The Independent Film Producer's Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook

In this comprehensive guidebook, three experienced entertainment lawyers tell you everything you need to know to produce and market an independent filmâfrom the development process to deal making, financing, setting up the production, hiring directors and actors, securing location rights, acquiring music, calculating profits, digital moving making, distribution, and marketing your movie. This all-new second edition has been completed updated.

Gunnar Erickson currently practices entertainment law with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. He has been active with the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium and taught Entertainment Law at Pepperdine Law School, as well as frequenly spoken and written about entertainment matters.

Mark Halloran is a principal of Halloran Law Corporation. In his studio days, Mark was Vice President, Feature Business Affairs at Universal Pictures, and Business Affairs Councel at Orion Pictures. In private law practice, Mark was a founding partner of Alexander, Halloran, Nau & Rose, and Erickson, Halloran & Small. Mark specializes in entertainment financing, production, and distribution, and acts as an expert witness in film, television, and music litigation. Mark is co-author of The Musician’s Guide to Copyright (Charles Scribner’s Sons) with Gunnar Erickson and Ned Hearn and the current The Musicians Business and Legal Guide (Jerome Headlands Press/Prentice Hall). He is co-chair of the SC Institute on Entertainment Law and Business, and serves on the Board of directors of the Los Angeles Chamber Singers.

Harris E. Tulchin is founder and Chairman of Harris Tulchin & Associates Ltd., with affiliated offices worldwide. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Hastings Law School and has specialized in entertainment production, finance, and distribution, communications, and multimedia law since 1978. He has lectured extensively at forums such as UCLA, the American Film Institute, Independent Feature Project, The Sundance Producer’s Conference, the Cannes, Toronto, Los Angeles Independent, Hollywood, Venice, Edinburgh (Scotland) and numerous other Film Festivals and has published numerous articles on entertainment law. He has served as Senior Vice President of Business Affairs and General Counsel for Cinema Group for United Artists; Director of Business Affairs at MGM Television; and Counsel for American International Pictures and Filmways Pictures. In addition, Mr. Tulchin acts as an expert witness in entertainment litigation, is an American Film Marketing Association arbitrator, serves as a producer’s representative on scores of completed films, as well as film projects, and has served as Executive Producer of nine feature films, including the critically acclaimed "To Sleep With Anger," distribution by Song and Goldwyn, and "Guy," financed and distributed by PolyGram.