1000 for Release Forms! 600 for LCC!

[Voytek_Stitko]

1) I spoke with a lawyer and he told me that he will charge me 1000 for set of Release Forms (for my dv feature). You know: crew, actors, music, location, still photographer, minors etc...

2) And he said I MUST FORM LCC and he will charge me 600$. Jesus what is going on? !

I want to shoot my first feature this summer (I have a cast and crew now) but after talking to this lawyer I am confused. Anyway I dont have this kind of money = 1600 total!
I got to pay my credit cards first with is 2 as much as this "good deal" with the lawer.

Please let me know what to do.

Voytek

[nullphonic]

(1) If he means simply preparing the forms for you (drawing them up), they're available for free from several places (I have copies, looking again).

(2) There are advantages to forming a coporation for liability issues but it sounds as if he's insanely off here (I don't know your specifics, are you using union members, stunts, public domain items <music>, etc).

Someone else on the forum will know more than me regarding this but it sounds absurd if we're talking very low scale. (The price for incorporating sounds right, just not applicable for small scale production. In my experience, you'd only do that to avoid being liable personally for any number of legal problems that could arrise and taxes on revenues, etc).

Edit: "you'd only do that to avoid being liable personally for any number of legal problems that could arrise and taxes on revenues": That wording may sound strange, you're going to get taxed on revenues period, just not personally if it's drawn up correctly. Also, there are tax right off advantages when incorporated and "employeeing" blah, blah, blah.

It depends on the scope of your project really.

[DVX100Shooter]

You can get those forms online. There is a CDROM that www.markertek.com sells that is called PRO MOVIE FORMS. They have the CDROM for $54.95 you just pull up the form you need and print it. I think you meant LLC (Limited Liability Company).

[Barry_Green]

Sounds reasonable, as far as lawyer fees go.

$600 for an LLC is less than they charge here in Nevada. Of course, you can do it yourself for about $125 (depending on your state). For releases, forms exist that you can download off the web, or you can get Litwak's book "Contracts for the Film & Television Industry" (I think that's what it's called).

The problem with using a boilerplate contract is that it's very likely that neither you, nor the person signing it, will have the slightest idea what it means. The purpose of a contract is to spell out your agreement in detail, but if neither one of you understands what you're signing, it seems counterproductive.

If you really don't have even $1600 for lawyers, you're not starting out on the most solid of ground. But if you want to get around it, find a young, aggressive entertainment lawyer who wants to be an actor (there's always one around). Give him a few points and a role, in exchange for him setting up the legal work for no fee.

[nullphonic]

LLC setups are around $1,200.00 here in NC. Good idea on the actor-wanna-be lawyer, we received free accountant services in a similar situation before.

And don't forget offering an "Executive Producer" credit to a lawyer type. Some people eat that up.