Doron F. Eghbali Entertainment Law Blog on Lawyers.com

What Are Some Basics of Film Director's Credit: "Directed by" or "Film by"?

Thursday, March 10, 2011 by Doron F. Eghbali

Unsurprisingly, film director's credit, to a large extent, is governed by Director's Guild of America (DGA). Nonetheless, such DGA governance provides only minimum requirements and protections. As importantly, not all movies fall within the purview of DGA and for such movies all the minutia of credit must be negotiated . Accordingly, directors are well advised to exact more contractual concessions above and beyond DGA requirements, to the extent possible, and even on some occasions negotiate all the elements of credit.

1. PLACEMENT OF "DIRECTED BY" CREDIT

"Directed by" credit, in accordance with DGA requirements, MUST be the last credit in the main titles. If all credits follow the picture, no main titles, then "Directed by" credit MUST be the first of such credits following the movie. As importantly, if film falls outside the purview of DGA, then such details should often be negotiated.

2. APPEARANCE, SIZE, AND WIDTH OF "DIRECTED BY" CREDIT

Other important issues governed by DGA or contemplated in negotiations include but not limited to:

Appearance: No other credit should appear on the screed aside from "Directed By" credit. In other words, the "Directed by" credit should be on a separate card.
Size: DGA requires that "Directed by" credit not be smaller than 50 percent of the size of type used for the film's title. Nonetheless, with deft negotiation such size could come much closer to the film title's.

3. POSSESSORY CREDIT: "FILM BY"

In addition to "Directed by" credit, it is often the case directors might be bestowed upon another credit, separate from "Directed by". Such credit is referred to as the Possessory Credit or "Film by" credit. Such credit, often, appears in of the two following forms:

"A Film by [Name of Director]"
"A [Name of Director] Film"

CAVEAT

Possessory credit is NOT governed by DGA and directors aspiring to have it MUST negotiate all elements of its appearance, color, width, size, boldness and its place on the screen, among other necessities.

________

DORON EGHBALI is a Partner at the Beverly Hills Offices of Law Advocate Group, LLP. Doron Primarily Practices Business, Real Estate and Entertainment Law. Doron Can Be Reached at: 310-651-3065. For More information, Please, Click: HERE.