Am I being screwed here?

E

eimajjjj

Hi guys,

To wrap up a long story short:

I'm a first time feature film Director. I've written, produced, cast and am directing the film. Anyway, I hired a DP who has worked hard as we were understaffed to begin with. 10 days into a 20 day shoot he's called me up and basically said 'I've picked the shots, I want to be credited as Director'. I responded to the likes of 'are you mad? I've spent the best part of two years putting the locations, actors, script, absolutely everything together and even though you're much more experienced and technically savvy that I am, this is my film'. He quickly pointed out that AS WE SIGNED NO CONTRACT THE FOOTAGE IS LEGALLY HIS!

So, am I right in thinking he could actually just swing round and say 'You know what, this is my film, I'm taking it'.

Also, I've paid him 75% of his fee directly to his bank without invoice.

Total panic right now!
 
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Threat to sue him if he does not confess that he was hired to do the DP job and now he wants credit for what he hasn't done.
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Sometimes there's laws that contradict each other. OK, so maybe the DP legally owns the footage, but if the producer can prove (through emails, etc) that there was an agreement to release the movie and and do things a certain way maybe he can sue for breach of contract.
 
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Right..well I'm being accused of this being a fictitious story now so I'll leave it. You're right though, there's only so much complaining I can do. I wouldn't say this is a common occurence as usually people sign forms to begin with. Also, if you're an employee the law changes to my side BUT freelance employment and working under monthly contracts with tax etc is apparently different. It just seems I've fallen in that hole in the road where he does have power to injunct a release.

Anyway, I feel there's more than enough information here to warn any filmaker out there in the UK and Canada of what to do and not to before you start shooting!

If there's any major breakthrough from my side which will either be me signing a deal giving him what he wants or finding a legal strategy to 'win' this then I'll update. Cheers for all the support anyway guys.
 
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eimajjjj said:
Right..well I'm being accused of this being a fictitious story now so I'll leave it. You're right though, there's only so much complaining I can do. I wouldn't say this is a common occurence as usually people sign forms to begin with. Also, if you're an employee the law changes to my side BUT freelance employment and working under monthly contracts with tax etc is apparently different. It just seems I've fallen in that hole in the road where he does have power to injunct a release.

Anyway, I feel there's more than enough information here to warn any filmaker out there in the UK and Canada of what to do and not to before you start shooting!

If there's any major breakthrough from my side which will either be me signing a deal giving him what he wants or finding a legal strategy to 'win' this then I'll update. Cheers for all the support anyway guys.
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I heard that in London, judges sent to jail 17 year old boys for what they done to the country. So... the law may be highly flexible and is actually on your side. You just have to believe in justice and put a lot of effort to save your movie.
Good luck and please, update us for the good or the bad. :)
 
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Make a movie about the subject. Good stuf jou know. Almost as good as that drama about that mexican boy that wanted to become a actor, but ended up a male prostitute....(I forgot the name of this film )
 
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Feutus Lapdance said:
Make a movie about the subject. Good stuf jou know. Almost as good as that drama about that mexican boy that wanted to become a actor, but ended up a male prostitute....(I forgot the name of this film )
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Wouldn't that be ironic: making a successful film about someone getting blackmailed on a film and then making a successful film out of it. Hmmm.....
 
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eimajjjj said:
Wouldn't that be ironic: making a successful film about someone getting blackmailed on a film and then making a successful film out of it. Hmmm.....
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That's one of the reasons I mentioned 'Lost in la Mancha'. This is a dramatic making-of of the never finished Terry Gilliam feature called 'The man who shot Don Quichot'. Everything goed wrong, but it's a great documentary :P
 
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WalterB said:
That's one of the reasons I mentioned 'Lost in la Mancha'. This is a dramatic making-of of the never finished Terry Gilliam feature called 'The man who shot Don Quichot'. Everything goed wrong, but it's a great documentary :P
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Lack of video footage of our production otherwise great idea!...I'll have a watch of that though :)
 
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in similar position

How did this resolve itself? What did you do.

Ps, there's nothing wrong with blogging about your experience and mentioning the real names because they essentially wrote the script. You're just a journalist. Just show valid "evidence" for report ;)

I'm going to court soon and wondering what this guy (under work for hire) will say about the footage I paid him to shoot (and which he subsequently lost or something - he's just not giving it to me. It's been awhillllle!)

Any advice?
 
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I'm not sure how the issue of copyright got into my thread. I'm suing the dp i hired to shoot a short film (paid him already, no footage, not even the drive I gave him to dump the footage onto).

Any suggestions about THIS case?

Our court date is tomorrow morning at 8:30am. HA!
 
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Any suggestions about THIS case?
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Bring all evidence you have to demonstrate that there was a contract and what the terms of the contract were. Bring written contracts, bring emails, including the computer with the emails saved (example: saved in Mozilla Thunderbird). Bring a copy of a written ad that you may have placed looking for a DP. Bring phone answering machine messages that might help your case. Bring the receipt showing that you paid for the hard drive, paid him for his work, etc. Be prepared to refute lies. Defendants always lie in court.
 
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I would obviously get an entertainment lawyer/solicitor. I didn't study law and don't know UK copyright laws. However, If you have registered a copyright then the original material should be yours. Therefore, he can not sell the filmed performance as his own. It would be like me filming the screenplay for "Forrest Gump" and then trying to release it. However, as I stated I don't have a law degree, so speak to someone that does!

eimajjjj said:
But what if he refuses? That's my point, he has ownership of my film at the moment and could simply just walk away and say it's his and he directed it!
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Agreed!

Find a good solicitor with experience in these matters and take the DP to court. Sue him for stealing copyrighted material (Hopefully you have the screenplay copyrighted) and "work-for-hire" infringements.

Make sure your script is copyrighted to have a case.

Emails do count as evidence in court. Email correspondance can help a lot.
 
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There are two separate discussions. Regarding the small claims court, you are limited as to the amount you can get back. Even when you win, you can have a problem in collecting depending on how the judgement is worded.
For either case you want to show potential damages and loss of revenue in addition to what you paid the individual.
 
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thank you! I won the case...

Thank you all for your help and advice. I did as you said and when the lousy "DP" didn't show up, I won by default. I won $4,220 in costs and damages (would have won more if I had another signature to confirm the floors were brand new before the "dp" sliced and diced them with his un-protected C-stands.

Anyways, thanks again and I'll check back here to see if anyone needs any help or if I hit a road bump in getting this judgement (I imagine it's a whole other set of hoops).

re: last reply - not sure how the judgement will be written. I literally just stepped out of court...


my email is misslovestolaugh@gmail.com if anyone is so inclined to follow-up...


Love from Los Angeles
-justanotherdumbactress
 
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Make sure your script is copyrighted to have a case.
Emails do count as evidence in court. Email correspondance can help a lot.
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Not copyrighting your script with the library of congress is not the end of the world. Save any evidence that you affixed it in a tangible form (ex- a Word document on a hard drive which shows date create, date last modified, etc).
 
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Blade_Jones said:
Not copyrighting your script with the library of congress is not the end of the world. Save any evidence that you affixed it in a tangible form (ex- a Word document on a hard drive which shows date create, date last modified, etc).
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I don't know much about IT, but aren't those date easily changed? For example if you set your clock on your computer to, say, 2007. Then you create a fresh document. Wouldn't the date created show "2007"?
 
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