Do Producers of Projects Based On Real Life Events Need To Acquire Life Story Rights?

“42” (Jackie Robinson), “Rocketman” (Elton John), “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” (Fred Rogers), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Freddie Mercury) “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” (Whitney Houston), “When They See Us” (Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, and Raymond Santana), and so many more! These are just a few of the many documentaries and projects based on life stories that have been produced.

These motion pictures, biopics, and other real life-based projects have triggered a renewed discussion in the industry about the issue of life story rights, or “life rights” for short.

What are Life Rights?

 In a nutshell, life rights are thoughts, observations, recollections, reactions, and experiences surrounding, arising out of, and concerning events, incidents, situations, and experiences that have occurred throughout a person’s life.

In other words, it’s the non-public events that happen in someone’s life. These rights may need to be acquired from the subject person just like any other property right before being incorporated into a project. The following are examples of projects where acquiring life rights needs to be considered:

  • A motion picture studio that wants to produce a documentary on a person that includes intimate details.
  • A television network that wants to create an authorized biography movie, or biopic, that tells the story of a person from his or her perspective.
  • A reality show that features a person’s daily life experiences on camera.
  • An author who is writing a screenplay, teleplay, book, magazine article, short story, stage play, essay, or treatment about a person’s life.
  • The producer of a media project that will incorporate a person’s life story, such as a music video, commercial, mobile application, video game, online content, or virtual reality experience.

Do Life Rights Need To Be Acquired? 

There is case law that says that in certain cases life rights do not need to be acquired because of the First Amendment; however, it is best if a producer analyzes his or her specific situation and make an informed decision. For instance:

  • If a project is based on the story of a person and contains intimate details that may not be public, then a producer likely needs to acquire life rights.
  • If a project is based on a previously written story about a person, then a producer needs to obtain a license from the author of the work and may also need to acquire life rights from the person.
  • If a project is strictly based on non-fictional facts and events that a producer obtained solely through researching public materials, then he or she may not need to acquire life rights from a person.
  • If it is unclear whether life rights need to be acquired, then a producer may want to avoid the risk of being sued and acquire life rights from a person.

Keep in mind, there are clear benefits in securing life rights from a subject person regardless of the legal analysis, such as it may encourage the person to give a producer more substantive information to enhance the project and it will reduce the risk of a potential defamation or invasion of privacy claim by the person (avoiding a significant amount of time and legal fees).

Also, having an agreement in place with a person will make it easier for a production company to obtain errors and omission insurance.

How Are Life Rights Acquired?

Typically, life rights are acquired by either a Purchase Agreement or an Option to Purchase Agreement.

Purchase Agreement

Just like purchasing any other type of property, a producer can buy a person’s life rights on whatever terms and conditions are agreed to by the parties.

Purchasing the rights may be the best decision if a producer has already secured financing, attached sought after talent, or otherwise developed the project where it is ready to move forward quickly.

The following are key terms to consider include:

  • Purchase Price
  • Contingent Compensation
  • Rights Granted
  • Derivative and Alteration Rights
  • Cooperation between the writers and person
  • Portrayal Rights
  • Participation with Publicity for the Project

Option to Purchase Agreement

Just like obtaining option rights for any other type of property, a producer can secure an option to purchase the life rights for a certain period.

A producer will typically pay the person a nominal fee to have time to write the literary work (i.e., screenplay), secure financing, attach talent, and ultimately purchase the rights before the option expires.

The following are key terms to be considered:

  • Term (Length) of the Option
  • Option Fees
  • Development Rights
  • Reversion of Rights
  • Representations, Warranties, and Indemnification
  • Purchase Price

Other provisions may apply to this transaction, such as securing other rights related to name and likeness uses, screen credits, press, and promotional guidelines, holdbacks for other projects, social media campaigns, and what happens to the rights if the Company abandons the project before it is released.

In short, a producer should first determine whether it is necessary to acquire the life rights from a person early in the development of a project.

If it is in a producer’s best interest to do so, the following are some best practices to follow:

  • Acquire life rights from a person by entering into either a Purchase Agreement or Option to Purchase Agreement.
  • Obtain required written consents and releases for all people depicted in the project.
  • Ensure that the portrayals of all people in the project are true and accurate to avoid libel and defamation claims.
  • Avoid being overly intrusive into a person’s personal life even if an agreement is in place to avoid an invasion of privacy claim.

Always protect your work. We offer Affordable agreements packages.

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Disclaimer: Nothing stated in this blog is intended to be, or shall be considered, legal or other professional advice. To properly analyze the issues raised in this piece, you need to engage a competent attorney to assess your specific situation. Also, note that all of the disclaimers to this site also apply.

 – Richard B. Jefferson, Esq.

From Script To Screen Part 1 Film Pre-Production

film pre productionVery excited to bring you my 3 part series on how films are made. It’s called ‘From Script to Screen – A Guide To The Film-making Process’.

When your done reading it you will have  a very good idea how scripted television and film production works. 

If you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend you check out last weeks post all about screenplays. As pointed out in that post you need the screenplay before you even get to step 1 of creating the film.

So after the screenplay is set and ready to go, films can basically be broken down into three parts. Pre-Production, Production and Post Production.

In part one we will be discussing Pre-Production.

Overview of Pre-Production

“If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening my ax” -Abraham Lincoln

That is one of my favorite quotes and it perfectly applies to how you should think about the “Pre-Production” phase of film-making.

The primary purpose of pre-production is to design and plan every step of creating a film or TV show.

What’s Already Been Done Before Pre-Production Starts?

  • The script has already been completed except for maybe some minor rewrites and polish.
  • The film or TV series has already received the official green-light by the Studio, Network or Investors.

What Happens Next

  • The production company is created and a production office is established.
  • The production is story-boarded and visualized with the help of illustrators and concept artists.
  • A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures.
  • For major productions, insurance is acquired to protect against accidents…and lawsuits!
  • All the financial logistics are worked out. (how and when people are paid etc…)

Pre-Production Length

Since Pre-Production is the first of the three stages, it will set the pace for the rest of stages of production. The amount of time spent in pre-production varies based on the type of project.

Features:

  • Low Budget/Independent Film: Typically 4-8 weeks.
  • Big Budget / Studio Film: Can be anywhere from 2 months to a year or more, depending on complexity and scale of the production.

Scripted Television:

  • This works in a constant cycle with one show in pre-production while another show is shooting.
  • Pre-Production per Episode is about only about a 1-2 week process.

So What Actually Happens During Pre-Production?

To sum it up simply, all preparations need to be made for the shoot. Every step of creating and producing the film is carefully designed and meticulously planned in this phase of the project.

“The more effort that is put into the pre-production phase the easier and more successful the film will most likely be.”

Filmmaker Roles

Let’s take a look at some of the roles that are defined for film-making.

The Director

The Director is absolutely the most influential creative force of the film.

Here are some of the most important duties of the director during pre-production:

  • Determines the style and visual look of film.
  • Begins the Storyboarding and shotlisting (Lists shots for each scene in entire film and Works with Storyboard artist to draw and visualize shots).
  • Meets with all the departments to discuss specifics of film as it relates to their department.
  • Helps cast and rehearses with the Actors.

Casting

Selecting talent for the film or TV production ( The lead actors may have already been cast.) Sometimes a bigger film will get green-lighted based on casting a specific actor.

Production Budget

The production budget is formulated and approved. This determines how much money will be spent on the film. It is important that the estimations are as accurate as possible to avoid going over budget.

Crew Members

The crew members are selected and hired. The crew members are typically everyone who works on the film that is not the director, producer or cast.

Locations

The locations are scouted out and chosen. Producers are making decisions about location more and more based on the money and tax incentives they can receive from the state or country. See my post here about the best film locations for tax incentives.

Sets

The sets are designed and built.

Visual Effects

The visual effects are discussed and designed.

Stunts

The stunts are coordinated.

Camera or Make -up Tests

Tests Performed

Pre-Production Role and Responsibilities

Now lets look at some of the roles and responsibilities in pre production.

Producers

Here are the most common types of producers.

  • Executive Producer (or “Show Runner” in TV)
  • Producer
  • Line Producer ( Commonly DGA Production Manager)
  • Associate Producer

The producer is responsible from the start (conception) to the end (distribution) to deliver a high quality project that is well received, comes in under budget and makes a profit!

Director

The director is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on screen.

Responsibilities include:

  • Directing Actors and getting the best performance
  • Shotlisting and designing all visuals from camera

Production Manager

The production manager

  • Manages the Production Budget and Production Schedule.
  • Hires crew, arranges insurance, and makes deals with Unions.
  • Reports on behalf of the production to the studio executives or financiers of the film on the progress of the film.

First Assistant Director

  • Logistics of Film / TV Series
  • Works closely with Director in all aspects of production, facilitating and communicating
  • Schedules Film / TV series
  • Runs the set
  • Oversees Unions ad Guilds on the set DGA, SAG, AFTRA, IA, Etc.
  • Oversees his team of 2nd AD, and Additional 2nd AD’s

Director of Photography

  • Shoots the film (Either with an Operator or alone)
  • Manages all the lighting in film
  • Executes framing and camera movement
  • Works with Director to compose shots

Production Designer

  • Manages the design and décor of all sets stage/location
  • Responsible for physical look and conception of film
  • Collaborates with Director to achieve a unified, stylized look

Script Supervisor

  • Times the script in pre-production
  • Makes certain that continuity is correct from scene to scene during production
  • Keeps comprehensive notes on set for all facets of continuity, dialogue, timings, etc.

Sound Mixer

Head of the sound department during the production stage of filmmaking

  • Records and mixes the audio on set dialogue

Casting Director

  • Finds actors to fill the parts in the script
  • Sets up auditions for Director
  • Possibly may make deals with talent

Costume Designer

  • Designs, creates, purchases and rents wardrobe for actors in film

Location Scout

  • Consults with Director to determine the look, feel, and style of individual locations
  • Finds and secures locations
  • Manages locations during principal photography

Editor

  • Assembles film following the guidelines set by director
  • Cuts film “up to camera” during shooting period
  • Completes Editors Cut after film, then works with Director to finalize cut of film

Pre Production Shooting Schedule

Shot out of Order

Films are usually shot out of order due to budget, actor’s availability, locations, Special effects, shooting practicalities, etc. For example:

  • Often actors are only available for certain dates, therefore their scenes need to be scheduled appropriately
  • Scenes in individual locations need to be bunched together for budgeting and other practical reasons.  For example: If we return to a neighborhood park throughout a film, it would not make sense to return to the park every time it shows up in script to shoot in sequence
  • Special Effects or Stunts may need to be scheduled to be shot at specific times.  Time of day (Day/Night)

The Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedule is the bible of production.  It organizes everything that is out of sequence when shooting.  Everybody in cast and crew gets one.

Daily Shooting Time

  • Studio Feature Film Shoots from 1/2 – 4 pages in a given day.  Indie films can shoot substantially more
  • TV Series shoots from 3-8 pages in given day

Production Stripboard

  • Scheduling used to be hand-written on a large board with cardboard strips.  Most of the time it is now done on computer by a program like ” Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting” How does it work?
  • Strips are set up on computer – one for each scene.  They contain info on: Scene Number / Scene Slug – Line / Day or Night / Interior or Exterior / One line Description of scene / Number of Pages to be shot / Actors in scene.  These strips are shifted and moved around to accommodate all scenes shot out of sequence.

Pre-Production Completion

Ideally, at the completion of Pre-production, the Production Team should have confirmed or have an excellent idea of:

  • All Locations
  • All Cast
  • The film’s budget
  • The film’s schedule ( amount and specific work to be done in a given day)
  • Visual look of film
  • All SFX required for film
  • All Production Design exactly what will be on stage or location
  • All Wardrobe
  • All equipment and film / tape needed for film

So there you have it! This is most of what you need to know about the process of pre-production for film projects.

I hope you will join me next week for Part 2 where will go over the actual production phase.

From Script to Screen Series

First the Screen Play 

Part 1 – From Script to Screen: Pre-Production

Part 2 – From Script to Screen: Film Production 

Part 3 – From Script to Screen: Post Production

If you are working on a Documentary or Independent Film I always recommend you have agreements and contracts in place to PROTECT YOUR WORK!

Without the proper agreements in place no major player will ever take you seriously.

I have put together affordable individual and packaged agreements you can buy and download instantly.

Documentary and Independent Film Agreements

Reality TV agreements/Digital Production Agreements

Take care and see you next week!

What is A Screenplay and Why is it so Important?

what is a screenplay

So I am really excited about the next series of blog posts coming up.

I am writing a 3 part series called from ‘From Script to Screen – A Guide To The Filmmaking Process’ that details how films are made.

Though it is impossible to detail every step to filmmaking, this will give a general overview of each step in the movie making process.

It will be broken down into the 3 major parts of film and television creation.

 

 

Pre-Production, Production and Post Production.

Before we get into the 3 steps above though it’s important to talk about a key piece of the process. Without this piece you cannot even start pre-production. Can you guess what it is? Well of course, it’s…

The Screenplay!

Without the screen play we don’t even get to step 1 of making our film. The screenplay or script is key to the entire process but many people don’t truly understand the details of what it is, how it works and why it is so important.

That is why before we launch into next weeks 3 part series I thought we would take this week to give the screenplay its proper due.

After reading this you will know what a screenplay is, some details of how it works and why it so important.

 

Where Does a Film Begin?

Any film project begins with the script or screenplay. Trying to make a film without a script would be like trying to cross the ocean without any type of navigation. It is the blueprint that everyone  working on the film refers to when they are fulfilling their part of the process. Usually everyone working on the film has a copy and they refer to it throughout the making of the project.

So where does a script or screenplay come from?

Typically it works in one of the following ways.

  • A Standard Script is pitched to Producers or the Studio and if they are interested, it is than developed and written with their input. Sometimes a well known scriptwriter will be approached to write a script based on a concept. I’ve recently negotiated this type of deal. There are a number of terms to negotiate, including compensation, payment structure and creative input.
  • A Spec Script is written by a writer in advance with no solicitation in hopes that it will be optioned and eventually purchased by someone who can turn it into a film like a producer or a studio. These are considered more long shots because the writer is usually unknown, with little to no entertainment industry contacts and this is how they are trying to break into the business. Despite being a difficult route to Hollywood there are some famous examples of movies that originated from spec scripts like ‘Good Will Hunting’ and “American Beauty’.
  • An Adapted Script is adapted from something that already exists in another form like a book, a play, TV show, prior film (remake) or even a real life news story. There are so many countless examples of this but probably the most common are best selling books. Now days if there is a best selling fiction book its almost a guarantee it will be adapted for film.
 

Earlier this year my client who pens the children’s book series Dork Diaries granted Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate an option to adapt the series into a motion picture. While it might sound like adapted scripts would be easier on the writer since the story has been proven, it comes with its own set of challenges.

First of all the material has to be written into a screenplay format which is very different than how books are written. Also, if you have extremely passionate fans of the original material (comic book and sci-fi fans are notoriously hard to please) they can be very tough on the script writer.

There is a balancing act of staying true to the original spirit of the book while still making it work on film and with the screenwriters own twist.

If you’d like to hear more about acquiring the underlying rights for scripts and existing material, check out a video I did on the subject a while back for my class when I taught Business Affairs at New York Film Academy.

 

What exactly is a Screenplay and why is it so important?

 

The screenplay is the guide for the Producers, Director, Actors, Crew of exactly what will appear on screen.  It is the common ground that everybody on the film will work with from start to finish of production.

It tells the complete story, contains all action in the film and all dialogue for each character. It can also describe characters visually so filmmakers can try to capture their style, look or vibe.

Since the script is the blueprint for the movie or TV show it also the best predictor of cost.

Making a film takes careful planning of the budget and cost estimation can best be gleamed from the script. For example if the script calls for scenes that only CGI can accommodate the producers know they are in for a bigger budget. If the film is mostly dialogue driven, with no special effects and limited locations the budget should be much lower.

As an example lets look at 2 recent Fox movies; Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Fault in our Stars. According to Box Office Mojo Apes (as of this writing) has grossed about $177 million while Stars has made about $124 million BUT…. Apes had a production budget of $93 million while Stars production was only $12 million!

If you knew nothing else about these films but looked at their scripts it would probably be obvious to you why there was such a difference in production budget. To interpret what’s on paper to screen for Apes it would be clear that it would take a ton of CGI and other costly special effects.

Stars on the other hand had no costly special effects and was mostly a character and dialogue driven story. Understanding what general budget your script portrays is important because financiers are mostly looking to invest in films like Stars (lower risk) and these are the films that a studio will greenlight.

The script also goes a long way in determining the schedule of your film. The schedule of the film  is important because it has a direct impact on the budget. A common cause for budget overruns is when their are disruptions or rescheduling that needs to be done.

This is all meticulously planned out before hand using the script as a guide.

When it comes to actual filming time, typically filmmakers will decide how many pages of the script they will film per session.

 

Screenplay Terminology

Let’s take a look at some of the common terminology used in screenplays and by screenwriters.

Scene Heading or “Slugline”

A scene heading or “slugline” is a brief description that sets the upcoming scene. It includes: is it Interior or Exterior? What is the Location? What is the Time of Day?

Here is an example: INT. BANK LOBBY. DAY

This would show that the action is taking place inside a bank during the day. So for those hundreds of movies we have seen with bank robberies the script probably had a scene heading similar to that.

Action

Action is just what it sounds like and it describes in detail exactly what is happening, step by step.

An important thing to note and the main reason why screenplays are different than books is the writer cannot write internal feelings.  Since the audience cannot ‘hear’ what the characters are thinking the writer must find a way to effectively externalize their thoughts and feelings. (having talented actors who can emote well definitely helps in this area!)

Character Heading

The character head should always be capitalized and shows who is speaking.

Dialogue

The dialogue is what the characters say when they speak.  The dialogue should reveal the characters personalities, feelings, and emotional state. Unless its strictly an action or horror movie, well written dialogue is typically a big part of how well received a movie will be.

Parentheticals

Parentheticals are brief descriptions of character’s attitude in speech, for ex. (happily), (distracted) (enraged); again good actors will go a long way in helping here.

Parentheticals also dictate where dialogue is coming from, for example; (O.S.) , (V.O.) O.S. stands for Off screen meaning it describes a voice that is not shown on the screen (coming from another room etc..) V.O stands for Voice Over and is used when the speaking character has no physical presence on screen (on the phone, television background, voice in head etc…) Parentheticals while helpful should be used sparingly and only when necessary.

Shots

Shots emphasizes camera angles or movement, describing camera direction. This is for the most part should be left up to the director so in the script the only time mentions of camera movement are normally in there is if the writer thinks its important for that part of the story.

Transitions

Transitions dictates how the story moves from scene to scene.

Here are some samples of transitions: Cut, Fade in, Fade out, Dissolve to.

Transitions are another thing that writers probably do not want to use to much. Especially with a spec script you may want to save some of that text for words that advance the story in a meaningful way.

Screenwriting rules of thumb

Here are some general rules of thumbs for screenwriting:

  • One page of script = roughly one minute of screen time
  • Average feature film script is approximately 100 – 110 pages
  • Average one hour television series is approximately 43 pages ( leaving time for commercials)
 

So I hope this gives you a good idea on what scripts are. I think this post is a good lead in to my 3 part series starting next week ‘From Script to Screen – A Guide To The Filmmaking Process’. This series of posts will describe the steps that happen to make movie magic.

From Script to Screen Series

First the Screen Play (this article)

Part 1 – From Script to Screen: Pre-Production

Part 2 – From Script to Screen: Film Production 

Part 3 – From Script to Screen: Post Production

 

PROTECT YOUR WORK!

If you are working on a Documentary or Independent Film I always recommend you have agreements and contracts in place to protect your work. 

Without the proper agreements in place no major player will ever take you seriously.

I have put together affordable individual and packaged agreements you can buy and download instantly.

Click Here:  Documentary and Independent Film Agreements

Click Here: Reality TV agreements/Digital Production Agreements

I hope you enjoyed this weeks article!

Please leave a comment and join the conversation.