Deal Memos for Film Crews: What They Are and Why You Need One

By the Production Ledger team · Updated August 2026

Every payment dispute in freelance production starts the same way: two people who remember the same conversation differently.

Nobody was lying. The producer genuinely remembers agreeing to a 10-hour day; you genuinely remember 8. The rate was "around $900." Kit was "we'll figure it out." Six weeks later there's a disagreement about money between two people who like each other, and no paper to settle it. A deal memo exists to make that conversation impossible.

What a deal memo is

A deal memo is a short document, often a single page, that writes down the terms of one job before the work happens: who's hiring whom, for what role, on which dates, at what rate, with what gear, paid on what terms. Larger productions issue one to every crew member as standard onboarding. On smaller jobs, if nobody sends one, you can.

It's deliberately not a 14-page contract. It's the essentials, written plainly, agreed and signed while everyone still agrees.

Deal memo vs. full contract

The honest answer: a signed deal memo is a written record of the deal's terms, just a short one. Long-form contracts earn their length on bigger engagements, where things like intellectual property, exclusivity, insurance requirements and termination need real detail. For a two-day shoot at a day rate, a memo covers what actually gets disputed: money, time, and dates. Which document a specific job needs, and what's enforceable where you live, is lawyer territory; this guide is about the practical habit, not legal advice.

The practical rule most working crew land on: no paper, no booking. Some document, however short, before every job.

What belongs in one

• The parties. Your name and business, their company, and who your point of contact is.
• The project, by name, so the memo ties to a specific job.
• Your role. DP, gaffer, 1st AC — the role defines the expectations.
• The dates, including prep, scout and travel days if they're part of the deal.
• The rate, and what a day means. "$900 per 10-hour day" answers both questions at once. This is where knowing your number pays off.
• Overtime: when it starts and how it's calculated.
• Kit: whether your equipment is included, and its separate fee if so.
• Expenses: what's reimbursable and whether receipts or pre-approval are needed.
• Payment terms: deposit if any, and when the balance is due after invoicing.
• Cancellation: what you both agree happens if the shoot moves or dies inside 24 or 48 hours. There's no automatic entitlement here — a kill fee only exists if the memo says so. Weather and clients both change their minds; your held date had a cost either way.
• Signatures and the date. Unsigned, it's a note. Signed, it's the record of what both sides agreed — what that record is worth if things go sideways depends on what it says and the law where you are, but a signed page beats a memory every single time.

Notice the list is the same information your invoice needs later. That's not a coincidence: the invoice is just the deal memo's numbers, plus what actually happened.

"Isn't it awkward to ask?"

Only if you make it a confrontation. It's paperwork, so treat it like paperwork:

Professionals recognize professionalism. A client who genuinely balks at writing down what they already agreed to verbally is telling you something important about how the invoice conversation is going to go, and it's better to learn that before the shoot than after.

Before you say yes, confirm these eight things

The memo writes itself if the conversation already covered everything. Before accepting any job, make sure you can answer:

1. What's the rate, and how long is the day it buys?
2. What happens after that day length — is there overtime, and at what?
3. Which days are paid: shoot, prep, scout, travel?
4. Is your kit included, and what's its separate fee? (Kit fee vs day rate if those are blurry.)
5. Who rents anything you don't own, and how does it get billed?
6. Which expenses are reimbursable, and do they need receipts or pre-approval?
7. When is payment due, and what starts that clock? (Net 30, decoded.)
8. What happens if the date moves or the job cancels late?

Eight answers, one page, two signatures. That's the whole system.

Get your eight answers down while the conversation is fresh

Every field below is a field that exists on a Production Ledger invoice, using the same options the builder uses. Fill in what's actually been agreed — leave anything that hasn't come up blank, and the summary will say so out loud. An open item you can see is a question you can still ask.

When you're the one hiring

The day you bring your own people onto a job, a second shooter, a gaffer, a sound mixer you booked, the memo flows the other direction: now you send one to each of them. Same logic, same protection, and now it's protecting both sides of your business, because you're the one who owes rates, terms and eventually 1099s to your crew.