Who Owns The Rights To My Film? Help.

wmiller@csulb.edu said:
If the writer/director wants to charge for the rights he should be able to apply that towards his investment in the picture.. yes or no?

The DP can also charge (or apply the value) the production company for the rental of his camera, Lighting, And all other equipment...yes or no?

(just like how some actors rent thier own trailers to production companies when they shoot)
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Yes.

For example

$1,000 Pre production costs
$5,000 Writer/Director
$5,000 Producers
$7,500 Actors
$4,000 DP (including rentals and tape stock)
$4,000 Gaffer/Grip (including equipment rentals)
$1,000 Mom's catering
$5,000 Other production costs
$2,500 Editing (including equipment rental)
$1,500 Composer (get rights this time)
$2,500 Misc. Post Costs
$1,500 Film fest, etc.

$45,000 Grand Total

Hopefully my math is good today and hopefully you guys can all agree upon your costs. Maybe you do need a third party to air out all sides to the story.
 
I went through this and now a friend of mine is going through it. The key is contracts. Also do as much as you can yourself. If you need to buy tapes save up $25 and buy a five pack. Shoot your own movie with your own camera if you can. I write, shoot direct, edit and star and I dare someone tell me they own a project of mine. I had a situation where a young lady took some photos for me. It was understood for doing work for us she would get to borrow our camera. But she got real shady and some bad stuff happened. We repoed our camera. Later she wanted to charge us for using her photos. Frankly I broke down copyright law to her and had actually bought the film she used. All the poses were mine save about two or three and I didn't use those poses (so she can't claim Int. Property) so I let her know I was willing to go to court and it was her word versus mine and I had evidence in the form of emails and such from her. People are shady in this industry and if they think something may blow up they will pull stuff like this.
 
The producer owns the movie, period. He probably owes you money for the things you bought and the labor your contributed, but he owns it. So stop calling it your movie, please. But he can't sell the movie until he settles you all.
 
Yeah, but now that I've read it I have to comment. Do people seriously go through pre-prod, production and post and THEN wonder how profits are to be distributed? For the smallest projects, I come up with tentative verbal agreements and then contracts.

Its crazy how some people just walk blindly into situations that blow up in their face later.

-Kegan
 
A default position from which to start, is that every individual contributor to this project, owns their particular individual contribution.

Sounds like y'all have created a dandy nightmare for yourselves to untangle.

Maybe you should write this one off (sounds kind of like a vanity project anyway) and dot your i's properly on the next one.

I mean, is there actually a saleable product with real value, here? If yes, then there's something to fight over. If not...who cares?
 
This is why people make business plans and do proper pre-production. This film is going to turn in to a huge mess. And yes, figuring out who owns what, who's paying for what, where ownership goes and all the other legal issues are all part of the proper pre-production process.
 
seunosewa said:
The producer owns the movie, period. He probably owes you money for the things you bought and the labor your contributed, but he owns it. So stop calling it your movie, please. But he can't sell the movie until he settles you all.
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Why did you pull this thread from out of nowhere?

Besides, as was noted in several places above, if there were no contracts involved here, then it's not as simple as "the producer owns the movie, period." That's typically true. But it's not always so. What it IS is a big mess -- but it also may have been sorted out by now.

I just don't get the belated condescension here.
 
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