06 · Production Services · Agreements

Standard production agreements for independent film.

A plain-language guide to every production agreement a small film needs, with the agreement itself attached, filled in with your production's details. The guides teach you what each clause does, when the document is the right one, and when to stop and call a lawyer. The templates were drafted by an entertainment lawyer for California productions and adapted by CFA. We offer both at low cost so that a small production can start with real paperwork, and with an understanding of it, instead of neither.

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Why your production needs these

Most independent productions shoot without paperwork. Not out of carelessness. A custom set of agreements drawn up by a firm can cost more than the film itself. So crew work on a handshake, a performer never signs a release, and a location is locked by text message.

That holds up right until it doesn't. A festival asks for chain of title. A distributor asks for signed releases before they will look at the film. A crew member disputes a rate or a credit. At that point the question is simply whether anything was ever put on paper.

These agreements are that paper. A complete packet, filled in with your production's details, general templates for use in any US state, ready before your first day.

How it works

1. Describe your production

   One form, about five minutes. Title, producing entity, who signs, format, dates, and the state whose law governs your agreements.

2. Pay for your packet

   One price for your format. Student and fiscally sponsored rates are built into the price when you qualify.

   What you buy	Price
   Core Packet, student production	$45
   Core Packet, short (under 40 minutes)	$129
   Core Packet, feature (40 minutes and over)	$349
   One form, à la carte	$25

   Fiscally sponsored CFA projects pay $97 for a short, $262 for a feature and $19 a form. Student pricing does not stack with the sponsored discount.

3. Receive your agreements

   Documents are created and returned to you with your identifying information within 1-2 business days to your inbox. Download them one at a time or all at once, ready to print and sign.

4. Add your cast, crew, and locations

   Add each person's name, role and rate in the Word file yourself; the guide shows where.

What you will need to get started

Your production title

What the film is called. It appears on every agreement in the packet.

The producing entity

The party each agreement binds: an LLC, a corporation, an individual, or a CFA fiscally sponsored project. Use its exact legal name, not the working title of the production.

Who signs for it

A name, a title, and an email address for the person with authority to bind that entity.

Your format

Short (under 40 minutes) or feature (40 minutes and over). Format decides what your packet costs; the agreements are the same.

Where you shoot, and whose law governs

The states you will film in, and the one state whose law your agreements follow. Available for California productions only right now while the templates are adapted for other states.

Your shooting dates

A start and an end. Approximate is fine; they set the term in several of the agreements.

Anything that changes the paperwork

SAG-AFTRA performers, anyone under 18, nudity or simulated intimacy, licensed music, drone photography, or paid product placement. This packet does not cover minors or union performers; talk to a lawyer.

Part of CFA's Access program. These templates exist because most independent filmmakers cannot afford counsel.

What you receive

The guides are the product. For each of the fourteen documents in the Core Packet, a guide that walks you through it clause by clause in plain words, says when it is the right document and when it is not, and names the situations where a template is not enough and a lawyer is. If each one teaches you something you did not know, it has done its job, and you are welcome to pass it on. The full text of every guide is on the guide page, free, before you buy anything.

With them, the documents themselves: performer and crew agreements, location agreements and releases, vendor and equipment agreements, releases for products and acquired materials, a nondisclosure agreement, a credit agreement, and a cover index telling you which to use when. Each is prepared with your production's details, drafted by an entertainment lawyer for California productions and adapted by CFA.

Why this costs so little

Because of what it is, and what it is not. These are starter templates, drafted by an entertainment lawyer for California productions and adapted by CFA, as a baseline but not tailored to your production. Any change or amendment you need is work for your own attorney, and that limit is precisely why we can offer them at this price.

Used as intended, they carry a production through a shoot with real agreements behind it. That is a materially better position than shooting with no paperwork at all.

What this is not