Mark Litwak
Entertainment Attorney Mark Litwak Gives Us A New Look Into Hollywood - Filmnut
Mark Litwak an entertainment lawyer whom works with filmmakers. His practice includes trademark, copyright, contract, multi media law, intellectual property, and book publishing. He assist filmmakers in the marketing and distribution of their film.
Litwak advices that the film industry is a risky business and you must be willing to realize the path you must take to succeed; “there are no rules”. He advice; you must have a good story to tell if you are a filmmaker. If the story is boring, it will not capture the attention of anyone, and it will fail. You must have a creative marketing plan to get your film out. Niche films can be successful, “word of mouth is the best form of marketing”. Social networking is the key to getting the word out about a film; rather it’s a hit or a flop. A filmmaker should always have a lawyer or an adviser before signing a contract, because most distributors are aggressive as Litwak states “ sleazy” and most contracts benefit the distributors and not the filmmaker; you must research their track record from others.
Writers has a hard time to get agents because agents are looking for established writers who can get the sales, according to Litwak it is “very-very hard to get an agent”, he says it better to get a filmmaker to take on your project of turning a book to a movie.
To succeed in the film industry as the writer or the filmmaker, you must be creative and create something that grabs the audience attention, as well as finding an advisor such as an lawyer, agent or someone who will assist you in finding the best resources to get your film distributed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NryrU1uwqPI
Daniel Friedma
Music Industry Forum -- Daniel Friedman -- Artist Contracts
Daniel Friedman and entertainment lawyer who began working with rap groups, his law firm complained that he was bringing too many rappers to the office; he began expanding and growing. Friedman brought more and more artists in, the law firm told him he needed to drop his clients or leave the practice. Friedman refused and he said, “I’m out of here” he packed up and started his own practice.
Friedman discusses the copyright laws; ‘the copyright holder can reproduce the work, and no one can record, publish or put in movies without copyright holder permission”. According to Friedman, a copyright can create from another work, such as Weird Al Yonkervich, which would be called derivative works. The owner owns the copyright always according to Friedman, when an artist signs a contract with a label, the record company becomes the owner of the copyright except for the underlining composition.
When understanding copyright laws, the artist should seek the assistance or advice of an entertainment lawyer, because it can become puzzling trying to understand when you will need permission from the copyright holder to utilize other people music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXtws-zVhzE&feature=related
Gordon Firemark
Monkeying around with contracts
Gordon Firemark entertainment lawyer discusses the lawsuit of Caters News agency claimed that they purchased portraits and other images taken by a black macaques (monkey) who took the camera of David Slater, a photographer and shot self-portraits of herself. Slater licensed the pictures to Caters; the pictures were placed on a website (www.dailymailoline.com). Caters claims that it was a violation of the copyright law, but the law states that it must be human authorship. Caters had no claim. This case is bizarre because even though Slater didn’t own the copyright for the pictures, he does own original digital files, and he can sell or license the material to others, is this considered underlining composition?
