Welcome to Cinema Law, where you ask the questions of our resident team of legal experts and, each week, they’ll…
Over the course of the last decade, the entertainment landscape has undergone a seismic shift. The traditional channels for discovering…
Since we're all inside working on screenplays (right?), we're re-sharing this 2015 MovieMaker posts on one of the most common…
Are you an indie moviemaker kept up at night by one nagging legal question that you worry will derail your…
Do you need a union to make your film? You must have asked yourself this before. We’ll answer, but first,…
Q: I did CGI work for a film and our contract states that they don’t acquire the copyright in my…
Q: I wrote a novel about a fictional reality TV dating show that bears similarities to The Bachelor and other…
Q: I was booked as a makeup artist on a production for the month of August. I signed a written…
When I was in film school many years ago, a rumor developed that the school owned the films we made…
Q: A producer recently approached me with a finished pilot script and asked me to write the rest of the…
Q: I’m friends with a semi-famous musician and she’s helping me writing a biopic about her life. I was told…
Q: I’m making a film and I’d like to use a quote from a famous person in the script. Are…
Q: Is there some way to ensure that I receive a “written by” or “screenplay by” credit when the client…
Q: As a producer, what are my rights when filming a documentary subject as he confronts a criminal about a…
Q: Who owns the copyright to a script when it’s based off someone else’s originally created characters? Should the screenwriter…
This situation is probably familiar to you: You don’t own it and you need to use it. Most films use…
Q: I wrote a screenplay and got a producer interested. He said he could generate interest in getting it funded.…
“Can’t get around the old minimum wage, Mortimer.”- Louis Winthorpe, III (Trading Places, 1983) In theory, an internship is a…
Also known as “Contracts or it didn’t happen,” this practice might help you get out of jail—or at least sleep…
Q: I am writing a film based on a documentary I wrote, produced and directed in 2005. When I made…
Q: I’m a foreign national and I would like to send my film to festivals inside and outside the United…
Q: Our short film is now in post and we plan to submit it to festivals. I wrote the script…
Q: I’m writing a pilot for a TV workplace comedy and my characters work for a low-rent competitor of a…
Q: I’m an amateur filmmaker who recently made a film that uses the Gary Jules cover of Tears for Fears’…