Hi,
I recently completed a shoot and came away with 20 cassetes of footage. I was to be paid to direct and given ownership of 25% of the project. The "producer" told me she was having all the legal paperwork drawn-up and would pay me the remainder of the money for the first shoot in a week. She had a general idea and I got excited about helping her create it. Wrote proposals, outlined a concept, created a budget and then she never paid me!
I stopped working for her--so to speak--when I found out she was getting money from people for the project with no written agreements and pocketing it!
The good news is, I had all of the relases signed under my production company just to be on the safe side and there is no mention of her--Do you believe it is within my legal right to retain ownership of the footage as I have not been paid for the shoot, editing or recieved any of the legal paperwork I requested? I really appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
I don't know whether it's legal, but I do know the same thing happened to a friend of a friend when one of the funders dropped out: the director refused to hand over the tapes until they got the money.
Thanks for the feeback. I hope it worked out for your friends, friend. Too bad things like this happen. Next time I'll get the paperwork first. Unfortunatley for me I've done more than 10,000. worth of work.
