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Budgeting for Music

By Jon M. Garon
Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, PC
Anatomy of a Budget
A budget consists of the summary page, known as the top sheet, and a series of department-by-department itemizations for that budget. Even if a film’s expenses top $200 million, every roll of tape must be budgeted, receipted, and credited to […]

Fair Use for Documentaries

By Jon M. Garon
Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, PC
For documentary filmmakers to accurately depict their stories, they invariably need to rely on copyright’s fair use provisions significantly more than other filmmakers. This is particularly true if the documentary focuses on literary or visual works or incorporates copyrighted materials as background content, […]

Documentaries and Films Based on True Life Stories

By Jon M. Garon
Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, PC
Despite the short-term glut in the market, documentaries have become an increasingly important part of the film industry as well as tools of public discourse. Since documentaries only rarely receive national theatrical distribution, audiences do not treat nontheatrical distribution as an aesthetic judgment […]

Content and Control for Online Film

By Jon M. Garon
Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, PC
The rules for creating, marketing and distributing films derive from a host of different sources. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences controls the rules for the Academy Awards statuette, the Oscar, while collective bargaining agreements with various trade unions require that […]

Utilizing Noncommercial Music for Film

By Jon M. Garon
Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, PC
Every Hollywood studio has a team of lawyers and paralegals who focus exclusively on the music licensing issues for their productions. The independent filmmaker must find a way to accomplish this same task. Through creative planning, she can bring the same artistic vision […]

Deal Terminology: What’s ‘Against’ Mean?

by Skip Press
Dollars and Sense
~~ Monica P. asks: What does it mean to be offered $XX ‘against’ $YYY, for your screenplay? For example, does one price ‘against’ another mean that the writer is paid $XX now, with an additional $YYY later if the film is actually produced? Or does it […]

Film Contracts: What are Points?

Don’t Just Make Your Points, Define Them!
by Jeremy Juuso
Points? Points? What on earth are those things people keep promising me when I work on a film?
A friend of mine said recently she ran into a name actor at Crate & Barrel. She’s a bit new to producing and had actually […]

Freelance Contracts: Do’s and Don’ts

Every person that works in film will at some point have to create a contract. Here are a few simple reminders of what to include:

…In the world of freelancing, the entrepreneur has to take on a number of tasks for themselves that would normally be handled by a separate department […]

588 Free Film Contracts and Forms

Looking to make a film but need a little help with the paperwork? We’ve painstakingly searched the internets and collected 588 free forms and contracts to help get you started.
Now before we start, everyone repeat after me: “THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR PROPER LEGAL ADVICE”
You probably won’t need […]

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

From: Center for Social Media
Download full report (PDF)
INTRODUCTION
WHAT THIS IS
This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material […]