Client gave me permission to post work in portfolio, now changes their mind?

[alliemalottart]

Hello! This is my first time posting here, but I would love some advice on what to do. I  completed 150 pages of storyboards for a  comic back in April for a client. I asked if I could share a few with credit inside my portfolio, which they agreed to. I chose 14 pages to include.

Now it's July, and they have limited everyone working on this project to only using the first 10 pages in their portfolios. I already have had a few pages outside that range displayed on my portfolio for a couple of months.  

I asked the client if I could post a few of my favorite pages after the comic’s publication, and why the sudden change? They answered, “We can discuss that a year after publication.” and, “We worry sharing too much will give the story away.” The project however is slow moving, and will likely not be completed for 2-3 years. Also, I chose pages that demonstrated my skill but showed little to no spoilers to include in my portfolio.

As per our original agreement I would like to keep using the comic pages in my porfolio. Anyone have any advice on what the right move is here? If I deny their request for adjustment to our original agreement, would Upwork find fault in that?

Thanks so much in advance!

~Allie

[lizablau]

If they paid for the work, they own it.  So they can keep changing their mind till the cows come home, and there's really nothing you can do about it. The only way your prior agreement might be legally binding if it was included in your contract.  

All you can do is drop them another note and try to reason with them, and reiterate that there are no spoilers in the pages you'd like to use. 

[gilbert-phyllis]

Although you took care not to include any spoilers in the pages you selected, it's likely at least one other person was not so diligent and now the clients find themselves in the position of having to referee people's choices case by case. Instead -- and understandably -- they decided to limit the selection so as to eliminate the spoiler problem. They could just as easily have denied you or anyone else the right to use anything from the project in your portfolios, so it seems to me they are being reasonable. 

[tlbp]

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Allie M wrote:

Hello! This is my first time posting here, but I would love some advice on what to do. I  completed 150 pages of storyboards for a  comic back in April for a client. I asked if I could share a few with credit inside my portfolio, which they agreed to. I chose 14 pages to include.

Now it's July, and they have limited everyone working on this project to only using the first 10 pages in their portfolios. I already have had a few pages outside that range displayed on my portfolio for a couple of months.  

I asked the client if I could post a few of my favorite pages after the comic’s publication, and why the sudden change? They answered, “We can discuss that a year after publication.” and, “We worry sharing too much will give the story away.” The project however is slow moving, and will likely not be completed for 2-3 years. Also, I chose pages that demonstrated my skill but showed little to no spoilers to include in my portfolio.

As per our original agreement I would like to keep using the comic pages in my porfolio. Anyone have any advice on what the right move is here? If I deny their request for adjustment to our original agreement, would Upwork find fault in that?

Thanks so much in advance!

~Allie

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I think it's really petty to take the client's money and then argue with them about how many pages of their unpublished comic you can leak via your portfolio.