How we work.

These are the terms we work to. They apply to every job unless something signed by both of us says otherwise. Your quote and these terms together are the agreement between us.

If you are just reading the website rather than hiring us, you want the terms of use instead.

The quote

Every job starts with a written quote. It sets out what we are making, what it costs, what is included and roughly when it lands. If something is not on the quote, it is not in the price.

Quotes hold for thirty days. Figures are in Cayman Islands dollars unless the quote says otherwise, which it will for some overseas work.

Accepting a quote in writing, by email or otherwise, means accepting these terms with it.

Money

• 50% of the fee is due on booking. That is what confirms the dates, and we do not hold dates without it
• The remaining 50% is invoiced on delivery and payable within 14 days
• Third party costs agreed in advance are charged on at cost. Travel, permits, talent fees, music licences, studio or location hire, specialist kit
• Larger jobs can be split into thirds across booking, shoot and delivery. Ask and we will quote it that way

We may charge interest on overdue amounts at 1.5% per month, and we may pause work on any job while an invoice is outstanding.

Booking, moving and cancelling

When you book, we turn down other work for those dates and commit crew and kit. That is what the deposit is for and it is why cancelling late costs more than cancelling early.

• More than 7 days before the shoot: the deposit is retained
• Inside 7 days: the deposit plus 50% of the remaining fee
• Inside 48 hours: the full fee
• In every case, any crew, kit, travel or third party cost already committed is also payable

Moving a date is not the same as cancelling. The first postponement to a date we can both make costs nothing beyond anything already committed. After that we treat it as a cancellation and rebook.

Weather, and other things nobody controls

Much of this work happens outdoors on a small island. Weather stops shoots, and that is not a cancellation by either of us.

If conditions make a shoot unsafe, unusable or impossible, we agree a new date and no cancellation charge applies. Costs already committed for the original date still stand, because the crew and the kit were still booked.

Drone work depends on permissions and on conditions on the day. Where a permit is refused, withdrawn or the flight would not be safe or lawful, we will not fly, and that is not a failure to deliver on our part. We will always tell you as early as we can and offer an alternative.

Neither of us is liable to the other for a delay caused by something genuinely outside our control, which around here means hurricanes and the run up to them, government restrictions, port and airport closures, and the loss of a location we were relying on.

On the shoot

A shoot day is up to ten hours on location, including breaks and including setting up and packing down. If a day runs longer at your request we will say so at the time and charge the overtime rate on the quote.

We bring the crew the job needs. We may use freelancers and we stay responsible for their work.

What we need from you

• Access to the locations, people and premises the job depends on, at the times agreed
• Permission for anything you have arranged: the location, the premises, the people appearing, the products and any brand material. You confirm you have the right to let us film it and to let the film be used as planned
• Any logos, fonts, brand guidelines or existing footage we need, in a usable format, before the edit starts
• One named person who can give feedback and sign the work off. More than one voice with equal authority is the single most reliable way to make an edit take three times as long

If a job stalls because something on that list has not arrived, the timeline moves and any costs that come out of the delay are yours rather than ours.

The edit

Two rounds of revisions are included.

A round means one consolidated set of notes. Get everyone who has an opinion to agree internally first, then send it in one go. A trickle of separate emails from different people is not a round, and we will ask you to gather it up before we start work.

Notes inside the scope of what was quoted are what the rounds are for. Changing the brief is a different thing: a new direction, a recut for a different platform, extra versions, added footage, a change of music or voiceover after approval. We will quote that as additional work before doing it, never afterwards.

Further rounds are charged at the day rate on your quote.

Approval and delivery

We deliver in the formats set out on the quote, by a link you can download from. Sign off in writing and the job is complete.

If something is wrong with what we delivered, tell us within seven days and we will put it right at no cost. After sign off, changes are new work.

Who owns what

You get the finished film, licensed for the use we agreed and set out on the quote. That means the platforms, the territories and the length of time named there.

Wider use than that needs a new licence, which we will quote for. It is usually straightforward and it is much cheaper to ask than to assume.

• The rushes, the project files and the working material stay with us. They are not part of the delivery unless the quote says so
• A full buyout, including the rushes, is available and priced separately. Ask before the shoot rather than after, because it changes how we work
• We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, our showreel, our social accounts and in awards and festival entries. If a job is confidential or embargoed, tell us and we will agree a date or leave it out altogether
• Rights in the finished film pass to you once the final invoice is paid, not before

Music and other people's material

Music is licensed for the use we agreed, the same as the film. Using the film somewhere the music licence does not reach puts you in breach of that licence rather than of anything between us, and those licences are enforced more keenly than people expect. Tell us if the use is changing and we will sort the music out properly.

The same goes for stock, fonts, archive footage and anything a third party has licensed to the production.

The archive

We archive project files and we do not delete them on a schedule, so coming back years later for a recut is usually possible and often easy.

That is not a guarantee. Drives fail and formats age. If a film matters to you long term, take your own copy of the delivered masters and keep it somewhere you control. We are not your archive of record and we do not warrant that any particular file will still be retrievable.

Confidentiality

Anything you tell us about an unannounced product, a campaign or your business stays with us and with the crew who need to know. It works the same way in reverse.

Credit

Where a credit is normal for the kind of work, we would like one. We will not hold up a delivery over it.

Liability

We carry out the work with reasonable skill and care. Where we get something wrong, our liability is limited to the fees you have paid us for that job.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profit, lost revenue or a missed campaign date. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Which law applies

These terms are governed by the law of the Cayman Islands, and the courts of the Cayman Islands deal with any dispute arising out of them.

Changes to these terms

We update this page from time to time and change the date at the top. The version that applies to your job is the one published when you accepted the quote, so if you want a copy of that version for your records, ask and we will send it.

Questions

Anything on this page, email hello@armadafilms.com and ask before you sign. It is a better use of everyone's time than a disagreement later.