Mark Litwak explains (and of course, this is not legal advice, consult an attorney when dealing with these types of numbers).

The new Act relaxes some restrictions for smaller emerging growth companies. It seeks to encourage entrepreneurs because most new jobs are created by small businesses, not large ones. Consequently, this new law could be the impetus for an economic boom – at least that is the hope of its backers. No doubt, some of the “reforms” in the Act are of questionable merit and could open the door to new abuses. However, the current laws governing the raising small amounts of capital are unduly onerous for entrepreneurs, and have been for many decades. Furthermore, these laws have clearly not kept pace with technological change and the methods we use nowadays to communicate with one another. If anyone understands the potential of the crowd, it should be President Obama. In the last presidential election, he raised nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars from Internet solicitations, mostly small donations.

Most promising for indie filmmakers, the JOBS Act contains provisions that for the first time will allow internet crowdfunding for the production of films. Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital by obtaining small amounts of money from a large number of investors. Although existing companies like Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo currently enable filmmakers to raise funding through donations (i.e., gifts), this new law, when it becomes effective, will allow filmmakers to raise up to one million dollars in equity investments by soliciting the general public without the prior restraints.

Mark Litwak Blog | Read the Full Article

Aspiring filmmakers often let the contract and business details of film production be an afterthought, thinking “that’s not fun. Or creative. And I don’t have the budget for that un-fun, un-creative stuff. I’m working with my friends… it’ll all be fine.”

But they’re unlikely to do so again after the many problems arise (which they always do) and perhaps render their hard work practically and commercially unusable. Neglecting contracts and business formalities may prevent getting investors for your film, or may cause a host of other problems that mean a film cannot get interest or distribution.

What follows is a brief list of a few critical “what and why” business details that filmmakers must do, from the outset, to minimize obstacles to a film or project’s success.

1. Form a Production Company

Form a Production Company through which the film must be made. Why?

First, that will be the legal entity into which development/investment money is deposited. Why not take money/investments personally? Because of the second primary reason – liability. Liability in film development and production can come from multiple angles – from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for taking investments without the proper paperwork (a “prospectus” or “private placement memorandum” – VERY different from a “business plan”), or from an accident involving the cast or crew on set, or to a bystander not part of the cast or crew (think a lighting element falling onto a passerby), or to the production “losing” funds needed to pay cast and crew.

This “parade of horribles” isn’t fiction – it happens all the time. And if it happens without the legal protection of an LLC or similar legally separate production company, the legal liability will likely fall personally on the producers and those heading up the project, and potentially onto the investors – meaning that personal assets will be responsible for whatever harm or legal claims.

The third reason is that the legal entity will be the “person” (a legal “person” under the law) that contracts with all those involved in the film – from the producer(s), directors, cast and crew, transportation, catering, etc. If anything goes sideways with these contracts, it is the legal person that is held accountable instead of the actual persons heading up and investing in the project.

2. Get a contract with the writer(s)

Get a contract with the writer(s) for the legal acquisition of the script or story

A literary acquisition agreement (a/k/a an “option/purchase” agreement). Failure to do this means that the production does not have formal rights to the intellectual property it is making – meaning the writer/creator may have the ability to withdraw his material and prevent the production from doing anything commercial with footage already shot. So it is critical that this be accomplished before any production – or even development – takes place.

Think that you are “friends with the writer” and you’re therefore “in this together?” Are you willing to bet the entire project and all your hard work on that assumption? What is it that they say when you “ass-u-me” something?

Creative partnerships crumble all the time. Without a written agreement in place from the VERY beginning, the entire project is at risk.

3. Get lawyer drafted investment documents.

Investments – get lawyer drafted investment documents. Or risk having to refund all investments, fines, jail time, and lawsuits by the investors themselves.

Under the SEC and state securities rules, if you have taken someone’s money and have given them an expectation of a “return” on that money, you’ve probably sold a “security.”

Yes, even selling shares of your little film may well constitute a “security” in the eyes of the federal and state governments. That doesn’t mean you can’t take such investments. But it does mean that if you do so without following the proper legal requirements, you may have to give back ALL of the money taken for the project (yes, all investments – not just the one that the gov’ment found out about), and it may mean fines or even jail time.

And independent of those terrible consequences, failing to have the right legal language in investment documents leaves the production open to lawsuits by the investors if they become dissatisfied with… all sorts of things – how you’ve spent the money, how long it has taken to get a return on the money, the size of the return (or lack thereof).

Proper investment documents are as much for the protection of the film and filmmakers as they are for the protection of the investors.

4. Production contracts – use them – ALWAYS. Without exception!

Like it or not, a film is a business. Even the “auteur,” if he hopes to continue making filmic masterpieces, cannot ignore the business realities that filmmaking is expensive (even in this digital age), it takes money, and money rarely comes to one who does not handle it in a businesslike manner.

So even first effort indie films are a business – a proving ground to show that you can handle the business, artistic and technical demands of being a filmmaker. And as such there are contracts that MUST be used in the work of this business; contracts that clearly state who owns what, who has rights to what, profit/interest divisions, etc. The who, what, when, where, why (perhaps) and how much regarding the business transactions involved: the script/story option purchase agreement, cast and crew agreements, talent/interviewee release agreements, name and likeness releases, licensing agreements for use of the intellectual property of others (music, photographs, products, film or video clips (no – YouTube does not mean it’s in the public domain)), location agreements, craft services contracts, transportation agreements, insurance (workers comp, liability, errors and omissions, defamation protection), sponsorship and product placement agreements, distribution (foreign and domestic) agreements, appropriate trademark registrations, and the list goes on and on and on.

Reprinted by Permission.

Gano Lemoine, is a Los Angeles based lawyer with 19 years of legal and business experience, including expertise in film and television development, entertainment and media law, video game development, business, real estate, and class action/complex litigation. Visit his law site at Lemoine Entertainment Law

Special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and his Entertainment Effects Group team created thousands of acid-etched brass miniatures lit from below with hundreds of bundles of fiber-optic lights, shot in forced-perspective through layers of smoke to create layers of light refraction, creating depth.

Source: ridleyville.com

Episode 45

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Shownotes

Top 7 Articles of the Week

7. Canon 5d Crash Cam Reel

Vashi Nedomansky put together a sizzle reel of Canon 5d MkII cameras being used as Crash Cam in various productions as shot by Shane Hurlbut.

6. Canon 5d MkII & III Side by Side

Nathan Lee Bush from Adorama TV post a side by side comparison of the 5d MkII and MkIII comparing things like Moire, Rolling Shutter, Low Light Capabilities and Dynamic Range.

Can you see much difference?

5. Philip Bloom Reviews Canon 5d Mk III

Philip Bloom puts the latest Canon 5d iteration to the test in the islands of New Zealand.

4. Polone: Who Really Determines the Fates of Aspiring Screenwriters?

Gavin Polone, producer of Zombieland, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the Gilmore Girls, talks about who really controls the future of aspiring screenwriters.

3. Pricing Strategies for Creatives

How much to charge perhaps the hardest part of the freelance business. Jason Blumers offers a few tips for better pricing habits.

2. The Dark Knight Rises – LEAKED Audio of Freeman admitting he doesn’t get Batman

Can’t Christian Bale have a crazy conversation on set without somebody recording it? These “authentic” outtakes from the set of “The Dark Knight Rises” show Bale and costar Morgan Freeman spinning on not understanding the difference Batman and Bruce Wayne to Christian Bale wondering why he wasn’t asked to be in Inception.

Created by Irony Point NYC.

Yes, it’s a joke… More videos on the link.

1. Sneak Peak at Sony NEX-FS700 – Sony’s New Super Slo-Mo and 4k Camera

The Sony NEX-FS700 is making the rounds as the next anticipated “It” camera. Capturing with a 4k chip and scaling down to HD (with 4k as an upgrade option in the future), this camera boasts the capability to over crank up to 240 frames per second in full HD (an 960 fps in 480p mode). Here the first official promo video from Sony to hit the webs:

WTF Post of the Week

Did I just fall into the Rabbit Hole?

Step One: Check In

This will piss some of you off. I don’t care. Here’s what I do. And bear in mind, I live in a suburban area where we do not have a permitting process and where police are not used to dealing with location photography that might involve stands, lights, etc.

Generally, the police aren’t gonna just happen upon you. What happens is somebody calls you in. They call 911 (seriously — they did that for the tree terrorist) and the call is routed to the duty officer at the appropriate precinct. But by the time I am shooting, I have already been in contact with that person.

Before I shoot (a couple hours, usually) I call into the duty officer of the local precinct. I tell them my name, that I am a photographer, and where/when I will be shooting. I explain that, just in case some overenthusiastic passerby calls me in as a suspicious person, I just want to save them a call. I offer them my cell number, and ask if they want my sosh or driver’s license number. I have never been taken up on this, but I would happily give it.

Why? Because al Qaida never does this.

Joking aside, this positions me as the rational person in the equation should some idiot phone me in. And if they do call me in, there almost certainly will not be a visit to the scene. (“We already know about him, sir.”)

I also get the duty officer’s name, in the tiny chance a cop just happens upon me and decides to stop. That way I can say that I checked in with [Officer Whoever] on the desk, hoping to keep them from wasting a call. That’s never happened, but I have a known name to drop just in case.

Strobist | Read Full Article

Check out a few of the projects below:

Save Blue Like Jazz

GAYBY

“Would You” short film w/ Dave Franco & Chris Mintz-Plasse

JEFF – A Film About The People Around Jeffrey Dahmer

LA CAMIONETA: The Journey of One American School Bus

Indie Game: The Movie – The Final Push

“KID-THING” – a zellner bros. film

Finishing Brooklyn Castle (Formerly Chess Movie)

TRASH DANCE, the movie

PAVILION: WORLD PREMIERE SXSW

LEAVE ME LIKE YOU FOUND ME – Finishing Funds

Girl Walk // All Day

Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story

The Last Fall – SXSW Film Festival Official Selection

WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines

Booster: SxSW World Premiere

DAMELO TODO (GIVE ME EVERYTHING) FINISHING FUNDS

Welcome To The Machine

Bay of All Saints

Playtime (Spielzeit)

A Short Film About Ice Fishing

Boxcar Fair a Puppet Production

A CHJÁNA

Caldera – Animated Short Film

CHRISTEENE is making two new videos haaaaaay!

“TUMBLEWEED!” Completion Funds!

“What It’s Like” – a short film

See the Rest of the Projects here.

In the world of independent filmmaking, it’s easy to assume that more money can make any problem go away. But most filmmakers–independent or mainstream—will readily admit that nothing derails a project faster than being unprepared before the production begins.

It’s tempting to think that the $20,000 budget that you’ve scraped together through loans, personal savings and credit cards—and possibly an illegal act here or there—will trump readiness. It’s not true. So many films don’t get made because of poor planning, or just assuming that you can make it up as you go. Granted, it’s much easier to shoot now with digital as opposed to film, but it should be fairly obvious that you can’t just turn on the camera and film until the battery dies. Because the work that you’ve put in during pre-production will help in post, when you’re editing, looping sound, or trying to figure out how the boom ended up in all of those shots.

—Film Slate |Read the Full Article

Episode 34:

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Shownotes

Last week’s best article which inspired today’s talk:

TEDxVictoria – Crowdfunding 101
Victoria Westcott shares the five simple lessons from her childhood and how they apply crowdfunding, including raising $20k for her first feature film “Locked in a Garage Band”

Top Seven Articles from January 15-21, 2012

7. The Internet Goes on Strike over SOPA, Productivity Skyrockets

Late Night Chat on the Canon C300 with the DP of 24

In this series of late night vlogs with Rodney Charters (DP for the TV show 24) the Bui brothers explore the capabilities of the Canon C300 after shooting a camera test and having a few drinks.

7 Tips for HD Color Correction and DSLR Color Correction

Vashi Nedomansky a few professional tips on how to color correct footage for evenness and then how to color grade to add visual punch and style.

Making of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The title sequence to David Fincher’s “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is an amazing mix of dark forms and stylized violence. This sequence which houses over 250 shots alone was created by visual effects house, Blue Studios.

Writing the Mirror Moment

James Strzelinski explores what he calls the “Mirror Moment” – the turning point of a character arc which has the lead metaphorically (or literally) looking in the mirror and reevaluating everything.

Drew Berry: Animating Unseeable Biology

Molecules exist in dimensions smaller than the wave lengths of the visible light spectrum and because of this they are impossible to photograph. But that hasn’t stopped scientists from thinking about what they look like and what they’re doing. In this TEDxSydney talk, Drew Berry shows an amazing 3d animation of what’s going on at the molecular level inside a cell nucleus as it’s getting ready to split.

Many more molecular animations available on the article.

Press Pause Play: A Feature Documentary on Art in the Digital Age

Does the Democratiation of Media mean better art or is true talent being drowned out? That’s the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

WTF Post of the Week

20 years of Doh!

Phase I: Preparation

(1) Create a detailed outline for the final product; you won’t necessarily be sharing all these details at the beginning, but it will give you enough information that you will be able to answer questions and give potential backers a firm idea of where the project is headed. More importantly, this will help you decide what parts of the project (if any) are negotiable and open to input and feedback from backers.

Insider access and input are the most important things you’re selling to your backers, so give this very careful thought. You absolutely have to be up front and clear about which decisions have already been made and which are open to negotiation. The more input backers get, the more interest you’ll be able to drum up for the project — but don’t promise more than you’re willing to deliver.
— G M Sarli Games | Read the Full Article

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