Most video retainers start as one line in an email: four videos a month, a fixed fee, starting next month.
Five months later the four videos are six, two of them are three-minute event recaps, and nobody can find the line that says whether the cut the client skipped in March is still owed.
A retainer holds up when it’s written as a package. The hourly rate behind the fee comes from how to price video production, and this post covers what goes around it.
In short
- Write deliverables by type, each with a length cap, a format and a source, or use credits if the mix changes every month.
- Decide before the first month what happens to unused videos, and give rolled-over units their own delivery window.
- Put the price of each extra in the package, so a fifth cut is a number the client already signed.
- At the end of each month, compare the hours logged with the hours priced and read the months in threes.
- Reopen the package when the three-month average lands more than about 10% away from the hours priced.
What goes in a monthly package
Start with deliverables by type, never by count alone. “Four videos” lets a 15-second teaser and a three-minute case study count the same.
Give each type a length cap, a format and a source: “vertical cut for social, up to 60 seconds, 9:16, burned-in subtitles, edited from footage we already have.” If the mix changes every month, use credits: a 60-second cut is one, a two-minute video is two, and the client spends six a month.
Then come the shoot days (“one half day a month, four hours on location, travel inside the city included”) and the rounds per video, usually two. Define a round as one consolidated list of notes on one version from one approver, as in ending endless revision rounds.
List what the client provides, like a named approver, briefs by a set day and notes within a set number of working days, and close with a three-month minimum, 30 days’ notice and a review every quarter.
Unused videos and rollover
This clause causes more arguments than the price. The client didn’t send briefs for two of the four cuts in March. Are they gone, or do they wait?
- Use it or lose it is the simplest rule for the studio and feels harsh to the client.
- A one-month rollover moves unused units into the next month only, and then they expire.
- A capped bank lets the client carry a set number of units at a time, all expiring at the end of the quarter.
Whichever you pick, a rollover moves work without adding people. If two March cuts land in April, April has six cuts for a team sized for four.
Give rolled-over units their own delivery window (“within the following month, on dates we agree”) and write that unused units are never refunded or turned into a discount when the contract ends.
When the miss is yours, the unit stays owed and doesn’t expire. Writing that down too makes the clause easier for the client to accept.
What counts as extra
A request is extra when it doesn’t fit a type, a count or a round in the package. The scope creep post has a three-question test for the gray cases. The usual ones:
| Request | In the package? | How it’s handled |
|---|---|---|
| A fifth cut in a four-cut month | No | Per-unit price |
| A 90-second cut when the cap is 60 | No | Counts as the next type up |
| A vertical version of the 16:9 video | Only if listed | One unit |
| A third round on a cut | No | Per-round price |
| Delivery in two working days | No | Rush fee |
Put the price of each extra in the package, so the answer to a fifth cut is a number the client already signed.
A monthly rhythm and an outline
A package runs better on a fixed calendar:
Week 1
planning call, 30 min
month's list sent by email
Week 2
shoot day
Weeks 2 to 4
versions out, notes back
within 3 working days
Final week
last deliveries
report and package check
The planning call turns the package into a list with each video’s type, date and approver, and that email is what the month gets checked against. Spread deliveries over the month and close with a one-page client report.
The package itself fits on half a page of the proposal:
[Client] · monthly video package
Each month
4 vertical cuts, up to 60 s
1 video, up to 2 min
1 half-day shoot, 4 h
2 rounds per video
Fee
[amount] a month
3-month minimum
30 days' notice
Unused units
roll over 1 month, then expire
Extras
extra cut: [price]
extra round: [price]
extra half day: [price]
rush, under 3 days: +[%]
Client provides
1 named approver
briefs by day 5
notes in 3 working days
Here’s that package priced at the $100 internal rate from the pricing post. The figures are an example in US dollars, not a market rate.
| Item | Hours a month |
|---|---|
| 4 vertical cuts, 5 hours each | 20 |
| 1 two-minute video | 12 |
| Half-day shoot with travel, 2 people × 5 hours | 10 |
| Planning call, report and management | 4 |
| Total | 46 |
That makes a $4,600 monthly fee. The extras come from the same rate, so an extra cut is $500 and an extra half day is $1,000.
Check every month whether the client fits
At the end of each month, put the hours logged on the client next to the 46 you priced, and read the months in threes. Here’s the example client’s first quarter:
| Month | Hours logged | Against 46 priced |
|---|---|---|
| January | 44 | 2 under |
| February | 51 | 5 over |
| March | 58 | 12 over |
| Quarter | 153 | 15 over |
The hours on each video show where the difference came from. The rest of the package stayed within three hours of its 34, while the two-minute video took 10, 16 and 21 hours and went to a third round in February and March.
The client paid $13,800 for 153 hours, about $90 an hour instead of $100. With the $75 cost per hour from the pricing post, the margin fell from 25% to about 17%. This only works if hours go on each video as the work happens (time tracking for video editors).
When to renegotiate
Reopen the package when the three-month average lands more than about 10% away from the hours priced, in either direction. A client using 30 of 46 hours will notice before you do, and offering a smaller package keeps them.
A mix drifting toward long videos, a growing rollover or a new approver on the client side are reasons too.
Take the quarter’s table to the review call with options. For the example client:
- Price the two-minute video at 20 hours, taking the package to 54 hours and $5,400 a month.
- Keep $4,600 and hold the two-round limit, billing a third round at $400.
- Swap the two-minute video for two more vertical cuts, 10 hours inside the 12 it had.
The client picks one, and the new numbers go into the outline for the next quarter.
How this works in RecReview
RecReview doesn’t hold the package, the fee or invoices, so the outline stays in your proposal and the price in your spreadsheet. It holds the month’s videos and the hours to check them against.
On the planning call, the new task window has a button to create several at once. Paste the month’s list, one title per line, and set the client, project, assignees, delivery date, internal deadline, status and phase once for all of them.
Each line becomes a task with the client’s next video code. A project per month keeps each batch together, even when its last video runs into the next month.
Give each task the estimate for its type. The task shows the hours logged against it as a percentage, with a bar that turns amber past 80% and red past 100%. The timer runs on the task, one per person at a time.
At the end of the month, owners and admins open Metrics, pick the client at the top and set a custom date range. The Hours logged chart splits the hours by client, project, phase or person, with each total in the legend.
The Production tab compares hours spent with hours estimated, counts the videos sent to each client and shows the shoot days from your production plans.
Each client’s portal has a Metrics tab with deliveries per month, each video counted in the month it first went to the client, and the minutes delivered, so the client can see the month’s volume without waiting for your report. More on the time tracking and analytics pages.
