September 2 at 9:02am

A Nice Paragraph Capturing Reality Of Today

I recently had the pleasure of coming across this fine bit of reading, and I thought it summed up our current state of the film biz quite well. And heck, it may even protect you from some liabilities down the road…

The Parties hereby acknowledge that there is presently no executed agreement with any distributor to distribute the Picture. The success of the Picture will be dependent upon the Company’s ability to complete the Picture, the attractiveness of the final product to distributors and the distributors’ willingness to commit substantial sums to promote the Picture successfully. The Company will not have the financial capability to distribute the Picture itself. The gross revenue derived from the Picture is dependent, among other things, upon the interest of distributors and their ability to obtain suitable distribution via theatrical, television, home video, and/or other media, and in selecting proper release dates and appropriate advertising and promotion for the Picture. The negotiation of final distribution agreements, which frequently occurs (if at all) near the time of completion of motion pictures, will have a substantial impact upon the amount of receipts available to the Company from the exploitation of the Picture. There is no assurance that such negotiations will result in revenues or profits to the Company. Furthermore, although the Company has agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to cause the Picture to be distributed, there is no assurance that the Picture will be distributed or that such distribution will be profitable to the Company. The fact that any distributor derives profits from its distribution of the Picture will not, in turn, assure that the Company will also derive profits therefrom.


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  • While I understand the humor, I think this is based on the old paradigm where filmmakers raised money by selling a dream. "The dream of Sundance." Or in other words: "Dear prospective investor, give us a million dollars. We probably won't recoup your investment, but if we are really lucky, our movie will get into Sundance, have a great screening, built buzz and garner a gazillion dollar distribution deal."

    While it is still nice to dream, given the readily available, filmmaker friendly marketplaces and VOD pipelines (Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, et al) - writing a business plan based on a dream deal is totally careless and lazy. Instead, filmmakers now need to ask two questions: How many VOD downloads does it take to recoup the investment AND how will you make this happen?

    Answer these questions and you actually have a movie plan worth presenting.

    Jason Brubaker
    Filmmaking Stuff
    http://www.FilmmakingStuff.com
  • Way to go nice post.
  • This is a wonderful addition to an agreement. If anything, it should start the conversation between you and your collaborators about distribution from the outset.
  • Tip top post there Ted! Depressing, funny and informative!
  • Michael R. Barnard
    Succinct, accurate, and, indeed, delightful.
  • Jon Goodman
    This is wonderful legal writing, of the sort they invariably - and often unwittingly - train you to avoid in law school because it's too damn easy to understand. I'm certainly going to pirate this for future agreements, especially those that relate to raising capital from investors to finance a production, which I'm fairly certain this derives from. The lawyer who wrote this - assuming it was an atty and not simply a smart producer - deserves kudos for clarity and forthrightness. Bravo. As a recovering lawyer, and a writer-director for more than 25 years, I would recommend this to all my fellow filmmakers as well as my students down at NYU Grad Film. You're always on a roll, Ted, but this week you're truly smokin'.

    - Jon Goodman
  • Weird_zone
    "Furthermore, although the Company has agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to cause the Picture to be distributed, there is no assurance that the Picture will be distributed or that such distribution will be profitable to the Company. The fact that any distributor derives profits from its distribution of the Picture will not, in turn, assure that the Company will also derive profits therefrom."

    Oh, yeah, baby, right there- AH!
  • This is why I tell my alleged kids everyday, study the English Language.
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