Signing your life Away

Ok, so, I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of weeks. I always hate reading ‘sorry I didn’t blog’ at the top of these things, but in this case last week I got a late afternoon call to go and take over directing a network show in the wilds of the mid-west - so at least it was at least relevant to my blog!

I’ve recently been blogging about some ‘process’ stuff, agents and lawyers, and about how they fit into the life of a Reality TV producer. This week I’m picking up from my blog about lawyers with a blog about Contracts. It’s not sexy, but I think it’s really important to be reminded of the basics whether you’re a young producer starting out, or a seasoned executive. Brace yourself.

In the olden days when one caveman asked another caveman if he’d agree to come and help him make some fire, they were as good as their word. Minutes later grilled mammoth burgers all round.

Then one day, a disgruntled caveman, let’s call him ‘UG’, wandered over the hill in search of his missing fire-making-buddy. You can imagine his anger when UG saw his friend crouched over some sticks starting a fire for someone else. “WTF?!” UG exclaimed forcefully, (although truth be told, every exclamation he made sounded forceful and pretty much indistinguishable from anything else). The unabashed fire-buddy looked up, and earnestly as he could said “This guy is cooking me Bison. It’s just business”.

The next day UG became a lawyer.

This is at the heart of every contract you will ever be a party to in TV or Film. When things happen to us that we don’t like it makes us feel bad. The Contract is our way of trying to avoid feeling bad. It’s very basic and very human.

Just to be clear, it’s important for me to make the point right up front that a contract doesn’t have to be tens of pages filled with long words. A contract can be a verbal one, (remember Kim Basinger’s verbal agreement to appear in Boxing Helena? That reportedly cost her $8M), it could be an email, a single line on the back of a napkin - provided it has your signature at the bottom, and you both agree, it’s a contract.

The problem with contracts though, is that not enough people know that contracts are a preventative step rather than an aggressive one. This is especially true when we’re starting out, and we’re dealing with people who haven’t been doing this for years. So in the process of trying to cover all the ways we can avoid getting each other screwed - some people end up feeling threatened and bad.

Sometimes, more often than you’d believe, the very act of trying to get a contract signed with someone is the very thing that ends the relationship - or worse, plants the seeds that will eventually bring the project down.

Here’s an example. I had to do a contract recently where I was engaging a sports team for a reality show. The guys were all great, the promo tape we’d shoot I knew would be fantastic, and I knew this show could sell. All I needed before we did anything was a signed contract with this guy giving me exclusivity and the right to produce the show.

Unfortunately, during the process he got the idea that because I was explaining all the ways that we were both protected from being screwed, that I was actually in the process of screwing him. No matter how much I tried to explain to him that these things weren’t actually happening to him, they were just on paper, he just didn’t get it. After many, many hours of explaining, reading and re-explaining he finally agreed to sign.

It was hard work - but without that contract I had no project.

Here’s the biggest, simplest truth about working as a producer or production company in reality TV or feature films… YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE LAW. You have to learn to read contracts and you have to have a basic, working understanding of the very horrible messes you are opening yourself up to if you screw it up at this stage.

Here’s the second biggest, simplest truth that fells many a producer; YOU WON’T WANT TO.

In the haze of excitement about selling your show, getting a gig, or in your desperation to sign someone, you just simply will not take the time to read, I mean REALLY read, the contracts and understand them. Something will get overlooked and you’ll be regretting it in the very near future.

So, some important advice: Read contracts. Read em. Any contract you can read, have a read.

Then, finally, ASK. Do not be afraid to say, ‘I don’t understand what this means’. Sometimes I ask my lawyer to translate a line, or a paragraph - just so I’m crystal clear. I’ll then write that in the margin of my copy so I can explain it to the smart person who asks me later on.

I won’t be the first to say that nobody thinks I went to Harvard. But I know a guy who did. And he’s the guy who get’s paid a decent percentage of my budgets to tell me this stuff. (See last week’s Blog about Lawyers).

In the first few years you will make and sign a lot of contracts. In those contracts you will make a lot of mistakes. They will cost you money and you’ll be very frustrated. I know, I made mistakes. I made one last week - a term I didn’t understand correctly was used and I signed the contract. Turns out that one word means I will have to return a few thousand dollars of cash to a network. But, it’s ok. I know I saved a bunch of other issues from coming up and costing us even more in that contract because I’d worked hard to understand it. You win some, you lose some.

Here’s the second major piece of advice today: It is your responsibility to learn to understand contracts. It’s a very big part of your job.

Here’s an example that might come up in your very first contract… A tv show you create. Great format. Great show. And line 556 of your contract with the production company or network says ‘Producer shall have the right to remove Owner at Producer’s discretion, with no recourse, and no further monies payable to Owner’. So, this is rubbish legalese, but I’m making a point, if you can’t read that sentence and say to yourself, ‘hold on a minute I’m not going to sign that because it says that I can get removed from the show at any moment without being paid a single penny!’, then you definitely need to read more contracts.

Lifesaving? No. VITAL for your future? Certainly.

So, now I’ve hopefully made it clear how important it is for you to understand contracts, now, what should you use them for?

Every time you have an expectation of something from someone you should get yourself a contract. When you start your company, you should write down an agreement between you what you each expect from each other, and what will happen should the company fail. Be honest, be simple.

When you want to sign up a host, or ‘option’ and idea from a producer, writer, journalist, or get the rights to a book, you’ll need a contract.

They’ll become a part of your life - it’s your job to try to keep it as small a part as possible so you can spend more time making reality TV!

At my company, we’ve tried to keep a ‘standard’ set of contracts on hand. This way you don’t have to start from scratch each time you want to sign one, it will also speed up the process. You can even fill in most of the major bits you know, including names and addresses, which will save your lawyer time and you money.

You’ll also need to contract your employees, locations (a location release), and people you shoot (personal releases), the equipment you rent, the offices you move in to. So there’s a lot to do, a lot to read and a lot of carefully filing you need to do.

But, it’s ok. You should never forget that this is as much a part of Reality TV as filming people yelling at each other. It’s a part of the job that will let you come up with great shows.

Above all it’s a part of the job which means you OWN something. Now you can shop your project with, people attached, or access to a specific company or you can have a book, or the rights to a newspaper article. You OWN it. Now, if the networks want it, they have to have you too! Great!

My final word on contracts is to say that a contract is between two people. You should never forget that. For a contract to be successful it MUST, work for both parties. You give, you take. Ultimately if both of you can walk away from the contract feeling happy, then you’ve made a great contract.

I’ll get back to life on the road of Reality TV next week.