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Film Law DVDs

4-volume set, 6+ hours with 600+ pages of law e-books


What Every Filmmaker Needs to Know About the Law DVD Set

Learn how to:
• Set up your company
• Acquire rights
• Negotiate contracts
• Produce your movies

  • About Film Law
  • Full DVD Specs & Samples
  • Reviews
  • Your Instructor

 

Protect Your Investment in Your Film or Television Production

This unique 4-volume DVD set provides the legal information you need to set up your company, acquire rights, negotiate contracts, and produce your movies. And, you'll hear real-world stories of legal horrors you can avoid!

Nowhere else can you get such comprehensive information about motion picture legal & business affairs in such an easy-to-use format.

Whether you went to a top film school or learned your craft in the School of Hard Knocks, you owe it to yourself to complete your filmmaking education with this set of videos and books and save yourself from future legal disasters. PLUS: when it's time to go to an attorney, you'll save thousands of dollars by knowing the right questions to ask!

With these DVDs, you'll gain valuable knowledge at a fraction of the cost of a lawyer, much less than the cost of a film school class, and much, much less than the cost of getting sued if you make a mistake!!

Who Needs This Set?

  • Producers
  • Screenwriters
  • Entertainment Entrepreneurs
  • Attorneys and paralegals who want to know more about motion picture law
  • Professionals (and aspiring professionals) in the movie industry
    •

Whether your project is a documentary, a narrative feature, or a reality television program, the information in this series can help you avoid the mistakes that derail projects and send budgets out of control.

What's Included in the DVD Set?

Presented in seminar format, with BONUS e-books totalling nearly 600 pages, you get decades of practical knowledge condensed into 6½ hours of video (the equivalent of 26+ consultation hours!).  Best of all, you can access it whenever you need it, 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year!

  • Volume 1 contains two videos (an Introduction to the series and Setting Up Your Company)
    plus a BONUS 141 page e-book.
  • Volume 2 contains two videos on the Rights you need,
    plus a BONUS 235 page e-book.
  • Volume 3 contains a video on Negotiation,
    plus a BONUS 73 page e-book.
  • Volume 4 contains a video on production Contracts,
    plus a BONUS 185 page e-book with sample production agreements.

The information has been highly concentrated, so each hour of video is the equivalent of four classroom or consultation hours. The complete 4-volume set is equivalent to a semester-long college-level course in business and intellectual property law for the motion picture and television industries. (The course most film schools don't offer.)

What Every Filmmaker Needs to Know About the Law™ (ISBN 978-0-9823690-0-5) is a series of videos and books designed to help filmmakers navigate the treacherous sea of legalities that accompany making movies.

Among the advantages of having the course in this format are:

  • you absorb information more quickly from watching videos than reading books
  • chapter breaks allow you to go directly to the information you need quickly
  • you can pause and review until you're sure you understand the information
  • you can view the information at your own pace, again and again, whenever you need a refresher

Each volume includes videos presented in high-resolution anamorphic widescreen format. Reflecting our concern for the environment, each volume is presented on a single DVD with the video(s) for that volume and an e-book edition of the volume's companion book. Not only does this conserve resources and create less wasteful packaging, the e-books provide a means of easy reference when you're at the computer.

Contents Descriptions & Free Sample Videos

VOLUME ONE

For filmmakers, setting up your company may or may not be the first thing you do when you decide to make a film, but you will probably be thinking about it from the outset. This volume discusses factors that may help you determine when to set up your company and what form it will take when you do. In addition, there is a wealth of information about managing a business, hiring employees, and business planning to achieve success. Volume One contains two videos and runs approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes.  BONUS: 141 page companion e-book.
Introduction
  • Introduction to the Video Series
  • The Entertainment Lawyer's Role
  • Phases of Filmmaking Legal Work
Setting Up Your Company
  • Types of Business Entities
  • Fictitious Business Names
  • Corporations
  • Limited Partnerships
  • Limited Liability Companies
  • Where to Form Your Entity
  • Legal Formalities
  • Independent Contractor or Employee?    
  • Volunteers and Interns
  • Unions
  • Planning for Success
  • Formal Business Plans

VOLUME TWO

It doesn't matter how good your movie is, if you don't have all the rights to the elements of your movie, you don't have a film to sell, and all that money, time and effort you've put in is wasted. If you wait until after you've sold the film to have the legal work done, you will find that it can be prohibitively expensive to get an attorney to go through everything, clean up any messes, and assemble what is needed. In the two videos in this volume, you'll learn about the rights you need to assemble so there'll be no surprises when it comes time to deliver your picture to a distributor. Run time approximately 2 hours, 52 minutes.   BONUS: 235 page companion e-book.
Rights, Part 1
  • Introduction to Rights for Filmmakers    
  • Types of Rights Filmmakers Need
  • Basics of Copyright
  • Copyrightable Works
  • Work for Hire
  • Public Domain
  • Copyright Application-Screenplay
  • Copyright Application-Motion Picture
  • Copyright vs. WGA Registration
  • Elements of Copyright Infringement
  • Depicting Historical Events
  • Fair Use
Rights, Part 2
  • A Bundle of Rights
  • Chain of Title
  • Music Licenses
  • Trademarks
  • Trade Secrets
  • Rights of Personality and Identity
  • Defamation
  • Invasion of Privacy
  • Right of Publicity
  • Clearances

VOLUME THREE

This particular volume is not, strictly speaking, about legal principles. It's about deal making, which is a useful skill to have if you want to be successful in any business. The entertainment industry is a business of relationships, and maintaining good relationships is absolutely critical to your career. To make effective deals, it's important that you understand the unique language and observe the customs of the industry. Negotiations and contracts are interrelated and sometimes it's difficult to differentiate where one ends and the other begins. What begins as a negotiation frequently (one hopes) morphs into a contract. It's better to spell things out up front, during negotiation, so you can reconcile any differences in understanding before they become misunderstandings that affect your production and relationships. Runtime approximately 37 minutes.  BONUS: 73 page companion e-book.
Negotiation
  • Preparing for Negotiation
  • Considering Possible Outcomes          
  • Analyzing Alternatives
  • Overall Strategy
  • The Discussion Phase
  • Positioning
  • Negotiation Styles
  • Closing the Deal
  • Keith Cooper's Rules

VOLUME FOUR

This volume covers the law of contracts and the types of contracts you're likely to come across in the motion picture industry. The same principles apply whether your film is a documentary or a scripted narrative, and whether your budget is very large or miniscule. The content of the contracts, however, may be a bit different for different types of films. While it would be impossible to cover everything there is to know about contracts - or even the contracts related to motion pictures - in a single DVD, this lecture will arm you with enough knowledge to keep yourself out of trouble, and will help you determine what you need from a lawyer. The companion e-book contained on this disk contains information that is not included on the video, as well as samples of many of the contracts you are likely to need in the production of an independent film. Runtime approximately 1 hour, 27 minutes. BONUS: 185 page companion e-book.
CAVEAT: You should not attempt to write your own contracts. Even if you understand the information in this volume, there is much more to know about the actual drafting of contracts and mistakes can be very expensive.
Contracts
  • What is a Contract?
  • Implied Contract in Idea Submission      
  • Forming a Contract
  • Other Contract Requirements
  • Who Needs a Contract?
  • Essential Contract Terms
  • What is an Independent Contractor?
  • Consideration
  • Representations and Warranties
  • Example: Agreement for a Script
  • Purchase Agreements
  • Determining Credits

"This set is like having an attorney on retainer - one who explains things in detail and in a way you can understand."

 

 

"These lectures are priceless!!
Like having a top-notch lawyer on your shelf that you can access anytime you need him.

The money they have saved me in legal fees can now go towards my productions, which is AMAZING!"


— Robyn Bliley, Producer/Director, Circus Rosaire

"I’m so happy with these DVDs, I sincerely recommend them to every producer. Whether you’re new to producing or a seasoned pro, Keith’s DVDs will give you information you simply must have. The videos are supplemented with reference books and actual document copies on the same disks.

This DVD set will easily pay for itself the first time you need to refer back to it ... and, trust me, you’re going to refer back to it many times!"


— Dave Gregory, producer/stereographer

Galaxie Entertainment Company


 

 

"I attended one of the top graduate film programs in the nation. When I graduated, I felt that my understanding of film law was the equivalent of 3 pieces of a 10-piece jigsaw puzzle. After seeing the Keith Cooper videos, I felt like I got those other 7 pieces, solid!"


— Grant R. Sheehan, screenwriter-producer


 

"Keith Cooper has created an amazing course on the legal issues that are involved with producing or executive producing a film. The content is wonderful and the graphics are excellent. While the information is – by its very nature – complicated, Cooper manages to present it in a way that is easy to comprehend. The graphics offer amazing support to the learning process.

Best of all, you get far more information than you could ever get from sitting with an attorney for the same amount of (billable) hours!
Don't even think about getting started before watching this valuable set of DVDs!"


— Catherine Clinch, CEO, Nuclear Family Films

 
Catherine Clinch, professional screenwriter and CEO Nuclear Family Films

 

 

 

"Anyone working in the motion picture industry should get this DVD set. It's that simple!"


— Becki, film student

 

 

 

"These videos contain crucial, incredibly valuable information.
I feel enlightened after experiencing the series,
and will continue to use the information for the rest of my career.
WORTH EVERY PENNY!!"


— Chad Wilson, Director of Photography
Progressive Productions
Chad Wilson director of photography

CONGRATULATIONS to the Winners of our Screenwriting Expo Drawing

We introduced the DVD series at the Screenwriting Expo and held a drawing to give away one of the sets. The winning entry was submitted by the writing team of Tammy Olsen & Shawna Moore.

Click the play button on the video to hear how thrilled they are about the DVD set.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/YOUR VIDEO INSTRUCTOR

Keith E. Cooper, Esq. is a Los Angeles attorney practicing in the areas of entertainment law, copyright, trademark, and corporate law. Mr. Cooper has represented many of the major independent production companies (as well as a number of individual filmmakers), and provided legal services to more than 50 films, distributed by such companies as Paramount Pictures, Miramax, HBO, Showtime, Twentieth Century Fox, and MGM. Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Cooper was a writer, director, producer, and development executive. He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California, a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri, a Master of Arts in Theatre (Directing/Producing) from Adelphi University and earned a Certificate in Filmmaking from New York University.

 

For more information about Mr. Cooper and his law practice, visit ProductionCounsel.com.

 

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

These videos are intended to provide general information about legal subjects, but are sold with the understanding that neither the author, lecturer, nor distributor is rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. No warranty is given that the information will apply to any particular use or any specific situation. The author of this video has attempted to provide information that is accurate as of the taping date. However, laws vary among jurisdictions and change on an ongoing basis, and the information may not be correct at the time you view the videos, or may not apply in your situation. These products are not a substitute for legal advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, you should seek the services of a competent professional in your local area.