Above-the-Line Agreements The producer, director, screenwriter, and talent are part of the Above-The-Line personnel. Their Work-For-Hire Agreements are complex because their responsibilities and salaries are greater than the crews. Below are most important deal terms included in each of the Above-The-Line’s Work-For-Hire Agreements. Producer You can refer to the above section on Production Agreements if…
Production / Production Legal If you have raised financing and are ready to commence the production process, now is the time to hire an attorney if you do not already have one. When I provide production legal, I do so from the commencement of pre-production through the completion of post. I negotiate and draft all…
Crowdfunding Crowdfunding entails you raising money from an unlimited number of people via a third-party website set up for this purpose. Indiegogo.com and Kickstarter.com are the two most popular crowdfunding websites for filmmakers. You crowdfund by creating an online campaign, which you upload onto the third-party website. Anyone who likes your campaign can become a…
Distribution The studio will have worldwide distribution in all media if it finances 100% of the picture’s production and distribution. The studio will own the picture, its copyright, the screenplay, and the motion picture rights to the underlying literary property upon which it is based (if any) and, therefore, it will have the right to…
Whether you get to be a “producer” hinges on your ability to raise the monies you need in order to produce your pictures. You can acquire financing via a studio, private investors, production incentives, the pre-sale of all or a portion of your picture’s foreign territories, and by securing bank financing. Some of the aforementioned…
Producing is a daunting task that requires collaboration among producers. You may have an idea for a screenplay but may want to join forces with a producer that has access to talent, a director, an agency, or money. You may align yourself with another producer in a variety of ways including the following. Partnerships A…
You can hire a writer on a work-for-hire basis, to write a screenplay based on your idea, other material assigned by you, or to write the screenplay the writer pitched to you. “Work-for-hire” means that you are paying the writer and, as a consequence thereof, own the screenplay and its copyright outright. You must enter…