Deferment (sp?) question

[thejessicastar1]

I'm just finishing up a no-budget indie production. Everything we did was very informal, guerilla-style filmmaking, so I acted as the director/writer/producer, etc. There were'nt call sheets, script supervisors or anything. Nobody was paid at all on this shoot. I'm sending the film out to festivals and am obviously hoping it gets picked up for some kind of distribution. Since nobody got paid, though, I'd like to have it set up to where if the movie sells, people will get paid (maybe not a lot, but something, at least). I know this is referred to as a deferment. How should I set this up for the couple of crew members, the main actors and the music I'm using (all were contributed free of charge with no expectation of payment, but I'd like them to get something if the thing sells). Would I be expected to pay out of my own pocket if it gets sold, or will the deferments be taken on by the buyer? An idea I had about payment was to set it up as a kind of points (percentage), where each cast and crew member would be paid the percentage of the final sale price based on what their counterparts on a normal, budgeted film would make as a percentage of its budget. I hope that made sense. Is that a good idea? Is it a legal idea?

I thought about doing this with the music, too. The movie is heavy with original songs from different local bands (which were all donated to me with rights and all), and I would like to eventually reimburse the bands pending a sale, based on the number of songs, etc.

Can anyone make any sense of this? If anyone can give me some advice, please let me know. I realize that the odds of the film getting into a festival where it would be picked up for distribution is slim, but I'd like to have something in place just in case the one in a million chance happens.

Thanks
Nathan

 

[thisiswells]

I'm trying to understand your scenario. You agreed to pay everyone based on a percentage of the potential sale or you agreed to pay them a certain amount (example: day rate x number of days, plus mileage and other reimbursements) if the film sells. I surely hope you offered points and not a set-in-stone amount. I don't really see how it's possible to do both, so I don't see what the problem is, I guess. If you agreed to pay ten people ten percent of your movie that sells for ten dollars, then everyone gets a dollar. If you agreed to pay people 10% or at least $10/each for your movie that sells for ten dollars, then you've got a real problem on your hands since you cannot guarantee both points AND a certain amount, pending sale, since you wouldn't know how much someone will offer you for your movie. I hope that isn't what happened here. Could you elaborate a little more about the specifics of your crew deals? (points or set figure, or both) I've never been in this situation since I have never sold a film, but this is why a writer/director project should always have a producer to take care of things like this, you know, a producer who works for points only.

 

[wabbit]

You should form a temp LLC and include everyone you want involved as a certain percentage partner. The LLC owns and sells the movie and then everyone gets a direct amount that the movie sells for. This protects your ass on taxes. Without a formal agreement you are going to take on the entire tax burden even though you are paying out parts of that whole to your crew, etc.

Depending on your state, forming the LLC is very simple (and cheap) and a quicky contract (yes get a lawyer to do it...cost you maybe $200) will get you all into bed together.

 

[jhvid]

The buyer is going to offer you an amount regardless of any deferred salaries you might have. If you have a budget with those deferred amounts then you could try to bargain to at least hit that number. Either way, the money is coming out of the sum paid to you by the buyer, as far as I know.

 

[galt]

Free advice on the Internet is worth it. Here is mine.

Leave well enough alone. Right now everyone is happy. If you actually get accepted intro a film festival they will be more happy to have their work seen. If you do manage to get enough money to be worth giving people a few bucks (extremely unlikely), they will be even more happier.

Why make everyone unhappy by getting their hopes up of becoming wealthy and then shattering them? Leave it alone, and trust to your own integrity to share any profits. Why make your life complicated for no reason? Why have abunch of partners who would then expect to be able to see your books on this movie, meaning you might need an accountant and certainly at least one lawyer? Just leave well enough alone.