Hey guys, who thinks it is right for a producer of a custom video to turn around and sell the custom video in their store for $ 9.00 or less right after an individual has paid $ 175.00 for the custom video to be made? I think that would be unethical.

I agree, that is not right. I won't pay for any custom vids - I was taken for a ride by something similar, promising but not delivering. I will purchase no more downloads from the seller in question as a result, so they will ultimately be the losers.

Yeah, that is the plan. I would hope to think that not all of them are like that. It is a shame that people would be like that. I guess live and learn but it would be great to shut them down.

Depends on the T's and C's that were signed up to, but prima facea it seems wrong and if it is buried in the small print then it probably isn't what you were expecting.

If you can get away with it, it sounds like a fantastic business model. Someone pays you to produce something that you ultimately have distribution rights to.

As someone who's now had a bit of time working with different producers and seeing custom videos made I just think you don't understand how it all works. Let's say you pay 175.00 for a custom to a producer. Said producer has to pay a model for their time and let's say it's 50.00 an hour for a two hour shoot. So there's 100.00 in cost. Next is supplies to make said shoot which requires another 60.00 in cost. So at the end of the day there is only 15.00 in "profit" for shooting a custom video WITHOUT reselling it for what ends up being 4-5 hours worth of work when you factor in supplies, editing, shooting the scene, etc etc. I hardly doubt you or anyone else is willing to work for what equates to 3.00 an hour. One can go on a street corner and make that 15.00 in an hour with a lot less hassle.

So you're saying it's wrong for a producer to resell a video that you did not claim exclusive rights to? I imagine there are tons of producers willing to do exclusive rights videos however the cost is going to go up as there needs to be actual profit built in. With them reselling it at 9.00 there might be, if the producer is lucky, ten other people willing to pay the 9.00 so they end up making 100.00 for all the work they put in to something you can get off on? I think that's a pretty fair deal, IMO.

Yeah, but how fair is it for the person who paid that much money for the video to be made and now everyone else only has to pay far less? The producer needs to work on that issue, not someone else having to pay for most of the money without being suckered into it. Seems to me, the producer should look at getting investors into it and not suckering others into being investors.

Or look at it this way. You paid for something special that caters to you. If you didn't put up the 175.00 you would've never gotten the video to begin with. So would you rather pay the 175 and get what you want or have nothing at all and just enjoy what other people have paid to have produce or what the producer thinks will sell to recoup their costs.

I recently commissioned a custom and fully knew/expected the producer to sell it and obviously not for the same price I paid. For me it is the premium price you pay for getting a vid that is exactly what you want. I've certainly enjoyed other people's custom for a fraction of what they paid. Was something I knew going into the custom process so seems fair to me. Just my two cents.

Getting your custom is that, you get exactly what you want for an agreed upon price. If you want exclusivity, state that clearly and it'll probably cost a little more on top. Otherwise, you get to sit and wait and hope that the producer or model you want will magically happen upon the exact scenario you want, produce it, and put it on sale...then you can spend $9 on it at that point. If you like the model/studio enough to put them through the work of catering to you specifically, why begrudge them extra money if other people want to see it too?

You guys are missing the whole point. If you advertise making custom videos. Then you should put in that you will be selling the videos online after it is made. As far as the cost to make the video, you can't factor in the cost of materials if the materials didn't cost you anything to get. Things such as water, mud that you use in a lake or pond, etc. If I had known that the producer was going to sell it at a lesser price online, you bet, I would not have paid the money to have the custom made. What was even worse about the situation was that the model in the videos, called me and told me that I was being scammed. Guaranteed that I will never buy another custom video again. Obviously my view of the word "custom" is much more different than others. You can say what you want and do what you want without regards to others. Unfortunately that is what our society has gotten to. You can pay for the custom videos from now on, as for me, there will be no more!

I would also like to add that the model wasn't getting paid and that the producer was using the money to do whatever they wanted to do with it. I would consider that being bad as well.

Things like this should always be specified in your contract. When you purchase a custom, you are not purchasing exclusivity unless that is specifically discussed or put into a contract. Producers routinely do sell the custom scenes to everybody else to recoup more costs. A lot of customers don't care about that because they got their wishes--the scene has been tailor-made for their own specific tastes, not everyone else's.

They way i see commissioning custom videos from a producer is that you are ordering potentially a specific content video to your exact specifications.
it could be that you want a video very similar to what the producer already sells with just a few tweaks, or could be something that maybe 1 or 2 other producers have ever created, ever.

if this is the case, then you have to account for all of the time and costs that a producer has in ANY video (even one they choose to make on their own to sell directly). Model costs, equipment, producer time, supplies, clean up etc.
Any video created by a producer has costs related to it - and these are offset by the producer selling it as a product to other consumers.
If your video is a unique and custom video for you, then ALL of the costs incurred for this video fall on you, so when quoted a cost by the producer - they are making very little money out of the deal directly with you.

I personally feel that any video created as a custom, unless specifically requested to be exclusive or that the video contains and direct personal references to the commissioner, is the property of the producer and they can choose to so with it as they please.

Think of it as you wanting to get a T-Shirt made. You could choose to get one off the shelf that the manufacturer has already spent the money on development and production costs on, which is split down to a per unit price for every T-shirt they sell.

You could also request them to make you a custom t-shirt, in a specific colour, with a unique stitching pattern on it. Now the manufacturer has to account for the costs to make that T-shirt for you, the person to stitch the design etc. They would quote you a cost to make the t-shirt, and it may be a design that no one other than you would every buy again. But unless you specifically ask for exclusivity - that design belongs to the manufacturer, and they can choose to make more copies of that t-shirt and sell it to anyone else who wants it.

What's fair is what's agreed upon.

MPV has two custom rates - $500 for one model and $750 for two and you better believe it's going to be sold later. If you don't want to do it that way then be prepared for the price to go way up. We have one customer who made a substantial contribution to the facilities at Camp MPV and still provided all the wardrobe and scripts for his requested scenes. You better believe he's going to get what he wants. Of all the costs associated with making custom videos the big one is the time. MPV tries to create a certain number of scenes in a given amount of time. A custom can eat as much time as multiple scenes which results in lost profit otherwise. Customs come with their own expenses and they may cater to some small niche that few if any others will be interested in. That's why people get customs because they aren't seeing what they want. No need for a custom video if you can be happy with something else. There's nothing wrong or unethical in charging that way.