is raw footage out of scope for a video project?

Not unless the contract said so. Paying for a finished edit buys the finished edit; it doesn't automatically buy the materials used to produce it, the same way commissioning a painting doesn't entitle you to the artist's brushes, sketches, and studio. The raw footage, project file, and source assets are your working materials, and ownership of them is a separate question that the contract has to address explicitly. If your agreement named only the finished video as the deliverable, the source materials remain yours to license or withhold. The client's intuition that 'I paid, so it's all mine' is common and understandable, but it's a misread of what a video deliverable actually is — and it's exactly why naming raw-file terms up front prevents the argument.

It's the difference between giving someone ingredients and giving them your entire recipe with the kitchen attached. Cleaned source clips let a client archive the footage or hand it to another editor to start fresh — a meaningful transfer, but they'd be rebuilding from scratch. The project file is your actual work: the edit structure, the timing, the color grades, the effects, the sync, the asset organization. Handing that over lets anyone open your finished work and re-edit it without you, which is far more valuable and far more exposing. They should be priced very differently. When a client asks for 'the files,' clarify which they mean, because agreeing to send clips and agreeing to send your project file are wildly different commitments, and conflating them can give away your most valuable asset by accident.

Price them as the significant asset they are, not as an afterthought you toss in to be agreeable. You're transferring the ability to re-edit and reuse your work, often ending your future role on the project, and that loss of leverage and ongoing income has real value. Many editors set a raw-files or buyout fee that's a substantial fraction of the project cost — sometimes a meaningful multiple for the full project file with all assets. The exact number depends on what's included and what reuse it enables, but the principle is that source materials command their own price because they unlock capabilities the finished deliverable doesn't. Building a clearly priced buyout option into your original quote is the cleanest approach: the client sees the choice and the cost up front, and nobody's surprised later.

Then you have a rights problem that has to be solved before any handover, because your licenses usually don't transfer with the files. Stock footage, licensed music, fonts, and sound effects are typically licensed to you or to the specific project under terms that may not permit you to pass them to the client or allow re-editing. Handing over a project file stuffed with assets you don't have the right to redistribute can expose both of you to claims. Before releasing source materials, audit every licensed element, confirm whether its terms allow transfer, and either secure extended rights, replace the asset, or strip it from what you deliver. This is another reason raw-file requests deserve a real conversation rather than a quick 'sure' — the legal exposure lives in the layers the client can't see.

Not unless your contract obligated it, and this is precisely the scenario the deliverable-versus-materials distinction exists to handle. A client who wants your project file so someone cheaper can re-edit your work is asking you to hand over the value you built so it can be reused without you — that's a buyout, and it should be priced as one. You're under no obligation to enable a competitor to modify your work for free just because the client would prefer it. You can offer the project file at a fair buyout fee, offer to make the tweaks yourself, or decline. What you shouldn't do is feel pressured into releasing your full project file at the price of a finished edit, because the two are not remotely the same transaction.

State plainly what the deliverable is and what it isn't, in one clear clause. Name the finished video — formats, length, spec — as the deliverable, and explicitly say that raw footage, project files, and source assets are not included and are available separately under their own terms. If you want to offer a buyout, list it as a priced option in the same breath so the client can choose at signing. Add a line on licensed-asset transfer to cover the rights issue. Four or five specific sentences turn an emotional 'just send me everything' into a pre-agreed menu with known prices. The fight only happens when the contract is silent and both sides fill the silence with different assumptions; naming it once removes the silence entirely.