works great
 

I tried it out and it works fine on my Mac, thanks a lot. And I will follow through with my promise when I get the package, LOL.

Bruce is correct,"Compensation" is indeed necessary for the contract to be binding. "Valuable consideration" is another form of compensation. THis can be anything they accept.

Bruce wrote;
>as long as you have not used the footage , picture, image, etc. to harm a person or their reputation or presented them in an untrue light.<

What about Saturday night live & such when they put bogus questions to a presidents speech and make him look foolish? Are public forums open market?

And do documentaries fall under the same laws. Say interviewing someone on the street, or a collage professor for a "professional opinion"?

Chris

A couple more release forms
 

Indigenous Pictures has a couple of different releases (Minor, model, location, and musician releases) all ready to go in PDF format, as well as other various handy video tips.

http://www.indigipix.com/videotips.htm

I find this book to be a useful starting point.

"Contracts of the Film And Television Industry" by Mark Litwak

Thanks!
 

Now I know where to go. I'll try those sources.

As I was searching for release samples, I happened upon this thread. There is one point in here that may be confusing.

For a contract, consideraton is necessary.

However, a release is supposed to work in exactly the opposite direction, which is to avoid the necessity for consideration. You want the person(s) to say, in effect, "You don't owe me anything, now or ever." That's a lot stronger than a release for which you pay even $1.

I'm not a lawyer, so use the appropriate grain of salt.

One thing I did ask my IP attorney about was having a release signed by parents for footage of a minor child. His report to me was that there was no statute covering this and that once the child reached majority, the child could sue anyway. Weird.

Will

Dylan,

those releases are kinda sketchy under canadian and british columbia law.

For a complete CYA, get the women in film producers handbook.
A friend lent me hers and it's chock full of stuff that is directly applicable for you.

http://www.womeninfilm.ca/producers_wb.html

Basically, if you have non union actors, then you might be able to enforce that release if it ever came to nastyness.

However, if you get the handbook, you'll see that there are releases for using union actors with deferred payment etc.
If you are serious enough to use releases, then I also recommend that you keep a tally of your total expenses for the project. Because if someone says you made money, then you can show all your expenses and say you have yet to turn a profit. ;)
Making money and profit are entirely different things, and most deferred payment scemes, at least the good ones, allow you to pay actors after you turn a profit.

Adrian

So far, I'm non-union, so I'm not as worried about it.
That's actually a fairly old post. I think someone since posted better releases, which I've switched to. Although I haven't had to use one for a while now.

Release forms?
 

Does anyone have some stardard release forms? Or know what info has to be on them?
Thanks
Michael

What type of release forms?

Check out the business forum FAQ

Release forms?
 

Hey, is there some kind of form I can print out and have people sign that appear in my videos, stating all the legal stuff and all? Where could I find this to print out?

Thanks.

Hi Alex,

You'll find several standard releases here...including talent, location, etc. (It's an RTF file)

Thanks. My simple mind doesn't understand some of it though.

Where it says "Therefore, in exchange for________________I hereby freely and without restraint consent...."

In exchange for what? Screen credit? Money?

"Whereas _____________________ (the "Producer") is engaged in a project (the "Video/Film"), and"

Do I sign there? heh.....i'm retarded.

Usually you throw a buck (at least) to whoever is in it. When I got releases, I'd have a clipboard and a bag full of one dollar bills. The point is that they're compensated. Doesn't matter that it's just a dollar. Legally, they've been paid.