Entertainment Law Podcasts

Brian Alves does the entire entertainment industry a favor by posting fantastic podcasts dealing with numerous legal issues regarding film. For this blog post, I chose two of the podcasts found on the iTunes store.



The first podcast I am going to review is about using the poor man's copyright, being recorded in public and suing for not being included in the credits of a film. I want to talk more about the poor man's copyright and the credit issues than being recorded in public, because in my experience if you are shooting a serious production, you will have waivers and releases to cover all issues.  If you are shooting guerilla style, like most of us independents than you will have to live by the rules of run and gun.

Poor man's copyright is something I have often considered, especially in the earlier stages of my career but I have always just paid the $20 to the WGA East and registered each of my screenplays. For those of you who don't know what poor man's copyright is, it is the act of using the registered date of the post office to state that you have had that intellectual property for a certain period of time. One of the things I liked most about this portion of the podcast was the fact that this type of copyright is not protected under any provision of copyright law. Many independent filmmakers and screenwriters are unaware that this is not a very stable form of protection and if you are serious about your work, you should bite the bullet and pay the money.

Suing for not being on the credits of a film is something I have never actually looked too far into until now. Actually, it's something that I feel any realistically serious members of a film production company should be knowledgeable in. Normally, in my experience, on a film shoot everyone is required to enter their names as they would see fit to appear on the final credits of the film. If, for instance, a PA or other often overlooked employee does not enter their name for credit use, I feel like you can not really blame the production for this. The fact that anyone would actually sue because their names are not included in the credits is a bit absurd, unless or course it is a members of the above the line crew.  So, the fact that this podcast even brought up the fact that this exists in the film community is very interesting, and makes this podcast very valuable.

The second podcast is something that I have a little bit of experience with, and it focuses on working with SAG actors, standard forms, and something outside the box with interning at law firms. I never thought about interning at a law firm in this industry, but after taking the Advanced Entertainment Law course at Full Sail University, and listening to this podcast, I have decided that for anyone who wishes to be a Producer or Unit Production Manager, it would be extremely important to get some law experience.


The forms talked about in the podcast, or more-so how to find these forms, is an interesting piece of information for prospective filmmakers. You have to remember, most of the people who are listening to the podcast are going to be students and indie filmmakers who don't have immediate access to an entertainment lawyer. For me, I have access to all the forms, releases and waivers I would ever possibly need via my school, my lawyer, and other resources I have gathered through networking.


Working with a SAG actor/actress can be the best set experience of your life, or the worst. They can bring a sense of professionalism and style to your film that smaller actors can't but they also bring with them agents, fees, and regulations that are talked about in the podcast. Working with a SAG actor is beneficial to the reputation, and often times, the final look of your film, but it also requires a lot of work on the above the line crew's shoulders. Many SAG actors require at least one of the producers on the film to be registered with the Producer's Guild, and this can cause some roadblocks for indie filmmakers and crews.

They talk about some of the steps you have to take with contracting a SAG member to work on your film. There are many things to consider, such as whether or not it is realistically in your budget to have a SAG member on your film. Another thing, is the persons representative, and whether or not they are going to be on set. This can cause tremendous amounts of stress to other members of the cast and crew.

Overall, I feel like anyone who has some sort of financial backing, or wishes to one day work in the studio system, could benefit from listening to these podcasts. Legality is often overlooked by independent filmmakers, and can many times get them into trouble and get their production shut down.

-Michael