Entertainment Law

For my 8 followers,

I will be repeating a previous blog with all new information. This blog will focus on Entertainment Law and ways you can get sued. So listen up and do the opposite of everything you read here!

I read an article about one of Brittany Spears’s latest music videos “Hold it against me”. It is well known that this video is filled with product placement. That is because Sony is one of her largest endorsers. One thing that she could have gotten the filmmakers sued was the lack of advertising in the videos. I am sure that Brittany’s record label had a requirement of screen time that the Sony labels had to be in the video. If the Filmmakers did not provide enough advertising in the video then Sony would not be happy and probably try to sue the filmmakers.

http://www.billboard.com/news/britney-spears-hold-it-against-me-video-1005042232.story

While searching for lawsuits I stumbled upon a pretty good site that explains how to avoid sticky situations with the law. Always get the proper right for the music that you play in your films. There is more then one kind. You will need “Synchronization rights, a master use license, soundtrack rights, and performing rights…” This article also discusses rights and Licenses; also control of the project. Everyone behind the scenes must be on the same page for story as well as business and distribution.

http://entertainment-law.lawyers.com/blogs/archives/7811-Filmmakers-How-to-Avoid-Lawsuits,-Part-I-of-II.html

Probably one of the most recent law cases in Film would have to be the use Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo created by Victor Whitman. Mr. Whitman stated that Warner Brother’s did not attempt to contact him to gain rights to use his artwork to promote their film. This was a bad decision on Warner brother’s part. Victor had the ability to stunt the release date. Instead Warner bothers bought out Victors tattoo and now has the rights to the artwork for life. Warner brothers learned their lesson. Get rights or don’t use someone else’s material.

http://jathomaslaw.com/blog/?cat=8

Blogs (photography)

So today I will be focusing more on photography then video. I recently started doing photography about a year ago. Since spring 2010 I have made a pretty large name for myself. Starting out I wanted my work to do the talking for me. I believe that with amazing content, amazing work will find you. And that’s exactly how it worked in my case.
I do many free TF photo shoots to get my foot in the door. TF is Time for photos… It is an agreement between you and a model that states that the shoot is strictly to enhance both of your portfolios. I love fashion so I decided to follow many fashion websites and blogs. These websites have a pretty large following. This is what I’m going to talk about today. A good way of getting your work seen is to email blogging sites to ask if they will post your work. If your work is truly good enough they will post it.
I have been published to sites such as Flickrista.com for photography. And YouTube’s Vimeo’s best filmmakers, YouTube channel. If your work is shown on highly viewed websites you are more likely to be viewed by a potential customer. It is a well known fact that people who have a large following have the ability to sell themselves or whatever they happen to be good at.
From my portfolio alone I have been able to big several-paid photo shoots and even my first publication via billboard shoot coming up in early July 2011.

In conclusion if you are a new or even amateur photographer looking to get your name out there I recommend contacting popular blogging sites. These sites will help people find you. I will list below a few fashion sites that are popular and can help build you a following.

http://fashiongonerogue.com/

http://www.flickrista.com/

http://fashionography.net/

http://auxiliarymagazine.com

Internet based Self Distribution - Distrify

Distrify's Internet based self distribution is a new break though that will largely affect the indie film market. In the past indie filmmakers who did not have distributors or publishers would submit their films to festivals hoping for the best. If these films did not win these festivals, the filmmakers wouldn’t be making any money from their work. Getting a distributor that can make you money is not an easy thing to do in the film industry. Distributors that make the money in the film industry have names such as Disney and Universal.

Distrify is changing the game. Distrify is the new form of Internet based self-distribution. The best thing about this is anybody can do it. Anyone with a completed film can submit to this website to make their films available for consumers to purchase. Distrify is acting similar to I tunes. You are able to view trailers on this website for free. After viewing the trailer it gives options to watch right away by purchasing a digital download or you can Order a hard copy DVD or blu-ray; whichever you supply to Distrify for distribution.

This is a great opportunity for indie filmmakers, but there are a few negative aspects that may be less appealing to the users. You are able to set your own price. Distrify expects 30% royalties of every download or purchase of your movie. This is equivalent to I tunes royalty rates with a few set backs. I tunes has millions and millions of users. Using I tunes you do need a popular movie, agent, or distributor to get your film onto I tunes. With Distrify anybody can submit which is great, but the site is new and does not have a strong following like I tunes does. A 30% royalty rate seems a bit high for a website that does not open your film up to many potential consumers.

All in all I think this is a great way for self-distribution. I would recommend it to any Indie filmmaker that is looking to sell their film.

Here is a link to the website.

http://distrify.com/Distrify

Entertainment law

This weeks post is about an attorney Jonathan Benezette. I decided to ask him a few questions about his practice, personal life, and some tips producing a film, commercial, music videos, etc.

I first asked Jon where he went to school and what types of law does he practice. He told me that he does all types of law from Personal injury, workers compensation, to social security. He has also worked with Entertainment attorneys and was very knowledgeable on the subject. I then asked him about his personal life. I was curious to see if his busy work life interfered with his personal life. He told me that you must be able to balance work with your personal life. John has been at the beach with his family and been called by one of his clients. He understands his responsibilities and knows that as a Lawyer he is always on call even at the most inconvenient times… (3am in the morning). Even though he has a very busy workload, he is happily married and has two awesome kids.

I then asked him some questions that I thought would help me with my future in film productions. My first question was how would I go about getting the rights to use public locations. Jon told me that every state had a film commission that I could visit and talk to. They would be able to give me contacts to receive permits. He told me to be very specific with what I was asking for in regards to the locations. Also ask for more then I need. It’s better to have more then less. He also recommended talking to the cities police station to hire off duty cops to monitor the shoot. With the police on your side you would not have any problems getting your production shut down.

Thank you for reading my latest blog post. If you would like to visits Jon Benezette’s website to use his services you can find him at the URL below

http://www.jonbenezettelaw.com/

Film Law

Greetings Bloggers,

For this post I will be talking about legal problems that can occur in the film and entertainment industries. There are several things that can go wrong on your side as the filmmaker or the opposing side being the client. Having a well thought out and written contract will lessen the chances of legal troubles with your business deals…

Steven Spielberg has a pretty famous case that is still yet to be settled. DreamWorks pictures decided to break off their distribution contract with Paramount. Spielberg is one of the owners of DreamWorks and Universal is tied to Paramount. This created an issue between Spielberg and Universal. There was a Noncompete agreement as well as a lifetime of royalties promised to Spielberg in his contract with Universal. This split will be negotiated until 2017!

A film production company “After Dark Films” has filed a lawsuit with the Iowa Film commission. The Reason behind this was that the state did not provide the amount of tax credits to the filmmakers as promised. Iowa’s taxpayers were not happy about spending their tax money on shooting movies.

Now I was checking out the video copilot blog and found some people talking about Noncompete agreements. Something I did not know was that they are illegal in California; where the majority of the film industry is located. That’s good to know if that is where I plan on working before I start my own business. The bloggers on this message board all were very against signing a Noncompete agreement. This contract can break you if you ever decide to leave a business. It creates commitment with the company but then you have nothing to fall back on if your relationship with your current job goes south.

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you learned something about law and the film industry. If your interested in Music and Film follow me on twitter!

http://twitter.com/#!/GetRyanSheehy


Spielberg Consulting issues

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/spielberg-to-continue-consulting-with-universal-about-its-theme-parks/

DES MOINES, USA – Film Production

http://www.filmindustrynetwork.biz/state-forced-to-pay-434000-to-film-production-company-for-fraud/6540


Noncompete agreement
http://www.videocopilot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=57167

Richard Branson

This week I will be doing my Artist and Product Management blog post on the CEO of Virgin, Richard Branson. Richard is one of worlds most well known and influential entrepreneur’s of all time. He started as a trouble making young man in high school to one of the world’s richest men owning dozens of his own original companies. He does not manage a single artist or product. He manages hundreds of managers who then manage his companies for him.
Richard’s leadership qualities started at a young age. When Richard was in high school he started a student magazine at his boarding school. He was a natural born leader. Along with Leadership Richard’s second most outstanding quality was the ability to have fun. Sometimes his fun would get him into a bit of trouble. While still in high school he got caught inside the Dean of his boarding schools house sleeping with his daughter. This almost got him expelled until he wrote a fake suicide letter that made him exempt from the expulsion. On Richards’s diploma upon graduating high school his dean wrote him a small note.

“Congratulations, Branson. I predict you will either go to prison or become a millionaire”.

From this point in his life Richard decided that he wanted to pursue music management. Richard started his first record label Virgin Records. One of the first artist Virgin Records recorded was the Sex Pistols in 1977. Today Virgin records signs some of the top artists in the entertainment industry. Virgin signs some major mainstream band such as 30 seconds to mars, Gorillaz, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Saosin, and the Spice girls.

Richard Branson is an innovator. He brings joy and fun to all oh his products. From Virgin records, to Virgin mobile, Richard incorporates sex into his businesses, which motivate younger crowds to buy his products in turn creating a following.

I hope you enjoyed my latest blog post.
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References

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/

Jesse Moore: Artist Manager

For This weeks blog post I decided to contact a friend of mine Jesse Moore who graduated from Full Sail University not too long ago. He is now the manager for an up and coming band Called Stockholm. I asked Jesse some questions that I had that would help me if I wanted to become an artist manager. I had a phone interview with him and this is everything that he had to say.

Q: What made you want to become an artist manager?

A: It’s really the music scene that motivated me to be an artist manager. I’m really not talented when it comes to music. So the best way to be apart of the industry for me was taking up the business side.

Q: Do you go after the artist that you enjoy listening too? Like would you manage a country singer if you didn't like country?

A: Yes I do prefer to manage bands that I enjoy listening to. I have to know this band inside and out. If I don’t enjoy what I’m listening too I wouldn’t exactly enjoy my job.

Q: Do you have a breaking price? If a country band gave you enough money would you manage them?

A: Well I guess you can put a price on about anything. If it was a big name country artist and I was going to be paid out the nose then I guess I would manage a country band.

Q: What stress you out the most about this job?

A: You must have a very open line of communication with the band that you are managing. Most music guys are big into the party scene. It’s very stressful when a no one answers their phone and you know they were drinking the night before.
Independent bands that are used to producing themselves are also a hassle. They want a manager but then try to manage themselves.

Q: Whats your favorite genre of music?

A: I like Hardcore and Metal music.

Q: What are your main responsibilities as an artist manager?

A: My main responsibilities with Stockholm are Promotions, Organizing and Booking. Once they become a bit bigger we will then hire a booking agent. I organize their recordings and all promotions from posters to face book to music videos.

Q: Do you have any tips for a starting artist manager?

A: Start out only managing band. Its a lot more work then you think. Problems come up that you wont expect and it’s a bit easier to manage 5 guys then 10. Once you learn the ropes with one band then maybe you will be ready to manage multiple bands. Always have a plan B no matter what situation is. And Keep an Open line of communication between you and the artist. Make sure that you are able to talk to them every day. If you lose track of them things will go down hill from there.


This whole conversation was done on the phone while I was taking notes. Everything written is a summary of what Jesse said. Very little is directly quoting Jesse. I hope you enjoyed reading my latest post!

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