Watermark a Screener?

[kennethhurd]

A distributor, interested in my feature film, recently contacted me requesting a screener for review. I haven't found much information on the distributor, such as other films the company has distributed, so I feel like I should proceed with caution and place a watermark on the film. Is this something that is normally done when sending a screener to a potential distributor? Is there anything I should be cautious of?

[Chris Adler]

If you have a legitimate copyright and chain of custody and the distributor is in the US I wouldn't worry about them trying to steal it.

[kennethhurd]

I think I'm more worried about it getting ripped and placed online.

[Chris Adler]

If they have zero verifiable track record why are you even considering them?

[arniepix]

If you don't want to be obvious about the water mark, put a timecode window burn on the film in a place that's hard to crop out. But don't be shy about putting some kind of watermark or window burn on the film in a way that can't be easily removed.