Standard Terms of Engagement
1. Terms
These Standard Terms of Engagement (‘Terms’) apply to all services carried out by ‘us/we’, Bunker Street Film Co., for ‘you’, the Client.
These Terms apply to any current engagement and to any future engagements, whether or not we send you another copy of these Terms.
We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time and will post the amended Terms on our website www.bunkerstreet.co.nz/legal. The amended Terms will apply from the time that you next commence a new engagement with us.
2. Services and Bookings
The ‘services’ which we provide to you are those that are outlined in the project-related correspondence before the commencement of each project (emails, proposals, treatments etc.).
For the benefit of clarity, in most circumstances, you will be engaging us to provide the service of creating ‘Produced Content’.
A booking is considered as being made once you have given us the project ‘go ahead’. We will aim to have this agreed in writing before we undertake any action on your behalf.
3. Our Fees
The fees which we will charge for the Produced Content or otherwise, will be set out and agreed in the project-related correspondence prior to the commencement of the project.
If the agreement is for a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services. Work which falls outside of that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. We will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services outside of the agreed scope and will give you an estimate of the likely amount of any further costs.
If the agreement is for an hourly or daily rate basis, these rates will be clearly communicated and agreed prior to commencement of the project.
If the agreement is for an estimated project cost, the final fee charged may be more or less than the amount of the estimate, however we do intend for our estimates to be as accurate as possible based on the information available to us at the time of quoting.
All reasonable expenses incurred by us in providing the services will be on charged to you, and you may be responsible for additional costs as a result of changes to the project plan after the initial estimations, we will endeavour to discuss this with you as they occur where possible.
We reserve the right to re-quote should the script, concept, or original project specifications from you alter significantly at any stage throughout the project.
4. Payments and Invoicing
All prices are exclusive of GST, which is payable in addition to the net amount quoted in our proposals, quotations, estimates, or invoices.
Most projects are charged as a progress payment arrangement, whereby we will invoice throughout various stages of the project; usually 30% on project go ahead, 30% upon completion of principal filming and the balance on delivery, unless otherwise agreed.
We may send further interim invoices to you, i.e., monthly for ongoing assignments, or when we incur a significant expense on behalf of the project.
In some circumstances we may ask you to pay a nonrefundable booking deposit to secure specific production dates.
All invoices are payable within 7 days of the date of the invoice unless alternative arrangements have been made with us prior to the commencement of the project.
Our standard payment arrangement is where we invoice you and you make direct credit payment to our nominated bank account. If you require an alternative payment method, you are welcome to discuss this with us and we will accommodate your needs where possible.
5. Payment Defaults
If there are any issues with the service we have provided we request that you raise this with us promptly. However, any disputed amounts may not be offset against due invoices.
For late payments we may require interest to be paid on any amount that is overdue. If applicable, interest will be calculated at the amount of 15% per annum from the date payment became due until the date payment is made in full on a daily calculation basis.
We reserve the right to stop or postpone any work in progress where there is an overdue amount outstanding without arrangement and we will not be liable for any loss you may suffer as a result of this.
You will be liable for all legal and debt collection costs that we incur in enforcing or attempting to enforce our rights under this agreement. This does not affect our other rights to recover payment.
6. Cancellations
Once you have given us the go ahead on a project, we will commence working on the required parts and as such will generally start incurring costs straight away.
If you decide to cancel a project after giving us the go ahead, for whatever reason, we will need to charge for any costs incurred to date, such as:
i. the cost for the work undertaken by our team prior to the notice of cancellation (usually pre-production, planning or concept development time);
ii. any third-party costs incurred so far (including any cancellation fees);
iii. and any costs to enact the cancellation (time needed to action cancellation).
Additionally, if we have production dates agreed and booked in, we will also need to recoup a portion of the cost of those dates that we haven’t been able to make available to other clients.
Where cancellation of the project occurs more than 14 days prior to the booked production dates, a fee of 30% of the value of the production dates will also be charged.
Where cancellation is between 14 days and 48 hours prior to the booked production dates, a fee of 50% of the value of the production dates will also be charged.
Where cancellation is less than 48 hours prior to the booked production dates, a fee of 100% of the value of the production dates will also be charged.
7. Postponements
Where scheduled production has been prevented from occurring on a booked date due to circumstances beyond our control, and a new date is booked (and therefore the job is not cancelled just postponed), a postponement fee of 30% of the value of the production dates may be charged as well as any associated third-party costs involved to change the booking.
We recognise our obligation to minimise postponement liabilities and will apply accepted industry practices.
Circumstances beyond our control may include but are not limited to
i. Weather conditions (any adverse condition that is not consistent with the prescribed shooting conditions you desire or are suitable for the job).
ii. Injury, illness, or absence of elements under your control.
iii. “Force majeure” events (meaning but not limited to, earthquake, riot, fire, flood, volcanic eruption, acts of war, strikes, civil authority, terrorism, pandemics and ‘acts of God’ and including any governmental restriction on movement due to COVID 19 or any other pandemic).
iv. A request by you to postpone, or any other reason reasonably attributed to the Client’s actions or omissions.
If a non-refundable booking deposit has been taken, this will be used as the postponement fee and a new booking deposit may be required.
8. Third Parties and Contractors
Some projects will require the involvement of third parties or additional contractors (i.e., talent, hair and makeup artists, specialist photographers etc.). We will endeavour to ensure you are aware of the costs and conditions for including any third parties on the project, however, we will not be liable for any associated costs or cancellation fees.
If we introduce you to a third party or contractor during the provision of our services, any future bookings of the contractor must go through us unless we agree otherwise.
We may also license music for the Produced Content on your behalf. Individual license terms will apply and can be provided at your request. Standard license is for non-exclusive use. The license rights for any music used are only transferred to you once payment has been received in full for the project.
9. Concept Creation and IP Copyright
We retain the copyright for any pre-production elements that we create, including but not limited to any ideas, concepts, scripts, storyboards, production plans etc. If an idea or concept does not result in the delivery of Produced Content, we retain the copyright to the ideas/concepts indefinitely.
10. Content Definitions
‘Produced Content’ means the finished product/s created by us for you and is usually referred to as the project’s ‘deliverables’ in the agreement prior to the commencement of the project.
‘Raw Content’ means any and all content captured by us or our contractors during the undertaking of the project, including but not limited to raw video files, raw still photographs and audio recordings. Raw content is generally considered as being raw files that have not been edited or had any post-production time applied to them.
‘Provided Content’ means any content that you provide us to utilise during the project. This may include previously produced still imagery, video content, music tracks, branding information etc. Prior to providing this content to us, you agree that you have full legal right to use this content and you indemnify us against any claims of improper use of the provided content. You retain the ownership rights to any provided content and grant us the right to use this content within the Produced Content if applicable.
11. Produced Content Rights
Once the invoices for all of our services have been paid in full by you, you have the right to use the Produced Content. We grant you an open-ended license to use the Produced Content as it was delivered.
The below conditions apply unless otherwise agreed:
i. you may not edit or alter the Produced Content in any way;
ii. we retain the right to use the Produced Content for promotional purposes; and
iii. the on-sale or transfer of the Produced Content to a third party by you will not affect our rights under this agreement.
Until our services have been paid for in full, you do not have the right to use the Produced Content, and we retain the ownership rights.
For the purposes of clarity, the above clause is agreed to by both parties as per section 21 (4) of the Copyright Act 1994.
12. Raw Content Rights
We (Bunker Street Film Co.) own and retain the rights to all of the Raw Content captured during the project and we are free to use this content as we please, however we agree not on-sell any files, imagery or footage that include any of your brand or identifiers to a third party.
If you would like to purchase the ownership rights to the Raw Content captured during the project, we may (at our discretion) agree to sell this to you for an additional fee. Sale of the rights would release any ownership/possession we have over the content and would pass this possession to you.
If you do choose to purchase the Raw Content, once paid for and transferred to you we will erase this content from our system so the responsibility for safe keeping of the content passes to you. We do not offer storage options for Raw Content that we do not own the rights to.
As an alternative, we can sell you a one-off license to use certain pieces of Raw Content.
If either of these options are desired, we strongly recommend that this is discussed and quoted prior to the commencement of the project. Please note that unless storage arrangements are made, we may not keep all Raw Content indefinitely.
For the purposes of clarity, the above clause is agreed to by both parties as per section 21 (4) of the Copyright Act 1994.
13. File Download and Storage
At the completion of the project we will generally provide you the Produced Content via online share link which will give you access to download the files. This will be a temporary share link, and you will need to download the Produced Content to a safe location within 30 calendar days.
If you would like us to store the Produced Content on your behalf, or if you consider that you may like to use the Raw Content again for future projects and would like us to ensure the storage of the content beyond 30 calendar days, you can elect for us to do so for a fee per 1TB of data.
Please let us know if you would like to take up this option prior to the expiry of the 30 days.
14. Our Obligations and Limitation of liability
We aim to always perform the services with reasonable skill, care, and diligence in a professional manner.
We will also ensure to use well maintained and appropriate equipment. However, we will not be liable for any issues or technical failures which are beyond our reasonable control such as signal/coverage losses, battery failures, equipment failures and/or material defects. In the unlikely event of a full recording failure or loss of data following the production dates, the liability of Bunker Street Film Co. is limited to the re-provisioning of our services only.
The Client acknowledges that projects are occasionally subject to other matters beyond our control including but not limited to weather, road closures, sickness, licensing disputes, and/or any third-party delays, and that we are also not liable for issues that arise from these matters.
If we are liable for any loss arising from a breach of this agreement or for any other reason, such liability is limited to the amount already paid to us by you for the applicable project. We will not be liable for any consequential loss or lost profit or business.
15. Your Obligations
We expect that you will;
i. Give us clear instructions;
ii. Promptly provide any information, access or content we require to perform the services;
iii. Ensure that any location/s under your responsibility that are used by our team during the project are safe and that any licences, permits or permissions necessary to enter such locations have been obtained; and
iv. Communicate with us promptly in the event of any issues.
16. Dispute Resolution
If either party has a dispute with the other in connection with this agreement, we ask that:
i. that party gives written details of the dispute or issue to the other party; and
ii. the parties agree to meet together and in good faith try to resolve the dispute.
If the dispute is not resolved within 7 days (or any longer period if agreed to by both parties) the dispute can be referred to mediation by either party. The parties agree that they will share the costs of any mediation services. Until mediation ceases, neither party may commence arbitration or legal proceedings.
Payment for our agreed and provided services may not be withheld during the Dispute Process.
17. Confidential Information
Confidential information belonging to either party shall not be disclosed to any third party nor used for any purpose other than in connection with completion of the Project.
18. Insurance
Each party agrees to insure itself effectively to uphold the requirements of this agreement.