Scope creep on a video job usually arrives looking like a comment. Somewhere in round two, between “move the logo up” and “the music is a bit loud”, someone writes “could we also get a vertical version for Reels?”
It reads like one more note, so the editor adds it to the list. A few weeks later the studio has delivered a 9:16 cut, a 30-second edit for ads, a Spanish version and a re-recorded line of voice-over, all for the price of one two-minute video.
The term comes from project management, where it means the job growing while the budget and the deadline stay put. On a video project it usually comes as a dozen small requests, each phrased like a revision, and nobody stops to sort them.
In short
- A request is a change only if the deliverable is in the proposal, uses what you already have and leaves approved work untouched.
- Anything else is new work, with its own price and its own date.
- A scope that holds up names the deliverables, the material, the rounds and what happens outside them.
- Say yes to new work with a price and a date in the same reply, and confirm it in writing.
- Count the rounds, and watch hours against the estimate and the number of comments per version.
A three-question test for every request
A change request adjusts the deliverable you agreed to make, with what you already have, before the client has signed off on it. Anything else is new work. Run each request through three questions:
- Is the deliverable in the proposal? A 9:16 cut, a 15-second teaser or a version in another language is a new deliverable even when it comes out of the same timeline.
- Can you do it with the footage and the script you already have? A reshoot, a new interview, a rewritten script or a new voice-over session adds work that wasn’t in the estimate.
- Does everything the client already approved stay untouched? A script change after the script was signed off, or a recut after picture lock, reopens finished work.
Three yeses make it a change request. It goes into the current round and counts toward the rounds in the proposal. A single no makes it new work, which gets its own price and its own date.
One case runs the other way. When the request fixes your mistake, like a misspelled name in a lower third, a flash frame or the wrong take of a line, fix it at no charge and don’t count it as a round.
Common requests, sorted
| Request | What it is |
|---|---|
| Move the logo, resize a lower third | Change |
| Another take of the same line, before lock | Change |
| Another track from the agreed music library | Change |
| Trim from 2:00 to 1:45 before lock | Change |
| A 9:16 version for Reels | New work |
| A 30-second cut for ads as well | New work |
| Swap an interview for one shot next week | New work |
| Rewrite the voice-over after script approval | New work |
| The same video in Spanish | New work |
| A name spelled wrong on screen | Your mistake |
The music row assumes the license already covers the new track. One that needs a new license is a new cost, even if dropping it in takes ten minutes.
Write the scope so the test is easy
The test only works when the proposal says what’s in it. “A corporate video with revisions” turns every request into a negotiation. A scope section that holds up names four things:
- Start with the deliverables, each with its length, aspect ratio, language and format. “One 2-minute video, 16:9, in English, with burned-in English subtitles” leaves no doubt that the vertical cut is extra.
- Then the material. Say how many shoot days, interviews and locations are included, how much stock footage, and whether the music comes from a library or is licensed track by track.
- Then the rounds, and what counts as one. A round is one consolidated list of notes from the client’s approver on one version, and our post on ending endless revision rounds covers how to keep rounds to that shape.
- Last, what happens outside the scope. Extra rounds have a stated price, and new work is quoted before it starts. How much to charge for video production shows how to price both from your own hours.
A paragraph like this one, adapted to the job, covers most of it:
Includes one 2-minute video in 16:9, in English, from one shoot day with two interviews, and two rounds of changes. A round is one list of notes on one version, sent by the client’s approver. New deliverables (other lengths, formats or languages), new footage, script changes after approval and edit changes after picture lock are quoted separately before work starts.
How to say yes and still get paid
Say yes, with a price and a date, and keep the new piece apart from the main delivery so the date you promised doesn’t move by accident. “That’s out of scope” is accurate, and the client still hears a no.
Price it from your hours. A 30-second vertical cutdown, with the reframe, the graphics retimed, subtitles and one round, might take seven hours.
At $100 an hour, the example rate from the pricing post, that’s $700. Then reply the same day:
Hi Ana, a 30-second vertical cut for Reels is a good idea and we can do it. The proposal covers the 2-minute video, so we’ll handle the cut as a separate piece: $700, delivered two working days after you approve the main video. If you need both at the same time, the main video moves from Thursday to Monday. Which works better for you?
The price is already in the message, and the only question left is about timing, which clients answer faster than a question about money.
When she says yes, put it in writing. A change order can be a short email with what’s being added, the price, the new date and anything else it moves.
Number them per project (CO-1, CO-2) and ask for a reply that confirms it. Send it before anyone opens the timeline.
Catch it before it eats the margin
Count the rounds. Every version you send to the client opens one. When the count reaches what the proposal includes, say so in the message that goes out with that version, well before the invoice.
Watch the hours against the estimate for each deliverable. If a video has used 80% of its estimated hours with a round still to go, something was added along the way. Go back through the last two rounds of notes and find it.
Watch the number of comments as well. A version that comes back with twice the notes of the one before usually means someone new joined the review or the brief changed. Either one is worth a call before the edit starts.
After the job, look at which clients and which kinds of video took the most rework, and quote the next one with that in mind.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview each video is a task, and that’s where the split happens. Upload a new cut to the task and it becomes the next numbered version, with its own comments.
When the file name carries the video’s code, the upload window picks that task for you, and the New task tab next to it creates a separate one instead. Earlier versions stay on the task, and you can play any two of them side by side.
A new deliverable goes on a task of its own. With a client set, the task gets that client’s next video code, and it has its own due date, estimate and approval, so the 9:16 cut doesn’t get lost in the main video’s history.
Set the estimated hours on the task, and when other tasks in the same project have time logged, RecReview suggests a number from their median.
The task’s time block then shows the hours logged against the estimate as a percentage, with a bar that turns amber past 80% and red past 100%.
In the table view you can turn on the Estimated and Remaining columns to see every task at once, and Remaining turns red when a task goes over.
Owners and admins also get Metrics. Under Clients & review, the Videos with the most rework list ranks videos by the comments they received in the period and shows how many came from the client and how many versions each video has.
The Production tab compares hours spent with hours estimated across the tasks that have an estimate.
RecReview doesn’t store rates or write change orders, so the price and the email stay with you. The project management page has more.
