World of Law

Within the world of film, the production company needs to be surrounded with attorneys and a constant update on the world in the industry. A great place to find some of these updates is in podcasts by Gordon P. Firemark or Article 3.

The first that they talk about within episode 35 is the talk with James Taylor suing Warner Brothers Records. A big part of this is the fact that with a previous case with Universal, it was decided that digital downloading is to be treated like a license that should be treated with royalties, etc. How does this affect the film world? I feel that you download much more than just music these days between TV shows and movies that that court decision could heavily affect how much money production companies should be getting from the downloads themselves.

Within episode 30, the first thing they discussed is how the JOBS Act has affected crowdfunding. Crowdfunding will play a huge part in any start up production company using sights such as Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and other sites. It is suppose to help make it easier for regular people along with professional entrepreneurs however discussed in this podcast is that there are predictions that as it is implemented there will be lots of changes. How has this affected these websites however? The money is seen as being donated but the bill is officially saying it is ok to be doing that and have expectations to have returns and won't be affected very much at all. This leaves the platform open for production companies as long as the sites just follow regulations. However a special regulation has been adjusted to take out the solicitation where you could only go to those you knew (friends and family) for film productions. You can actually put an ad on the Internet and get money from it.  Bad news is, if you get up to 1/2 a million dollars, you must have an audited financial statement.

 

On another website, Article 3, there was a discussion of the film The Decedents within episode 46. The film surrounds legalities of real estate and a good tip that could help in writing the script and in pre-production is doing what the producers did; they consulted a law professor to help make sure everything they were talking about was true to point. This was a big step with going outside of their own legal team in order to make sure where they were was also being told in a true light.

Overall, attorneys can be a lifesaver whether it is to help solve problems the film has stirred up, current laws that may affect funding your project or just getting legal advice to make your movie true.