Video: How to Be a First Time Film Producer

This Season: Tailgating; New Year, New You; Tax Time

Learn how to become a first time producer for a feature film in this free video series on producing a movie.

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Video Transcript

So our next topic here--I'm looking down. We've got so much great stuff coming up. But our next topic here is what is the next step that you take for a first time producer? Well, here are few of the first next steps that I would strongly consider you take. Number one, once you find that great script, you want to make sure you own the rights to the script. Make sure that it's either registered with the W.G.A., Writers Guild of America, or make sure it's copyrighted and you could actually do this online fairly inexpensively if you don't have a lawyer yet. The other thing you want to do is you've got a few key crew members involved; you've got a few advisers attached so to speak. You want to look on getting a lawyer, okay? And I'm not talking about spending $5,000 or $10,000. You might want to have a meeting with an attorney in your area that's interested in becoming an entertainment attorney or maybe there's an entertainment attorney that's just kinda starting out. You have to pay a small consulting fee $150 to $400 and then you can work out some sort of arrangement where you pay a small amount of money or maybe you give that attorney for a little less money, a couple of points or ownership in the film. But figure out a way where you have a little bit of legal advice for the film as the process develops. That's key because you want to make sure that you're not only protecting yourself but you want to make sure that all the investors are properly protected before you start going out and raising money. The next thing you want to do is find out somebody that's going to manage the money, whether it's a family friend or a relative that's a C.P.A. or an accountant or if you're really, really good with bookkeeping as well and you're okay with doing that, that's fine. But set up some controls and procedures. You've got the lawyer, you've got the ownership of the script, you've got some--like I said, something set up with the accounting procedures and you're pretty much ready to go to the next step.

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How to Be a First Time Film Producer

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