EASL Fall Meeting 2024 Day I: Developing and Financing Independent Film and Theater Productions

9:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Attorneys Jason Baruch (Sendroff & Baruch, LLP) and Doug Nevin (Klaris Law) and general manager Dani Karliner Naish (RCI Theatricals) will discuss the financing of developmental and commercial theater productions, including a review of the key underlying documents.

Act I will focus on Workshops/Developmental Productions while Act II will focus on Commercial Productions, both focusing on the financing aspects (with some basic coverage of rights acquisition).

• Early Investor (Front Money) Agreements
• Developmental LLC operating agreement
• Enhancement Agreements with NFP’s  
• NFP Agreements with Authors, including Commissioning Agreements
• The role of commercial GM’s in developmental productions
• Joint Venture Agreements

• Commercial Offering Documents (Operating Agreement)
• Co-Producer Agreements
• Co-Producer Entitlements Charts  
• Future Participation to Investors
• Budgeting, Recoupment Projections, Tax Credits, and other Miscellany

1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

• Legal Overview of Development/Illustrations
• Option and Purchase Agreements
• Screenplays/Underlying Rights [Film vs. Television/”Streaming-Online”]
• Shopping Agreements [Film vs. Television/Streaming-Online]
• Packaging [Director/Producer/Cast, Etc.]

• Sources of Independent Film Financing
• Financing a Film Through Foreign Pre-Sales
• Loans & Completion Bonds
• Financing a Film Through Government Funding & Tax Credits
• Private Equity Financing 
• Sales of Completed Independent Films

Speakers:

P. J. Posner, Producer

Peter McGuigan, Ultra Literary

Speaker/Moderator:

Robert L. Seigel, Law Office of Robert L. Seigel

Speakers:

Emerson Bruns, Bruns Brennan Berry Pikulin Jacobs PC

Hayden Goldblatt, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

Bethany Haynes, Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo LLP

Moderator: 

Jackie Eckhouse, Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo LLP

(Law Students $150 per day)