Film and TV
From the first draft to the festival
A picture is a stack of agreements: the rights to the story, the deals with the people who make it and the licenses for everything on screen. I help independent teams keep that stack tidy.
Options and purchases
Optioning a book or selling your script: the price, the term, what you keep and what happens if the project goes quiet.
Writers, directors and crew
Work-for-hire terms, credit, rewrites and deferred pay, in an agreement each person can read in one sitting.
Clearances and releases
Music, footage, locations and people on camera. A clearance list built early costs far less than one built for the distributor.
Distribution and festivals
What a distributor asks for, what a sales agent charges and which rights to hold back.
Production companies
Setting up the company that owns the film, bringing in investors and keeping the paperwork clean.
Cast and extras
Performer agreements, minor performers' rules and appearance releases for the day of the shoot.
Before the shoot
Paper that keeps a film finishable
Most trouble arrives after the cut is locked.
A distributor will ask for chain of title, signed releases and a music cue sheet. If those are in a folder from the first week of prep, the deal moves. If they are not, I help you build them backward, one document at a time.
What a distributor will ask for
Chain of title for the script or book
Signed releases for people and places
Licenses for any music or footage
Agreements with the crew and cast
Questions
What filmmakers ask first
Do I need a lawyer for a short film?
You can often get by with plain releases and a one-page agreement for each key person. A short call tells you which paper matters for yours.
Can you read a contract from a production company?
Yes. I explain what it asks for, what it leaves out and what to ask for in return, then you decide.
Do you represent studios or networks?
No. I act for the writer, filmmaker or producer on your side of the table.
Film and TV
Get the paper straight before the cameras roll
Twenty minutes, free, with your script or schedule in front of us.