Blood, sweat, tears – you may have shed the lot to make your short film dream a reality, but if you mess up the legal stuff, you could put the kibosh on the entire project. Here’s the low down on your rights.

Copyright know how
Content clearance
Music rights
Funding fundamentals
Download the paperwork

For more about the legal side of scriptwriting, take a look at our Where to start? section.

Copyright know how

Copyright is a form of intellectual property, which means it can be bought, sold, transferred and inherited. It gives creative types, such as yourself, the right to control how your material is used.

Unless your idea is written down as a script, it is not protected by copyright. If someone else uses it before you do, you don’t have a leg to stand on. Write your script as soon as you can and once it’s complete, copyright applies as a matter of course – you don’t need to request or pay for it.

In the UK, film copyright automatically falls to the Producer and the principal Director or their employer. It lasts for 70 years after the death of the Director, the author of the screen play and dialogue or the composer of any music written specifically for the film – whoever lives the longest.

Take a few copyright precautions...

You can do a few things to prove that your work is original, which will be useful if there’s any legal dispute.

• Register your script with a script registration service or post it to yourself, registered post, to get proof of the date it was completed.
• Leave a copy with a bank or solicitor.
• Mark your work with ©, your name and the year of publication, both in print and on the internet. This will give you copyright protection in some countries, although it’s not a requirement in the UK. 

If you’re the victim of what’s known as ‘copyright infringement’, it’s cheaper and easier to keep it out of the courts. Talk to the person directly and with any luck, you can sort it out between you.

Using someone else's material

You need the copyright holder’s permission to use their material in your short. Be prepared to negotiate the terms and conditions, including how much it will cost you. If you ignore copyright laws, you might be hauled up on criminal charges.

Content clearance

Music, archive footage, consumer products, brand logos – if they appear in your film, you’ll probably need clearance to use them. Without these rights, in the form of an outright transfer or a licence from the rights holder, you could be stung in the wallet region.

You’ll also need clearance for locations, the work of your cast and crew and personal contributions from members of the public if you use them. Signed location and consent forms will do the job.

How to avoid the legal risks

If possible, play it safe and use your own material rather than someone else’s. Compose the music, write the script, create the images from scratch. If you do use someone else’s work, make sure it’s in the public domain and ‘out of copyright’. In the UK, this is the life of the author plus 70 years.

However, if your film hinges on a particular image, product or place owned by someone else, find out who they are and get the nod. And their signature.

Things to watch out for:

• Plan ahead. Think about what you need to clear and get it sorted out as soon as you can. Last-minute pleas will probably result in the rights holder cashing in at your expense because they know you’re desperate!
• If you want your film to appear at festivals, in competitions, on DVD or online as well as cinemas and TV, make sure your rights and clearances allow that to happen.
• Foreign copyright laws may be different from ours, so if you’re using content from abroad, double check the legals.
• If you have transfer rights which are limited to a certain period of time, make sure you know how long they last and keep track of them.
• Get consents agreed when you film – chasing them up afterwards is a pain in the neck and could cause problems further on down the line.

Music rights

Getting hold of the rights to use commercial music will cost you. You’ll also need the permission from the rights holder - and that isn’t necessarily the person who recorded the song.

As well as negotiating a fee for the rights holder, you’ll need to cover the cost of the synch fee that goes to the music publisher for including the track in your soundtrack and a master fee to the record company for use of the master tape or CD.

Not got much cash for the music? Here are some cut-price options

A commercial track can cost ££££s for just a 30-second role in your film, so if your music budget looks unlikely to stretch, you have alternatives… 

1. Compose it yourself
2. Choose music and lyrics ‘in the public domain’. Copyright ends 70 years after the death of the last surviving writer, unless new copyright has been created with a new arrangement of the original track. This lasts 50 years.
3. Go for library music. The cost will be in the region of £400 for 30 seconds.
4. Commission something. Don’t fancy an off-the-shelf track? Get one composed. You can always ask for a ‘soundalike’ if there’s a particular mood or style of music that you like.
5. Avoid the big names. Look for tracks from an unsigned band or a newer singer/songwriter which will be much cheaper.

Funding fundamentals

If you’ve got someone interested in giving you money for your production, chances are they’ll want something in return - and that something is normally rights.

From your point of view, you want to hang on to as many rights as possible, so before you get into a legally-binding agreement that pulls the rug out from under you, find a good lawyer to help you thrash out the terms and conditions.

You should also have a think about the following:

• Do you want your investor to get involved in the production process? This may involve approving scripts, choosing a director or even approving the final edit.
• Which rights are you prepared to let go of? For example, they may want to control where the film is distributed or to own the copyright.
• If you make a profit or win prize money for your film, how much would you be willing to hand over to your investor?

The person with the cash will probably also want to be kept in the loop about how the production is going, which includes checking out the budgets, schedule and how the film is marketed and promoted.

Download the paperwork

Shooting People, the independent filmmaking community website, has a selection of forms to download, including cast and crew contracts, release forms, location agreements and budget templates.
http://shootingpeople.org/resources.php

Own-It offer plenty of free legal advice as well as downloadable contract templates.
http://www.own-it.org/