Who owns raw footage after a video shoot?

Short answer: paying for a shoot does not automatically make the raw footage yours. If the contract says nothing, you can count on the finished video, and even that comes as a licence rather than ownership. Below is how raw footage ownership works in video production from the studio side, eight contract clauses you can copy, and what archiving the material really costs.

Key takeaways

• The finished video is a creative work. Under the Slovak Copyright Act (No. 185/2015), section 20, an author's economic rights cannot be transferred, so a client receives a licence to the film, not ownership of it.
• The recording itself, unused takes included, has a separate "producer of the audiovisual recording" under sections 116 to 118 of the same act, and those rights can be transferred. A contract can move them to you.
• The producer is whoever initiated or arranged the recording. On a commissioned shoot that could be you or the studio, which is exactly why it belongs in writing.
• In the US, the default is similar: the creator owns the footage unless a commissioned work fits one of nine categories and both sides sign a written work made for hire agreement, according to the U.S. Copyright Office.
• One hour of 4K UHD at 25 fps in ProRes 422 HQ runs at 737 Mb/s according to Apple's ProRes documentation, roughly 330 GB. A two camera shoot day easily passes a terabyte.
• Storage is cheap. Backblaze B2 lists 6.95 dollars per terabyte per month. What costs money is the human work of checking, labelling and handing over the files.

Who owns raw footage in video production by default?

Not you, unless the contract says so. That surprises a lot of marketing teams, especially the ones who paid for every hour of crew time.

We work under Slovak law, and it splits the question into two layers. Most arguments about raw files happen because clients and studios treat them as one.

Layer one is the work: the edited film. The Copyright Act names the director, the screenwriter and anyone else who contributed creatively as its authors. Their economic rights can only be licensed, never sold. For commissioned work, section 91 says that unless agreed otherwise, the client may use the film for the purpose the contract implies. It is the same logic we explained for logos in our piece on who owns a logo designed by an agency.

Layer two is the recording. Section 116 defines an audiovisual recording broadly: any recording of images, with or without sound, on any medium. Every minute on the camera cards counts, including the minutes that never made the edit. Section 118 gives the producer of that recording exclusive economic rights, and paragraph 5 adds the sentence worth remembering: these rights are transferable. They last 50 years under section 120.

The catch is the definition of producer: the person who initiated or arranged the final making of the recording. You initiated the shoot, the studio arranged it. Nobody wants to test that ambiguity in court, so write it down.

If your mental model is American, it is closer than you might think. The U.S. Copyright Office explains in its work made for hire rules for commissioned video that a commissioned piece only counts as made for hire when it falls into one of nine categories, part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work being one of them, and both parties sign a written agreement saying so. No signed agreement, no transfer. Their own short explainer is worth four minutes:

Why won't some production companies hand over raw footage?

Usually not out of spite. Raw footage is unfinished work, it is heavy, and it often contains things that should not leave the studio. Here is the honest view from our side of the table, because we have this conversation regularly.

• It looks wrong. We shoot in a flat log profile that only gets its look during color grading. Forward an ungraded clip to a colleague and they will ask whether the camera broke.
• The sound lives elsewhere. Interviews are recorded on a separate audio recorder. Without syncing, you have pictures with scratch audio and clean audio with no pictures.
• It shows people who never agreed. Slovak civil law requires consent to use a person's likeness. At conferences like SlovakiaTech, hundreds of audience faces drift through the background. The final cut picks them carefully, the raw files do not.
• It carries someone else's music. At an event, the DJ or band is audible in every shot, and there is no licence for that music in your raw files. More on that in our article on music licensing in video.
• And yes, business. Whoever holds the raw footage can take the next edit anywhere. Most studios stay quiet about this; we would rather say it out loud. It is a fair reason to price raw delivery separately, not a reason to refuse it.

What should a video production contract say about raw footage?

Eight clauses, each doing one job. We are not lawyers, so on a large project let yours review the wording, but these are the points where real projects break.

1. Delivery scope: "Deliverables include the complete raw footage, picture and separately recorded audio, in the original camera format, within 14 days of acceptance of the final video."
2. Rights to the recording: "The contractor transfers to the client the economic rights of the producer of the audiovisual recording for all footage shot, including unused takes."
3. Licence to re-edit: "The author grants the client an exclusive licence to use the work and the footage in all forms, without limits of time or territory, including the right to adapt it and create new edits, directly or through a third party."
4. Portfolio use: "The contractor may show the final video in its portfolio. Raw footage may only be used with the client's written consent."
5. Archiving: "The contractor keeps the original footage for 24 months after delivery and notifies the client in writing, with an offer to hand it over, before deleting it."
6. Project files: "Editing project files are not part of the deliverables unless agreed otherwise." If you want them, ask for them as a separate line in the quote.
7. Third party licences: "Music, stock footage and fonts are licensed for the final video only. The client secures licences for any new versions."
8. On camera consent: "Consent from people on camera is obtained by [party] and covers use of the raw footage in further versions."

Clauses 2 and 3 do the heavy lifting. Without the second, you hold a hard drive but not the right to use what is on it. Without the third, your next editor cannot legally touch the material. Raise both at the very first meeting, alongside the other questions in our guide on how to choose a video production company.

How much does it cost to archive raw footage in 2026?

The storage itself is cheap. The money goes into the hours of human work around it.

A typical brief: two cameras, about two hours of recording each, four hours in total. At the 737 Mb/s that Apple lists for ProRes 422 HQ in UHD at 25 fps, that is about 1.3 TB. At Backblaze B2's listed 6.95 dollars per terabyte per month, one cloud copy costs roughly 9 dollars a month. A sensible archive keeps at least two copies in two places, so double it. With more compressed camera codecs the volume drops a lot.

Where you actually pay: copying with checksum verification, naming folders, logging shoot notes and pulling the best selects. Those are hours, not gigabytes. A good production company will tell you in the quote how long the archive is included and what an extension or a full handover to your own drive costs. With us, a set of selects comes as standard. If you want every frame, we list full raw delivery as its own line in the quote, so you can see what you are paying for.

Do you really need all the raw footage?

Honestly, often not, and we say that even though we would happily sell it to you.

Without an in-house editor, a terabyte of flat log footage is mostly a burden. Nobody watches it, nobody labels it, and a year later nobody knows what is on the drive. Most marketers get more from three things combined: 30 to 50 of the best selects, a licence to re-edit, and a guarantee that the originals stay with the studio for two years. How to turn a set of selects into a year of content is in our article on recycling a video archive.

Full raw makes sense when you have an internal team, when you expect to switch suppliers, or when you film something that cannot be repeated, such as a plant opening. On projects like KUKA TechDay or a conference like SlovakiaTech there is no second take, and then every B roll shot is worth keeping on your side.

If you are about to sign a production contract, or you are unsure whether you will ever see the footage from a past project, drop us a line. We will go through the wording with you and tell you if you do not need the raw files at all. You can see how our video production works and what we deliver on the service page.

FAQ about raw footage ownership

Can the production company use my footage in its portfolio?

Unless the contract forbids it, usually yes for the final video, because under section 91 of the Slovak Copyright Act the author of a commissioned work may also use it, as long as that does not conflict with the client's legitimate interests; if you do not want the film shown publicly, put that in the contract from the start.

How long should a studio keep raw footage?

No law sets a fixed period, so whatever you agree applies, and we recommend at least 24 months plus an obligation to warn you before anything is deleted.

What if the studio has closed and I never got the raw files?

Contact the people who actually filmed and edited, because camera operators and editors often keep material longer than the company does, and if it turns up, get the rights confirmed in writing, not just the files.

Is raw footage the same as a RAW camera format?

No, raw footage in production means all unedited material from the shoot, while RAW is a specific recording format straight off the sensor, so write "complete raw footage in the original camera format" in the contract rather than just "RAW".