The Have to have For An Entertainment Lawyer In Film Production

Does the film producer genuinely lawyer will need a film lawyer or entertainment lawyer as a matter of specialist practice? An entertainment lawyer's personal bias and my stacking on the question notwithstanding, which could possibly naturally indicate a "yes" answer 100% of the time - the forthright answer is, "it depends". A number of producers these days are themselves film lawyers, entertainment attorneys, or other kinds of lawyers, and so, normally can care for themselves. However the film producers to be concerned about, will be the ones who act as if they may be entertainment lawyers - but with out a license or entertainment attorney legal expertise to back it up. Filmmaking and motion picture practice comprise an business wherein as of late, regrettably, "bluff" and "bluster" occasionally serve as substitutes for actual know-how and experience. But "bluffed" documents and cture production procedures will never ever escape the educated eye of entertainment attorneys functioning for the studios, the distributors, the banks, or the errors-and-omissions (E&O) insurance carriers. For this reason alone, I suppose, the job function of film production counsel and entertainment lawyer is still secure.

I also suppose that there will always be a few lucky filmmakers who, throughout the entire production process, fly under the proverbial radar with out entertainment lawyer accompaniment. They will seemingly avoid pitfalls and liabilities like flying bats are reputed to avoid people's hair. By way of analogy, one of my best friends hasn't had any health insurance for years, and he is still in good shape and economically afloat - this week, anyway. Taken in the aggregate, some people will always be luckier than others, and some people will always be more inclined than others to roll the dice.

But it is all too simplistic and pedestrian to tell oneself that "I'll avoid the need to have for film lawyers if I simply stay out of trouble and be careful". An entertainment lawyer, especially in the realm of film (or other) production, can be a real constructive asset to a motion picture producer, as well as the film producer's personally-selected inoculation against potential liabilities. If the producer's entertainment attorney has been through the process of film production previously, then that entertainment lawyer has already learned many of your harsh lessons regularly dished out by the commercial world and the film business.

The film and entertainment lawyer can therefore spare the producer many of those pitfalls. How? By clear thinking, careful planning, and - this is the absolute key - skilled, thoughtful and complete documentation of all film production and related activity. The film lawyer should not be thought of as simply the cowboy or cowgirl wearing the proverbial "black hat". Sure, the entertainment lawyer may often be the one who says "no". But the entertainment attorney can be a positive force in the production as well.

The film lawyer can, in the course of legal representation, assist the producer as an effective business consultant, too. If that entertainment lawyer has been involved with scores of film productions, then the motion image producer who hires that film lawyer entertainment lawyer benefits from that very cache of experience. Yes, it often may be difficult to stretch the film budget to allow for counsel, but expert filmmakers tend to view the legal cost expenditure to be a fixed, predictable, and necessary one - akin to the fixed obligation of rent for the production office, or the cost of film for the cameras. While some film and entertainment lawyers may price themselves out on the price range of your average independent film producer, other entertainment attorneys do not.

Enough generalities. For what specific tasks must a producer typically retain a film lawyer and entertainment attorney?:

1. INCORPORATION, OR FORMATION OF AN "LLC": To paraphrase Michael Douglas's Gordon Gekko character in the motion picture "Wall Street" when speaking to Bud Fox while on the morning beach on the oversized mobile phone, this entity-formation issue usually constitutes the entertainment attorney's "wake-up call" to the film producer, telling the film producer that it is time. If the producer doesn't properly create, file, and maintain a corporate or other appropriate entity through which to conduct business, and if the film producer doesn't thereafter make every effort to keep that entity bullet-proof, says the entertainment lawyer, then the film producer is potentially shooting himself or herself in the foot. With no the shield against liability that an entity can provide, the entertainment attorney opines, the motion picture producer's personal assets (like house, car, bank account) are at risk and, in a worst-case scenario, could ultimately be seized to satisfy the debts and liabilities in the film producer's business. In other words: