June 2009 Archives
From Miranda Edmonds
Last Friday, members of the ADG met at the Writers' Guild to discuss Rights, Remuneration and Agreements with entertainment law guru, Greg Duffy.
Greg is working closely with the ADG head office in Sydney to draft a Director's Feature Film Services Agreement and a Feature Film Ratecard. The agreement will cover all creative and economic rights due to directors and it is looking to be finished by the end of July. Some snippets to come out of the discussion of the draft form of this agreement were:
- Moral Rights - don't waive them (it is in the Screen Australia Terms of Trade that they should not be waived); and
- Retransmission Rights (that is the right to payment for your work playing on pay TV) - don't waive these either.
ScreenWest is supportive of directors maintaining their right to retransmission royalties.
ADG plans to:
- Get this feature film agreement and rate card to be accepted as an industry standard;
- Move to a collective bargaining stage (where the agreement can then be amended as required to reflect more directors' rights as they emerge); and then
- Get legislative change to ensure the Australian Copyright Act recognises directors as the 'author', or at least one of the 'authors' of a film, and therefore someone who should receive ongoing royalties from the work.
This will be followed by the same process in the much more challenging area of television.
Greg received much feedback from WA practitioners on both these draft documents, and for the future TV agreement.
Lastly, Greg discussed different ways of protecting your interest in a film/series if you are the originator of the idea.
Ian Booth and Harry Bardwell from ScreenWest joined us for drinks at Monza after the seminar.
Special thanks to ScreenWest for their support of this seminar.
It was a great session, enjoyed by all and comforting to know that change is afoot. If you have any questions on these issues, please feel free to contact Miranda Edmonds or the head office for more information.
http://www.realiseyourdream.org.au/
Northbridge design retailer The Butcher Shop has created Art Map - a registry of major street art projects around metropolitan Perth.
Art Map is a practical resource for art enthusiasts, graffiti artists, photographers and, of course, filmmakers looking to add street-worthiness to the mise-en-scène.
The list of works and their locations is always expanding, so if you are an urban artist yourself - or simply know of undiscovered works - email the folks at The Butcher Shop.
Double Lucky, Leederville. Artists include Kid Zoom, the Graphite Crew and the Line Collective.
Corner of Roe and Milligan Streets, Northbridge. Artists include Creepy, Hurben, Sam DeSouza, Jodee Knowles, Daek and the Graphite Crew.
Walcott Street Alley, North Perth.
