Lewis

I am completely inexperienced, hence me asking these questions in the first place. I feel as though when you hand over stems to your clients, they would have far more experience than the person I am dealing with. I have a strong feeling that handing over stems is going to result in something I don't want my name associated with. But thanks for the input! I'm glad to know this now.

Thank-you all for your great replies! I have just replied to his email and I have decided against handing over an OMF or stems of my mix (unless desperately needed). After reading your responses and them aligning with my gut feeling, I decided that it was a bad idea. This is a basic summary of the reasons I gave; I am unable to hand over an OMF due to legal reasons involving sound library licensing. An exported OMF of my mix will not sound the same, due to missing plugins and automation of some parameters. Handing over stems for a final render is uncommon and could result in changes and errors in final levels. If the stems are desperately required, I am happy to make changes to the mix on my system, due to my access of appropriate metering and knowledge of the project's workflow. This has been a big lesson. I have realised that I need to start writing contracts when I begin work and to outline what exactly my work on the project involves and what files will be transferred at it's completion! Thanks again, Lewis

Hey guys, I'm a young guy who is just starting out in this industry and I am currently doing lots of free work. At the moment, I am doing everything from location recordings to the final mixes for short films. I have just finished the final mix for a short film with a client (i'm working for free), which they were very pleased and impressed with. This client is an older gent who is trying to launch his career as an actor through the submission of the short film I worked on into countless film festivals. He has many connections with very respectable and well known people in the industry, which is quite intimidating (but has the possibility of opening up the opportunity of paid work), which makes me concerned about upsetting him. My dilemma started today, when I received an email from him asking for stems and an OMF file of all my work that I have just completed. His reasoning being that they can come in handy when rendering the final film and as a backup in case something goes wrong and they need to go back to it. This client has very little understanding of post sound and it truly frightens me, thinking about what my name could be associated with if I hand these files over.. Am I just naive and it is common for stems to be given for rendering? If not, what is the best way to politely say that I am unwilling to give these files, but I am happy to make any necessary changes? What is the best way to go about this? Does anyone have past experience with this sort of situation? Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Lewis