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Eric Harrison

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Profile Information

  • Occupation
    Other
  • Location
    Seattle
  • My Gear
    Phantom
  • Specialties
    I'm an Intellectual Property Attorney and in-house counsel for Nimia - a boutique archival, management & licensing agency for premium content producers. If you have any legal questions feel free to reach out to me at eric@nimia.com

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://nimia.com
  1. Hi Gaspar, You'd say to them exactly that, "pay me fairly or we're keeping joint ownership". Period. If you'd like more legal support, eg., the ability to tell them to talk to your attorney, Nimia provides this when you create an account. Best, Eric
  2. I've seen many production contracts and no two are exactly alike. If it is not clear by the language in the contract, the best thing to do is ask up-front while negotiating the contract. What I've found helpful is if you have someone like myself negotiating the terms, that way the person negotiating is the 'bad guy', and you can stay the 'good guy'. What I've found is that good, clear, upfront communication is best. Here is a link to a production contract that I drafted and is written in a way most favorable to you in terms of: if client fails to pay, contingency days, weather delays, rights to unused footage, etc. Feel free to copy and use it for your work -> http://nimia.com/wp-content/uploads/Production-Contract.pdf . Other random legal stuff you may find helpful -> nimia.com/legal (yes another shameless plug, I know, but I think there is some helpful items there).
  3. Keith you're exactly right. It is a case by case thing. Could be 5 seconds of a coffee tree blowing in the wind. I will say that Starbucks may not have been the best example as I've been more successful negotiating the license back clause with smaller companies rather than publicly traded companies. But it also depends on the creative. Sometimes companies think that the creative agency is so amazing that they will agree just so they can work with them (note, if needed, it can be stipulated that its only certain types of footage and it won't be re-used until two years after the release of the project to make it more agreeable to the company). Bottom line is that I've successfully negotiated the clause for companies/cinematographers that are members of Nimia, so it does happen. This topic brings to light another change we are seeing in the industry - boutique production companies doing it all (coming up with the creative, bidding the project, producing project all in-house including post work, etc.). Before there was more of - creative agency pitches project and wins bid, creative agency contracts third party production company to shoot the project, creative agency contracts third party for post production, etc. I think we are seeing this change because there are more and more small to medium sized businesses that are needing video (commercials, product videos, pitch videos, etc.), and boutique production companies are providing a value solution.
  4. Hi Richard, You're right that it doesn't work for every project, but it does work some of the time. An example would be a production company producing media for Starbucks, the production company requests rights back to footage not used by Starbucks during the project contract negotiation stage (starbucks remains the copyright owner of all footage but grants a license back for unused footage to production company). Another example is worked produced contractually for National Geographic, or Discovery Channel. I've successfully helped get license back clauses into contracts for production companies that use Nimia. You're right that it doesn't work every time, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Best, Eric
  5. Hi Guys, I am an Attorney for Nimia and we've seen some recent shifts in the industry in respects to the ability in getting a license back from a client. I've recently helped production companies get limited license backs to use footage they shot that is not used in the final cut. The production companies have then gone on to monetize the unused footage through licensing on Nimia.com (sorry about the shameless company plug). Here are a couple of example legal clauses I use: EXAMPLE LEGAL CLAUSES: Company grants Contractor an exclusive, worldwide, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty free license to media that is not used in the final completed work. Or Company grants Contractor a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicenseable, non-transferable, royalty free license to media that is is not used in the final completed work. Hope this helps! Eric
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