Does the film producer really desire a film lawyer or entertainment attorney as a matter of professional practice? An activity lawyer’s own bias and my stacking of the question notwithstanding, which could naturally indicate a “yes” answer 100% of the time – the forthright answer is, “it depends” ;.A number of producers today are themselves film lawyers, entertainment attorneys, and other types of lawyers, and so, often can look after themselves. But the film producers to concern yourself with, are the people who become if they are entertainment lawyers – but with out a license or entertainment attorney legal experience to back it up. Filmmaking and film practice comprise an industry wherein today, unfortunately, “bluff” and “bluster” sometimes serve as substitutes for actual knowledge and experience. But “bluffed” documents and inadequate production procedures won’t escape the trained eye of entertainment attorneys employed by the studios, the distributors, the banks, or the errors-and-omissions (E&O) insurance carriers. For this reason alone, Perhaps, the job function of film production counsel and entertainment lawyer is still secure.
I also guess that there can be a few lucky filmmakers who, through the entire entire production process, fly under the proverbial radar without entertainment attorney accompaniment. They’ll seemingly avoid pitfalls and liabilities like flying bats are reputed to prevent people’s hair. By means of analogy, certainly one of my close friends hasn’t had any health insurance for decades, and he is still who is fit and economically afloat – this week, anyway. Taken in the aggregate, some people can be luckier than others, and some people can be more inclined than others to roll the dice.
But it is all too simplistic and pedestrian to share with oneself that “I’ll prevent the requirement for film lawyers if I just stay out of trouble and be careful” ;.An activity lawyer, especially in the realm of film (or other) production, could be a real constructive asset to a motion picture producer, in addition to the film producer’s personally-selected inoculation against potential liabilities. If the producer’s entertainment attorney has been through the procedure of film production previously, then that entertainment lawyer has recently learned lots of the harsh lessons regularly dished out by the commercial world and the film business.
The film and entertainment lawyer can therefore spare the producer a lot of those pitfalls. How? By clear thinking, careful planning, and – here is the absolute key – skilled, thoughtful and complete documentation of film production and related activity. The film lawyer should not be thought of as simply the person seeking to determine compliance. Sure, the entertainment lawyer may sometimes be usually the one who says “no” ;.But the entertainment attorney could be a positive force in the production as well.
The film lawyer can, in the length of legal representation, assist the producer as a successful business consultant, too. If that entertainment lawyer has been associated with scores of film productions, then the film producer who hires that film lawyer entertainment attorney advantages of that very cache of experience. Yes, it often might be difficult to stretch the film budget to allow for counsel, but professional filmmakers tend to view the legal cost expenditure to be always a fixed, predictable, and necessary one – akin to the fixed obligation of rent for the production office, or the expense of film for the cameras. While some film and entertainment lawyers may price themselves out of the price range of the typical independent film producer, other entertainment attorneys do not.
Like it or not, the film lawyer entertainment attorney continues, “Film is really a speculative business, and the statistical most of movies can fail economically – even at the San Fernando Valley film studio level. It is irrational to operate a movie business or some other form of business out of one’s own personal bank account” ;.Besides, it looks unprofessional, a genuine concern if the producer wants to attract talent, bankers, and distributors at any point in the future.
The options of where and how to file an entity are often prompted by entertainment lawyers but then driven by situation-specific variables, including tax concerns associated with the film or film company sometimes. The film producer should let an activity attorney get it done and get it done correctly. Entity-creation is affordable. Good lawyers don’t look at incorporating a consumer as a profit-center anyway, because of the obvious prospect of new business that an entity-creation brings. legal directory As the film producer should know that under U.S. law a consumer can fire his/her lawyer anytime at all, many entertainment lawyers who do the entity-creation work get asked to accomplish further work for that same client – particularly when the entertainment attorney bills the very first job reasonably.
I wouldn’t recommend self-incorporation by way of a non-lawyer – anymore than I’d tell a movie producer-client what actors to hire in a motion picture – or anymore than I’d tell a D.P.-client what lens to utilize on a specific film shot. As will be true on a movie production set, everybody has their very own job to do. And I feel that the moment the producer lets a competent entertainment lawyer do their job, things will start to gel for the film production in ways that couldn’t even be originally foreseen by the film producer.
2. SOLICITING INVESTMENT: This dilemma also often constitutes a wake-up call of sorts. Let’s say that the film producer wants to produce a motion picture with other people’s money. (No, not a unique scenario). The film producer will more than likely start soliciting funds for the movie from so-called “passive” investors in numerous possible ways, and could possibly start collecting some monies as a result. Sometimes this occurs before the entertainment lawyer hearing about it post facto from their client.
If the film producer is not a lawyer, then the producer should not even consider “trying this at home” ;.Like it or not, the entertainment lawyer opines, the film producer will thereby be selling securities to people. If the producer promises investors some pie-in-the-sky results in the context of the inherently speculative business called film, and then collects money on the foundation of that representation, trust in me, the film producer can have much more grave problems than conscience to deal with. Securities compliance work is among probably the most difficult of matters faced by an activity attorney