Things I've Learned...

By Keith Boron: Directed of MURDER IS LIKE SEX.

What Difference Does A Piece Of Paper Make?

If you have any plans to sell a movie that you are making, you MUST treat it as a business venture. If you are only considering the creative side of things, you risk losing control of your rights to sell the movie.

The main production aspect I am going to focus on is using, and keeping, the proper forms for your project. This applies even in a microbudget movie which you are making with friends. In fact, you should assume that you have no friends working with you - then, when you work with the occasional loyal friend, who is not solely after any potential profit, you can be pleasantly surprised.

First of all, you need release forms for every actor or actress in your movie. Have them sign them as soon as they start working for you. Their signature is your guarantee that you will be able to release the movie with their footage intact. I am not going to go into detail about how these forms should be worded, because it is covered elsewhere on this site (hint: read the production articles from Tim Ritter). I'll just add that once you get them signed, keep them in a safe place. When working on my feature, I misplaced a couple (well, O.K., several) of them, and it wasn't easy tracking down some of the extras that are in the movie. If you don't have a signed form for someone in your movie and they decide they don't want to be associated with it, you will either have to cut their scenes out, or forget about releasing the movie.

The same thing applies if you use any copyrighted music in your movie - you'll need a signed release form from the copyright owner, and you might also have to pay them to use it.

Unless you plan to shoot the entire movie on your property, you'll have to deal with location forms:

If you are shooting in a business building, you need a signed release form from the owner of the business. For one of the locations in my feature, we got the manager of the business to sign the form, but he neglected to tell the owner about it - which led to an unpleasant confrontation when the owner showed up on shooting day. Fortunately, we already had the footage we needed, so we made a quick exit.

If your location is on city property, you should purchase a permit for the time you are shooting from the city official that issues them. You should also inform the city police about what you are doing.

I also believe each person working on the movie should have a contract which states exactly what their job is, how long they will have to do it, and what they will be paid. These contracts should be looked at by a lawyer to make sure there are no issues against them.

Finally, you may want to form a company to sell your movie and will have to decide how to split any profits. All I can say here is to make sure you learn as much as you can about these procedures, and make sure that you can trust the people that you are working with.

So, in conclusion, pay attention to these pieces of paper, they make all the difference.

Keith Boron MySpace