Lucy Stille on Agents vs. Managers
by Cait Carvalho on April 11, 2012Lucy Stille discuses the distinctions between agents and managers.
From the 2011 Independent Filmmaker Conference.
Barry Cole on Licensing Music
by Cait Carvalho on February 17, 2012Barry Cole explains the closing of the gap between filmmakers and the troubles of obtaining licensing for music.
From the 2011 Independent Filmmaker Conference.
Joint Venture Agreement: Preparing the Pre-Production Prenup
by Robert Seigel on January 4, 2012I often meet with two (or more) clients who wish to work together to produce a film, a video or some other audio-visual project. Sometimes one person will be designated a project’s producer while the other person may serve as the director. One of the parties often has written or …
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Keeping Distributors on the Residuals Hook
by Robert Seigel on April 6, 2011Independent producers usually utilize the services of members of various guilds and unions in the entertainment industry such as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) by becoming signatories to a union’s collective bargaining agreement.
Under the guild agreements, the …
The Top Ten Reasons for When You, As a Writer, Need a Lawyer
by Robert Seigel on February 28, 2011As an entertainment attorney, I have presented numerous talks concerning the legal and business issues concerning screenwriting for such venues as universities, film schools, the Independent Feature Project, New York Women in Film & Television, and New York University. These lectures cover the basics such as rights definitions and protection, …
Sundance 2011: Deals, Deals, Everywhere, But Is There Money to Make?
by Robert Seigel on February 25, 2011With the conclusion of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, many sales agents, distributors and mediamakers breathed a collective sigh of relief that more than twenty six deals were negotiated prior to and during the ten day event with some deals about to close in the festival’s aftermath. However, one can …
This Is Your Life: Negotiating Life Story Agreements
by Robert Seigel on January 11, 2011With the critical and commercial success of such documentaries as Mad Hot Ballroom and the Academy Award-winning short documentary Freeheld, both documentarians and audiences are acknowledging the compelling power of the non-fiction biographical narrative form of storytelling. However, the mediamaker must grapple with a myriad of legal, business, aesthetic and …
The Freedom to Shop: An Option to the Option Agreement
by Robert Seigel on November 24, 2010When writers submit their scripts into the marketplace, they often encounter producers who cannot afford to purchase the rights. The producer—frequently independent and undercapitalized—may instead offer to “option” the script by paying the writer a sum of money for the exclusive right to take the script “off the market” for …
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