Episode 19
How to Create a Retainer (ft. Slant Visuals)
James Clement runs Slant Visuals, a Montreal video production company built on a single idea: video content made human. He came up as a cinematographer, spent years on the road on production, and now leads a lean shop that makes brand, lifestyle, narrative, and documentary work for clients across Quebec and beyond.
In this episode, James joins Dario and Kyrill for one of the show’s foundational conversations on the business of video: how to actually build a retainer, why pricing is the conversation sitting underneath it, how a small team charges for its work and protects its margin, and where stock footage fit during the lockdown years. It is a pricing and structure episode as much as a retainer one, and it has become the show’s go-to reference on the subject.
Key Takeaways
- Retainers are harder than they look. A retainer promises recurring revenue, but for project-based video work it only holds up with clear structure and guardrails, which is what this conversation sets out to define.
- Pricing is the real conversation. Most of the retainer question comes down to charging appropriately, offering different price points, and treating video as an investment rather than a line item.
- Pre-production protects the margin. Planning is where a project is won or lost, and where a lean team avoids the costly surprises in production and post that quietly eat profit.
- A skeletal team has real limits. A small crew keeps overhead low and creative control tight, but it caps how much work you can take on at once and when you need to bring in help.
- Stock footage bought flexibility. During the lockdown period, repurposing and creating new content from stock footage kept projects moving when live shoots were hard to run.
- Some for the reel, some for the meal. A sustainable slate balances the work that pays the bills with the work that builds the portfolio, and knowing which is which keeps a business honest.
Timestamps
A 2022 Check-In and the Stock-Footage Pivot
The conversation opens with a check-in on how 2022 was shaping up, and quickly turns to one of the more creative survival moves of the lockdown era: leaning on stock footage. With live shoots hard to run, James and the hosts get into how a shop can repurpose and even create genuinely new content out of stock libraries, keeping clients served and projects moving when the usual production playbook was off the table.
The Retainer Question
Then comes the episode’s anchor topic. A retainer is the recurring-revenue prize every video business eyes, and the discussion works through what it actually takes to build one that holds up rather than one that quietly falls apart. The honest starting point is that a retainer is really a pricing question, so it pays to be clear-eyed about what your work should cost before you promise a monthly number, the same math laid out in our guide to how much a video actually costs.
There is also the balance the guys frame as some for the reel, some for the meal: the work that pays now versus the work that builds the portfolio and the brand. Retainers are a theme the show has returned to since, most directly in the later deep dive on video strategy and retainers with Innovate Media, and this episode is where the mechanics first got a full teardown.
Niching Down and Earning Trust
A recurring thread is trust: getting clients to hand you the room to make something different rather than a safe, forgettable video. Part of the answer is clarity of positioning, the case for niching down that the show has made many times over, because a focused shop is easier to trust and easier to hire. It also connects to how buyers choose a partner in the first place, the ground covered in our guide on how to choose a video production company. The through-line runs all the way back to landing those first clients, when trust has to be earned one project at a time.
A Lean Team, Gear, and Its Limits
The middle of the episode gets into the operator’s reality: James’s background and production days, the gear he leans on, and how a small team is structured. It is the classic lean-shop setup, and the trade-offs are familiar to anyone weighing whether to stay solo or build out, the question our guide on a video production company versus a videographer is built around. A skeletal team keeps overhead low and creative control tight, but it has hard limits on how much can be taken on at once, which is exactly why the show has spent whole episodes on the importance of teams.
Pricing Appropriately and Charging Structure
From there the conversation turns squarely to money: pricing appropriately, framing video as an investment rather than a commodity, and the fine line between being a video company and drifting into a full marketing agency. The guys get practical about offering different price points for different clients and building a charging structure that reflects the real work involved, the kind of thinking behind our videographer day-rate guide. The takeaway that keeps surfacing is that the number on the invoice should map to value delivered, not just hours on a shoot day.
Pre-Production Is Where the Money Is Made
One of the strongest points in the episode is that pre-production is where a project is actually protected. Planning is the unglamorous work that keeps production and post from spiraling, and pricing it as real work is central to staying profitable, a principle at the heart of our guide to the corporate video production process and a topic the show unpacked with Play Creative in Scalability, Collaborating and Pre-Production. The related challenge for any owner-operator is switching cleanly between the business mindset and the creative one, since the two rarely want to sit at the desk at the same time.
What's Next for Slant Visuals
The episode closes on where Slant Visuals is headed and a lighter note on how James landed on the name. It is a fitting end to a conversation that is really about building something durable: a business with a point of view, a sustainable way to price it, and enough structure that the recurring revenue everyone chases actually becomes possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a retainer in video production?
A retainer is a recurring arrangement where a client commits ongoing budget in exchange for a set amount of work or priority access, instead of paying project by project. This episode walks through how to structure one so it actually works for a video production company.
Are retainers a good fit for a small video production company?
They can be, but they work best when the deliverables are simple and repeatable and the terms are clear. For specialized, project-based work, the pricing and structure underneath the retainer matter more than the label, which is the core of this conversation.
How should a lean video team price its work?
By charging appropriately for the value delivered, offering different price points for different needs, and treating video as an investment rather than a commodity. Pre-production is priced as real work, not thrown in for free.
Why does pre-production matter so much?
Because planning is where a project is protected. Clear pre-production reduces the costly surprises in production and post that erode margin, which is what keeps a small team profitable.
Who is James Clement?
The owner of Slant Visuals, a Montreal video production company that makes brand, lifestyle, narrative, and documentary content built around telling human stories. Site: slantvisuals.com.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
Slant Visuals is a video production company in Montreal, Quebec, led by owner James Clement. The team creates brand, lifestyle, narrative, and documentary films built on a single idea: video content made human, made to help brands connect emotionally with their audience and drive action. Learn more at slantvisuals.com.
