All posts by David Albert Pierce, Esq.
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Indie Law: How to Secure and Hold the Rights to Your Project
In the documentary on legendary producer Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture, Evans explains early and often that the key to success in Hollywood is... -
Indie Law: Make Your Feature’s Development Less Dicey With Loyal Legal Counsel and Financing Foresight
Development is the time when your indie’s budget needs to be put to the test. It’s also the time when you may... -
Indie Law: Learn Why These Three Types of Attorneys Will Give Your Production a Boost, and How To Pick Them
Selecting an attorney, or attorneys, to work with throughout the moviemaking process is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Likewise, investing in the right attorney can ultimately net... -
Indie Law: Put the Green in Greenlight With This Guide to the Most Effective Film Financing Tactics
You went to film school, not business school—yet all the sudden you’re confronted by a bevy of fancy financial terms as you... -
Swindler’s List: Seven Tips for Avoiding the Scam in Hollywood
Doyle Lonnegan: Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly; how does he do it? Johnny Hooker: He cheats. – The... -
Ethical Exploitation: How Moviemakers Can Treat Their Unpaid Interns and Volunteers Better
“Can’t get around the old minimum wage, Mortimer.”- Louis Winthorpe, III (Trading Places, 1983) In theory, an internship is a wonderful thing.... -
Better Safe Than Sorry: Nine Basics Moviemakers Should Cover For On-Set Safety
The industry is fraught with potential hazards for accidents. A select few on-set tragedies receive attention in the media, but even more... -
Cinema Law: How To Tell The Truth Without Paying For It
Adapting a true story for film can be tricky. On the one hand, reality can be extremely powerful—fact is often stranger—and even... -
Max Incentives: Five Best Practice Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Tax Incentives
So you’ve read our Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker in 2016 lists (Big Cities and Small Cities and... -
Cinema Law: Why Moviemakers Should be Very, Very Careful About Equity Crowdfunding
Just days before the American Film Market began last November, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally promulgated regulations (after a two-year...
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Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Acting
Flash Forward: Grace Van Patten Takes a Leap into the Unknown in David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake
Many actors will tell you that when you read a great script, you just know. But for Grace Van Patten, it was actually not knowing that...1Inside the Issue: Directing
Success in Succession: Matteo Garrone Shot Dogman Entirely in Sequence to Put Viewers in His Character’s Shoes
I wrote the script for my new film, Dogman, 12 years ago, and during those years I changed it many times, arriving at six or seven...Inside the Issue: How To
Journalism Plus: How Hail Satan?, The Brink, and Leaving Neverland Blend Truth-Seeking With Cinematic Storytelling
“Journalism Plus” is how Academy Award-winning moviemaker Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) characterizes making documentaries. If you’re a documentarian, you may not have a degree or credentials in...8