When To Hire A Lawyer As An Indie Filmmaker with Toni Y. Long, Esq.

As indie filmmakers, we are usually juggling many roles that would be  divided among various people on a studio film. When you call on that  family member or friend who happens to own a bunch of camera gear that  is just sitting in a closet, it is easy to forget to do your due  diligence when it comes to contracts, deal memos, and paperwork in  general. What happens when you write and shoot that short film based on  that awesome idea that your best friend’s cousin had, and that short  gets distribution or funding to make a feature. Or, when you hired a  friend to write a script for you based on your idea and now you love the  script and you want to shop it. You have nothing in place to protect  your interest or theirs because you didn’t do a contract. Maybe you did  do a contract to…