This was an terrible experience for me. I took long time to get over this bad experience.

I was asked to do a promotional video for a restaurant back in January. The owner said it is for showing to investor.

So I spend 2 nights shooting and 2 days editing. I was editing it together with the manager of the restaurant. We worked together until 4am in the morning one day. The owner said it is very urgent. Investor wanted to see it as soon as possible. That why we work so hard on this project. I never working so hard on one project before.

I gave the owner final video. He likes it. I filed a 2k invoice to him.

Now you can guess what happen. Yes, he did not want to pay at all. Not even 1 cent. Even the manager get pissed off. After almost 2 month effort, we still unable to get any money. The manger left the restaurant later.

You may say that are you stupid? How can you do business like this. Yes, you are right…This is not formal at all. I should sign some paper work before start working. If it is not paid fully by the time I finish shooting, I should at least get 50% deposit. There is no way that you give out the final product, and then thinking they will pay you afterward. That might be fine if the owner is ethic. But certainly not this case.

Well, I trust the restaurant so much because of the manager. We know each other and has been working together for many photography projects. So I totally give 100% trust to this restaurant. The manager told me he never thought this kind of thing will happen in real life either. He got pissed off too. So he resigned.

Now it has been over two month now. I can get over it. Just want to let new photographer knows this kind thing can happen. Be strict about your charge policy. Never do something like what I did.