And the duration of the contract could end, and they could sell it without you! Negotiate option extensions that depend on the manufacturer meeting with certain markers related to the forward movement of project production. For example, the option can only be extended if funding is secured and/or if the required people are attached to the project (director, actor and screenwriter). A producer, like any businessman, always wants to get the most boom for his goat. Purchase agreements or free options are generally preferable on their part; However, this is not always feasible for rights to large projects. Some producers will offer an author a share of the film`s “net profits” instead of a fixed purchase price. A percentage of profits seem tempting, but net profits in the film industry will still be below zero. A better option, if you can get it, would be a percentage of “gross margin” between 2-5%. Everything is project specific and negotiable, so you can see that a percentage of gross profits is linked to an early purchase price. Matt Knight is an intellectual property lawyer, free author of The New York Times and author of The Writer`s Legal GPS: A Guide for Navigating the Legal Landscape of Publishing. He is currently working on two novels in the genres Near-Future and Women`s Fiction. You can learn more about him, his writing and books at Sidebar Saturdays (a publishing blog for writers) and Matt Knight Books. Therefore, the shopping agreement may seem like a quickie alternative to a cheap option agreement, but there are considerable drawbacks to the use of this type of contract.
Because of these disadvantages, both parties are generally better off investing a little more energy and money to negotiate an option agreement that clearly defines the amount and types of compensation the author receives when his property is purchased, gives the producer control of the property and defines the extent of the respective rights of the producer and the author on the property. A little investment at the beginning of the relationship can avoid a lot of headaches on the road. While the usual vehicle for controlling the rights of history is the option agreement, a trend among manufacturers is to use a new legal vehicle to freeze a writer`s creative rights. Type the scene correctly — the purchase agreement. So we`ll report on these agreements today and see how you can use them to get a valuable ipe on your site before hiring producers or studios. Shopping agreements give more voice to the author to whom the producer presents the project and if the buyer is acceptable. Option agreements generally give producers carte blanche when it comes to who is hosting the project. As there is no payment to the author, the duration of the purchase contract is usually shorter than an option contract – usually only six to nine months. Moreover, unlike an option agreement, the purchase agreement generally does not give the producer the unilateral right to extend that term. While these short-term benefits for the writer, it may be a potential trap for the producer, who can lay the groundwork for an agreement with a production company for the duration, can only be cut by the writer after the expiry of the term.
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