Guide

Use the title you are actually shooting under, even if it is a working title. It identifies the project in every agreement, so keep it identical across all of them. If the title changes later, edit the production and the affected documents are prepared again.

Who is contracting: a company you formed, or you personally. If you formed an LLC for the film, choose LLC — the company signs, not you, and that separation is most of the reason to have formed it. If you have not formed anything, choose individual; you are then personally the party to every agreement. A fiscally sponsored project still contracts under its own entity or the filmmaker's own name — CFA is never a party to your agreements.

The exact registered name, including the LLC or Inc. Not the trading name, not an abbreviation. A mismatch between the name on the agreement and the name on the bank account or the state registration is the kind of detail that gets argued about later.

Where formal notices should be sent by post. Use an address that will still reach you after the shoot wraps — a registered office or a home address, not a location office you hold for three weeks.

Whoever has authority to bind the company — usually a producer or a managing member. If you are contracting as an individual, this is you.

Producer, Managing Member, Owner. It records the capacity they sign in, which is what makes the signature bind the company rather than the person.

This is printed in the agreements, so use an address the production will keep reading after wrap. A personal address you actually check beats a project address that stops being monitored.

The state whose law is used to read the agreement, and whose courts hear a dispute about it. Every governing-law, venue and arbitration clause in the packet follows this one choice. Most productions pick the state they shoot in, because that is where the people, the locations and any dispute will be. See the guide for what actually differs between states.

Left blank on purpose. An agreement is dated when it is signed, and we cannot know that date. Write it in by hand at signing, and use the date the last person signs. Do not date it earlier than that — backdating a signed contract creates a problem you do not want.

No. These are standardized agreements prepared with your production's details filled in. CFA Institute does not represent you, does not review your production, and cannot tell you whether a particular agreement is right for your situation. If your production has real money, real risk, or anything unusual in it, have a lawyer in your state read the packet.

The two places it bites are ownership and distribution. A contributor who is not an employee keeps copyright in what they made unless they signed a written work-made-for-hire agreement — an invoice and a bank transfer do not do it. And any festival, sales agent or platform that takes the film will ask for signed releases and chain-of-title documents before they take it. Paperwork is cheaper before the shoot than after.

17 U.S.C. § 101, definition of "work made for hire"

Prepared and delivered within 1–2 business days. You will get an email with a link to your dashboard when they are ready. Adding a cast or crew member later is free and unlimited, and those documents follow on the same footing.

Most productions choose the state they are shooting in. That is where the people, the locations and any dispute will be, and it avoids an argument about which law applies before you get to the argument you actually have. Courts generally honour a governing-law clause, but a state will not apply another state's law to sidestep its own wage and employment protections — so choosing a state with no connection to your production buys less than it looks like it does. If you are shooting in several states, pick the one where the most shooting days are.

Cornell LII, choice of law

If you formed a company for the film, the company should be the party — that separation is most of the reason to have formed it. If you have not formed anything, you are personally the party to every agreement, which means personally on the hook under them. Either is workable for a short. Use the exact registered name either way: a mismatch between the name on the agreement and the name on the bank account is the kind of detail that gets argued about later.

Because an agreement is dated when it is signed, and we cannot know that date. Write it in by hand at signing and use the date the last person signs. Do not date it earlier than the day it was actually signed.

They are a choice the attorney left for you: strike the one that does not apply before signing, or write the right word in. They appear where a term genuinely depends on your deal — a day rate versus a weekly rate, days versus months of equipment rental.

Not by writing it in the agreement. Whether someone is an employee or a contractor is set by state law and by what actually happens on set. California applies an ABC test under AB5, and production crew rarely pass it — camera, grip, electric and production staff are doing work squarely within a production company's usual course of business. That is why the crew agreement in this packet is written as an employment deal memo. Getting this wrong is a wage-and-hour problem, not a paperwork problem.

California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, employment status

In two states, yes, above a dollar threshold. New York's Freelance Isn't Free Act added Article 44-A to the General Business Law in August 2024. California's Freelance Worker Protection Act covers professional services of $250 or more, counted across your contracts with that person over 120 days. Both carry penalties for not having the written contract. Using this packet and keeping the signed copies puts you on the right side of them.

New York State Department of Labor, Freelance Isn't Free Act · Nixon Peabody, New York and California freelance worker protections

No. The performer agreement in this packet is written for adults, and a parent's signature alone may not make a minor's agreement stick — minors can generally disaffirm contracts. Some states let a court approve a minor's employment contract so it cannot be disaffirmed (California, New York and Florida among them), and several require a share of earnings to go into a blocked trust account (California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana and New Mexico among them). Take advice in your state before the shoot day. A minor agreement and parental consent are planned as an add-on kit.

SAG-AFTRA, Coogan Law full text

It is the sign you post at the edge of a public area you are filming, telling people that being in the area means they may appear in the film. It is not a substitute for a signed personal release from anyone recognisable who actually matters to a scene. Post it where people enter, before they enter — a notice nobody could have read does no work.

Usually not for genuinely incidental background, which is what the crowd notice covers. You do want a signed personal release from anyone recognisable whose appearance matters — a featured extra, a passer-by you direct, anyone the camera lingers on. The right to control commercial use of a person's name, image and voice is state law and differs sharply: around eighteen states have a statute and around eleven recognise it at common law, and New York's is narrow and statutory only.

CLIR, Appendix B: state statutes concerning rights of publicity

Someone with authority to let you shoot there — the owner, or a manager who can bind the owner. A tenant usually cannot grant it alone, and a signature from someone who did not have the authority is the way a location agreement stops protecting you. If you are not sure, ask who owns the building and get them on the paper.

Match the document to the deal. If you are paying for the location, use a fee version; if the owner is letting you shoot for nothing, use a no-fee version, which recites the consideration differently rather than leaving a blank dollar figure in a signed contract. Use a deposit version only if you are actually leaving a security deposit — those versions set out when it comes back.

No. A location agreement is between you and whoever controls the property. Permits, street closures, parking and police or fire requirements come from the city or county film office and are separate. So is insurance: most location owners will ask for a certificate naming them, and this service does not provide insurance.

Yes. Filming with a drone for a production is a commercial operation, so the pilot needs an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. Standard Part 107 flying is limited to aircraft under 55 lb, below 400 feet above ground level, within visual line of sight, in daylight or civil twilight with anti-collision lighting. A drone services agreement does not make an uncertificated pilot legal, and your insurance may not cover a flight that broke the rules. A drone kit is planned as an add-on.

FAA, commercial operators and Part 107

No. For a contributor who is not your employee, a contribution to a film is a work made for hire only if the parties expressly agree so in a written instrument signed by them. Without that signed writing the contributor keeps their copyright, however much you paid. This is the single most common gap in a first film's paperwork, and it surfaces years later when someone wants to license the film.

17 U.S.C. § 101, definition of "work made for hire"

Only the credit you can actually deliver. Credit obligations survive the shoot and are enforceable, and they bind whoever finishes the film — including a distributor who was not in the room when you promised it. Write the credit exactly as it should read on screen, and do not promise placement or size you do not control.

No. Recorded music normally needs two separate permissions: one for the recording itself and one for the underlying composition, and they are often owned by different people. Buying a copy licenses you to listen to it. A text message from one of several rights holders does not clear either right. Music licences are planned as an add-on kit; until then, commission original score or use properly licensed library music and keep the licence.

No, by design. CFA does not route, witness or store signed documents. You download the PDFs and get them signed yourself, however you normally do it. That also means we never hold your signed contracts, which is the point.

Adding a cast member, crew member, location or vendor is free and unlimited for as long as your access runs, and their documents are prepared and delivered the same way. Changing production-level details — the entity, the signatory, the governing state, the title, the dates — goes through a revision round: the first is free, and further rounds are $25 each. Only the documents affected are prepared again; the rest keep the version you already have.

Twelve months from purchase. We email you 30 days and 7 days before that runs out. Renewing before expiry is $35 for another year. After expiry the project is archived — your files are kept, not deleted, and reactivating is $70, which starts a fresh twelve months. Download and keep your own copies anyway: they are your contracts.