Negotiation with Director from Producer

In film production, producer contains the unconditional and complete right to revise, rearrange, arrange, subtract from, add to, edit and cut the picture in any way the producer might in its individual discretion determination. However, despite of maintaining all these rights, the producers have a custom of permitting the directors to complete the initial picture cut. To do this, the producer must negotiate with the director about the director fee to complete the film editing and the form in which this money will be released to the director (Tulchin, (1998).

Before entering into an agreement with the director, the producer must put a number of aspects into consideration. These aspects include the director’s total payment demand based on the film budget, the cutting time, moral rights, rights reserved, exclusivity final cut, services , and time cutting. After agreeing on the total payment which should range between 20 -25% of the film budget, the producer will negotiate on the preproduction down payment which will be done immediately after the director accept the producer’s offer. This payment should not exceed 20% of the total payment. The second payment will be done during production, where the director will receive not more than 60% of the total charges. The next payment will be done after the producer submit the DGA cuts. This should be between 8 and 10 week after the production. Here the director will receive not more than 10% of the total charges. Finally, the director will receive the remaining 10%, after the film is printed and ready for distribution. The payment will be done in phases to ensure that the director does not fail the producer at any time after receiving the entire amount. Payment at each milestone will only be done after the producer is satisfied with the director’s work

Upon the payment agreement, the producer will want total commitment of the director such that, the director have to work on this particular film exclusively after signing the contract agreeing to be the film director. Moreover, the director will have to waiver his or her charges by 50%, if the director compromises the moral rights given to him or her by the producer. However, the director will get the acknowledgement rights in the film caption after producing quality and recommendable work.

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