layer of protection for both parties.

Without agreeing to a scope of work when you start the project and how much that scope of work costs, you will be stuck with the impact of any increase in scope. You define what you do for your service. The client defines what they want for what they are paying you. Everyone has a common understanding of the service and the cost of that service.

If the photographer needs to do two more rounds of review, that is more time spent on a project that is outside of what they are being paid for, and someone must pay for the time, either the client or the photographer.

When we stray outside the cost or the service, things get messy. But by defining in the upfront exactly what is happening in the project, we can have a common understanding on why things might cost more when more things are asked, or why what seems like a simple request might mean increasing the budget.

How to use this

When you are going over a project, you generally define the project scope and deliverables in one of the first meetings you have with a client, and then update them based on all further discussions that you have with a client.

For example, in the original estimate to the client, the photographer could write the following emails.

"The cost for event capture would be $1,000, which includes 60 edited photos delivered via dropbox, and one round of revision."

or

The cost for the project comes out to $1,000. This includes

• General event photography capture
• 60 Edited photo selects delivered via dropbox
• One round of review / revision

If the client were to come back and request two more rounds of revision after the photos were taken, the photographer could write the following reply.

Two more rounds of revision would be an increase in the project scope, which would mean some budget implications due to the amount of time for each revision. I would be able to do both revisions for $200; is this something you'd like to proceed with?

At the end of the day, project scope is the most important thing you can do, as neither you nor your client want to be caught off guard by the project and what was expected at the end of the day.

Interested in some project scope template emails? Look out below, and also check out the resources tab up above for tools and tips for filmmakers and creatives.

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