Law School: The Thursday on Wednesday Note about Assignment #2

Ciao everyone, Happy Wednesday!

Welcome back to Scene 7. I hope this note finds you well and enjoying your life.

Over the course of its existence, Scene 7 has gone through a few transformations. The content now includes photography, entertainment law, everything Italy (which is now on Roma Scene 7), a vampire novel, and drum corps and other creative elements.

This fall, as I have said on here before, I’m teaching entertainment transactions at two schools, USF and UWLA. In conjunction with that academic effort, I am updating all of my entertainment law articles and turning it all into a law school textbook shortly thereafter.

For the historical record and your entertainment, I’m going to include some notes about both classes on Scene 7 throughout the course of this semester (without revealing confidential information, student’s names etc.)

I hope you enjoy reading it, especially if you are interested in law school or entertainment law, or perhaps just curious about another world. There will be other content on Scene 7 as well once the fall schedule kicks in.

To start … below the promo is an inspiring note I wrote to one of my classes this morning to ensure they are not overwhelmed by Assignment #2, following by a humorous aside about said note, and some excerpts from Assignment #2.

Here we go!

Hello everyone, Happy Thursday!

If you have not yet started Assignment #2, if you do not understand redlining and are dreading the moment you open your computer and start... please know that feeling of dread is 100% natural and understandable. Typically, the approach is to wait until the very last minute, to procrastinate and put off the bad experience. All smart people do this.

BUT -- please remember. As soon as you get great at the law, it becomes fun. The stress and dread leaves. And in any case, one way or another, in school or a law firm or your own practice -- you have to figure out the skill set. You can not be a lawyer and be baffled by contracts, right?

So -- if you find yourself in this “dread category” now, you feel a little lost -- take Step #1 and get out of that mode once and for all and say goodbye to the stress. Look at the assignment tonight. Take a stab at a first draft tonight. Make sure you can turn on the track changes etc. tonight. Don’t worry about getting anything perfect. Just jump in the pool, so to speak. Set yourself up for success.

Then tomorrow, when you sit down and are facing the deadline, your stress level will be down 75%, your work product will be better, and things will make a lot more sense. Saturday morning, we will go over System 7 again, top to bottom, slowly this time --- and the fog will lift.

Invest in you and your legal career now, in this class -- and it will pay dividends for the rest of your life! Do not become a lawyer, become a great lawyer!

See you on Saturday!

The minor flaw in my plan to send an inspiring note to my class was writing the note to send on a Thursday and inadvertently sending it on a Wednesday.

Ta-da! :)

Thank you for reading Scene 7. I’ll be announcing a fall publication schedule soon.

For those of you who want to nerd-out in the legal world and fundamentally agree that today is Wednesday not Thursday, lol, please find below an excerpt from Assignment #2.

Your assignment is to redline this crew agreement pursuant to System 7 and these instructions.

1. Read the Agreement

2. Turn on Track Changes, but do not highlight changes as you work. See System 7 Redline Handout A4 if you need help.

3. Add the credit escape hatch language to Section 2

4. Add all work-for-hire provision elements that are missing (WALMART). Fix the defined terms (Worker?) See System 7 Redline Handout B4 if you need help.

5. Revise the language here to prevent the unlimited use of the Contractor’s publicity rights in Section 4.

6. Make the warranties and indemnification provisions mutual (mirror them, subsections a, b, c, d)

7. Add any Misc. provisions that are missing.

8. Fix the font in Section 4

Go to IMDB.com, look up your favorite movie.

Create a MS Word table that includes:

• Title and year of release.

• Director

• Director of Photography

• Producers (all of them)

• Screenwriters

• The Gaffer. What is a gaffer?

Drafting Task #3 - Discover SAG-AFTRA

Prepare a Word document containing a clear, professional comparison table with the seven following SAG-AFTRA agreements. Your table must allow a producer or entertainment lawyer to look at it and quickly determine which SAG-AFTRA agreement may apply to a particular production

1. Micro-Budget Project Agreement

2. Student Film Agreement

3. Short Project Agreement (SPA)

4. Ultra Low Budget Project Agreement (UPA)

5. Moderate Low Budget Project Agreement (MPA)

6. Low Budget Agreement (LBA)

7. Theatrical Basic Agreement

For each SAG-AFTRA contract, put the following information:

- Maximum production budget?

- Maximum or minimum running-time requirement?

- What types of productions qualify?

- SAG-AFTRA performers may or must be employed?

- Can non-SAG-AFTRA performers be employed?

- Applicable minimum fees?

- Whether the normal budget ceiling can be increased. How?